Citrus Cookies

I made these cookies for a party a few weeks ago and they turned out great! I added some lime zest to the cookie dough and substituted a little vanilla for lime juice. I also used lime juice in the icing, which really brought out the lime in the cookies.

Citrus Sugar Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla plus the zest of a lemon, orange or 2 limes

1. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg, citrus juice and vanilla (and zest if you're using it) and mix until blended
3.Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until the two are thoroughly blended
4. If you want to color the cookies, you can add food coloring now
5. Refrigerate the dough for at least half an hour (I usually divide the dough in half, shape them into disks and wrap them in plastic wrap so they cool quicker. I found it's easier to just roll out one disk at a time so the other can stay cool in the refrigerator.)
6. Roll and cut out the cookies. (I like to roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment or wax paper instead of dusting the counter with flour. It's a lot easier to clean up and then if you need to roll out the dough several times, the cookies won't get too tough. I also like to line the cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats, which makes it a lot easier to get the cookies off the pan)
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 12-16 minutes. (The cookies will keep their shape better if you put the cut cookies in the refrigerator while the oven preheats.)
8. Cool the cookies before icing them.

For the icing recipe, use the royal icing recipe here and substitute lime, lemon or orange juice for half of the water.