Mojito Cookies Recipe

Mojito cookies, the best easy homemade shortbread cookie with lime, rum, and fresh mint just like the original mojito cocktail! These lime cookies are a fun Christmas cookie idea or cookie for anytime of the year!

Oh boy, a fun and easy Mojito cookie recipe for you today! You’ve probably noticed I’ve been on a bit of a Christmas cookie kick lately with my Cannoli Cookies and Strawberry Daiquiri Cookies. You can never have too many Christmas cookie ideas right? These lime cookies with mint and rum are the best addition! These easy shortbread cookies are quick and easy and a fun twist on the cocktail!

What is a Mojito?

If you’re not familiar with a mojito, it’s traditionally a Cuban cocktail. Mojito ingredients generally include white rum, sugar or sugar cane juice, lime or lime juice, fresh mint or spearmint, then topped with soda water and ice. This lime and mint cocktail is a great summer drink, but who are we kidding, it’s really great year round.

The lime and mint version of the cocktail is the original mojito, but you’ll see all sorts of other variations with other fruit and sweeteners. And now you’ll see it in cookie form. haha!

So in honor of this fun cocktail, I thought I’d create these easy lime shortbread cookies with fresh mint and rum extract. This homemade shortbread cookie recipe creates melt in your mouth cookies that taste a lot like the original mojito cocktail!

My husband thought I was nuts, but he fell in love with these homemade shortbread cookies quickly, and he couldn’t believe how much they tasted like mojitos!

How to Make Mojito Cookies (Lime Shortbread Cookies with Mint and Rum):

For these mojito cookies, I strongly recommend starting with fresh mint, since after all, that is what you use in a mojito cocktail.

To start, finely chop the fresh mint, or to make things easier, I put the mint leaves and sugar in a food processor and pulsed a few times to chop the mint finely and combine with the sugar.

Once you have your mint finely chopped, cream the sugar, mint, and butter together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy in a large mixing bowl.

Beat in the fresh lime zest, rum extract and salt, followed by the flour until blended.

You could use regular rum instead of the extract, but the extract has a much stronger flavor so a little bit goes a long way.

You might be able to use mint extract, but I didn’t try it so can’t say for sure how it would taste.

With homemade shortbread cookies, it’s really important to refrigerate the dough. Form the cookie dough into a large round disk on plastic wrap, then cover the cookie dough completely. Refrigerate the dough at least 1-2 hours or until well chilled. You can chill the cookie dough over night too if you’d like.

Once the shortbread cookie dough is well chilled, roll out on a lightly floured work surface with a rolling pin until the dough is about 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thickness.

Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut the dough out, and reroll the scraps and re-cut as necessary to use all the dough.

Place the cutout cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet(s). For best results you can refrigerate the baking sheets with the cookie dough again until the dough is well chilled. You don’t HAVE to, but I like to.

The shortbread cookies don’t spread much while baking so you can place them fairly close together on the baking sheets. Before baking, sprinkle a little sanding sugar on top of the lime cookies.

Sanding sugar is a thicker cut coarse sugar, and adds a little “sparkle” to the cookies. You could substitute a little granulated sugar instead but it won’t have the same “sparkle”.

Bake these lime cookies for about 8-12 minutes or until just lightly browned around the edges and underneath. Baking time may vary a bit depending on how thick you roll the dough.

Happy holidays!

Hope you enjoy these fun and easy Mojito Cookies! Check out my Best Creative Cookies from Scratch for a great list of cookie recipes!

For more Christmas cookie ideas check out my Italian Christmas cookies and Best Chocolate Christmas cookies.