I’m just back from our annual Thanksgiving jaunt to Florida, and of course, now that my beloved Oak Park Farmers Market is closed for the season, the only farmers market that I get to visit is the Saturday morning Third Street South Farmers Market in downtown Naples. My favorite stall at the Naples Farmers Market sells unusual varieties of citrus and tropical fruits, from starfruit to Rangpur limes. I always buy some of the sturdier citrus to bring home, much to my husband’s bafflement. It is a pain carrying all that citrus through the airport, but so worth it!  This time, I only bought Key limes and Meyer lemons because I know I will be back at Christmas and can be more ambitious then.

Key lime tarts at the Naples Farmers Market

Smaller than its cousin the Persian lime, which is the variety we usually see in stores, the Key lime is particularly juicy and acidic. It has a smooth rind, a greenish-yellow color when ripe and lots of pesky seeds.  Key limes also have a distinctive aroma and taste which make them the darling of bakers everywhere. Of course, pie is what Key limes are best known for, but please don’t think that is the only way to use these tart little guys. You can substitute Key lime juice in any lime recipe for a fresh twist. But if you go to the trouble to find Key limes, you may also want to do something to showcase their distinctive taste.

If you don’t have a trip to Florida on the horizon, you can find bagged Key limes in grocery stores with large produce sections at this time of year. I once paid $4.50 for three bags of Key limes at a Florida roadside citrus stand; you will likely have to pay more. But go ahead and splurge on a bag because they will give you a little taste of the tropics in the middle of winter.

It being the holiday season, we are all thinking about edible gifts and cookie exchanges. Although there is nothing wrong with gingerbread and peppermint and other typical Christmas flavors, it can be refreshing to bake something bright and citrusy at this time of the year. And certainly citrus should be a Christmas flavor given that now is the best time of year for lemons, limes, grapefruits and oranges and all their crazy cousins. (Kumquats! Pomelos!)

Last year at this time I found a really old recipe on Smitten Kitchen for a crumbly Key lime meltaway cookie, which I adapted for my own use. Now it is a holiday staple. These meltaways are a delicate, shortbread-style cookie. They melt in your mouth — hence the name — in part because of the cornstarch. Thus, this is an elegant, sophisticated cookie to serve with tea or coffee. A dozen packaged in a little cello bag tied with twine also makes a charming gift.

This recipe makes two logs of dough, each one of which makes close to 5 dozen cookies. So, this is a great recipe for cookie swaps, holiday giving or other times when you want to make a big batch of cookies. If you want to a make a more typical number of cookies for your own use, you can halve the recipe, or — and this is my recommendation — freeze one of the logs of dough, well-wrapped in wax paper, for another time. It’s not any more work to make the larger amount of dough, so I say, go ahead and do it. And then you will have cookie dough in your freezer for the next time your friends propose a cookie exchange or you want to bring someone a little gift.