Tropical Christmas Cookies

Tropical Christmas Cookies  These are the perfect cookies to make for gifts for all of your favorite people during the holiday season. They are festive looking with green pistachios and dried red cherries. Throw in white chocolate and freshly toasted coconuts with a dash of lime zest and you have the flavors of celebrating Christmas on a tropical island!

I am so excited to be a part of the Fifth Annual Food Bloggers Cookie Swap! Almost 500 other super talented food bloggers joined together to raise money for Kids Cancer and bring to you all sorts of amazing cookie recipes.

Each Food Blogger participating made a donation to Kids Cancer and then were matched with 3 other bloggers to swap cookies. Bloggers from all over the world participated in this tasty fundraiser.

Our donations were then matched dollar for dollar by these generous sponsors Dixie Crystals,  OXO and Land O’Lakes.

This was the most fun event to be a part of, from trying to come up with something new and different to waiting patiently for my cookies to arrive from my blogger matches. I can hardly wait to see the round-up of all of the recipes because if the list of cookies is as amazing as the ones I received you will be making cookies a LOT in the near future.

These Tropical Christmas cookies were inspired by some that I tried from Rachel @ Bakerita this summer. Here is the link for Bakerita’s recipe!(WARNING! They are highly addictive!!)  She added lime zest to a cookie and it was just so different than anything I had tried before.

I took my mom’s tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe (which honestly is a tollhouse cookie recipe from way back when), added a bunch of lime zest and switched up the add-ins to reflect what reminded me of Christmas.   Translation… Green Pistachios and Dried Tart Cherries.

Seriously these Tropical Christmas Cookies are the bomb. They are soft and chewy and filled with some crazy good things. The lime zest adds a tang that is really unique. Each time someone tries them they love the slight tartness of what the combo of lime and tart cherries gives.

The addition of white chocolate and coconut balances out the flavor profile so you have all sorts of things hitting your taste buds to make you happy.

The Tropical Christmas Cookies hold up well for a week or two if you store them in an airtight container so they are great to make to give as gifts. You can send them across the country for a special delivery and they are still fresh and tasty when they arrive.

More Recipe Ideas for a Gift Exchange

• Cappuccino Crinkles ~ Full of chocolate and coffee
• Holiday 7 layer Bars
• Christmas Peanut Clusters
• Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies
• Eggnog Cakes

Enjoy! ~m

Yield: 36

Tropical Christmas Cookies

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Tropical Christmas Cookies  These are the perfect cookies to make for gifts for all of your favorite people during the holiday season. They are festive looking with green pistachios and dried red cherries. Throw in white chocolate and freshly toasted coconuts with a dash of lime zest and you have the flavors of celebrating Christmas on a tropical island!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 24 minutes

Total Time 39 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Sticks, 8 ounces unsalted Butter, softened
• 1/2 cup 4 ounces white sugar
• 1 3/4 cup 12 ounces brown sugar, packed tightly
• 1 1/2 tablespoon freshly lime zest
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces while chocolate, chopped into pieces
• 3/4 cup pistachios, chopped roughly
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes, toasted (shredded coconut works too)
• 1/2 cup dried tart cherries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. In the bowl of your mixer, cream butter, sugars until lighter in color and well blended.
3. Add lime zest and mix well.
4. Scrape down the bowl to make sure all ingredients are mixed in.
5. Crack the eggs and remove from shell into a small bowl. (Make sure no shell is in with the eggs)
6. One at a time add each egg mixing until all combined.
7. Once eggs are incorporated, add vanilla and blend thoroughly.
8. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. (Alternatively you can use a mesh strainer to sift if you don't have a sifter)
9. On low, add the flour mixture to wet mixture. Mix until just comes together.
10. Remove bowl from mixer and hand stir in the chocolate, pistachios, coconut and Dried cherries.
11. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of dough about 1 1/4 " in diameter. (Mine weighed out at about 38-40 grams each)
12. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet about 1 1/2 " apart.
13. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes, turning at 5 minutes. (Every oven is slightly different. Check the cookies at 10 minutes. You want them golden brown.)
14. Let cookies rest for 10 minutes before removing them from the baking sheet to a cookie rack to cool completely.
15. Store in an airtight container once completely cooled.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

36

Serving Size:

36 Servings
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 166Saturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 17mgSodium: 130mgCarbohydrates: 27gSugar: 17gProtein: 4g

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