Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Orange Drop Cookies

Continuing the foray into drop cookies, this week’s recipe is Orange Drop Cookies- a recipe sent in by Mrs. Paul Lindemeyer of Mason City, Iowa.  This time, there is a color photo, so I can compare my finished cookies with Betty’s!
Book photo- will mine look this tasty?

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Orange Drop Cookies
2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp grated orange rind
2 cups Gold Medal Flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Orange Butter Icing (see below)

Pre-heat the oven to 400̊ F. Blend together the shortening, sugar, and egg. Mix in the orange juice and orange zest. Stir the dry ingredients together and then stir into the wet ingredients. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until delicately browned on the edges.  Let cool, then frost with Orange Butter Icing. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Orange Butter Icing
2 1/2 Tbsp soft butter
1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp orange juice
2 tsp grated orange rind

Blend the butter and sugar together. Stir in the orange juice and grated orange rind. Mix until smooth. Makes enough icing for 4 dozen cookies.
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The first thing I did was zest the oranges, so that the grated orange rind (zest) would be ready when it needed to be added.  I don’t have a zester, so I used my box grater. I was pretty excited because I had never zested anything before; it turns out that zesting is not all that exciting. My hands got all sticky and the grater was kind of hard to clean off, but the kitchen smelled citrusy and amazing!  To get the 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons needed, I had to zest almost two whole oranges! That surprised me for some reason. Then I had to peel two exocarp-less oranges. (sigh)
In the middle of zesting. Orange oil smells so good!

After a little snack (take a guess… yes, I had oranges!), I continued with the recipe. I was glad to find that the dough was stickier than in the last recipe, making it a lot easier to handle.
The dough smelled so good, I wanted to eat it (but didn't).

I baked each pan for 9 minutes, until I thought they looked ‘delicately browned’.
Cookies baking, as seen through the oven window
Delicately browned and smelling delicious!
The recipe made 55 cookies- slightly more than the 48 predicted in the book. The frosting, however, only lasted for 44 cookies, 4 less than the recipe said.

And finally, the moment of truth: testing the first cookie.
Why do I look so guilty? 

These were amazing! All of the zesting craziness seemed worth it after tasting these.  They reminded me a lot of an orange scone, but softer.  As long as you like citrus-flavored things, you will love these cookies. Between the frosted and un-frosted cookies, the frosted ones definitely win, although the non-frosteds were still good.

Looking back at the book photo and comparing to my cookies, I think I did pretty well. :)

The final product!
See you soon for some Valentine's Day-themed cookies!
Carly


Credit where credit is due:
This cookie recipe was found on page 7 of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book; the icing recipe was found on page 150. The picture of Orange Drop Cookies was found on page 86.

2 comments:

  1. These were absolutely DELICIOUS! I think I had 5 of them myself (almost 10% of your total. um...sorry about that!).
    Seriously, though. They were awesome. I am excited for Valentine's Day themed cookies!

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  2. Oh! These look so good - I'm sad that I missed them. I LOVE the smell of orange zest, too (and lemon zest!).

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