Dark Chocolate & Orange Cookies

It's been a while since I've baked anything for Sweet and Simple Bakes. Since last January, actually, when I made two batches of Christmas Morning Muffins without managing to learn anything at all about converting ingredients from metric measurements to whatever we call "cups." Even though I discovered an excellent measurement conversion website, I still just don't get it. For example, the conversion that I calculated for sugar turned out to be 7/8 cup. In addition to being an "odd" measurement, I thought that was a lot of sugar for this recipe, so I rounded down to 3/4 cup...

So this might be an adventure.

Here is the original recipe for White Chocolate & Orange Cookies. I thought about using white chocolate chips, but then I thought about how unfair it would be to Number One, to finally bake some cookies, except that he can't stand white chocolate Anything. I decided to go with chocolate chips instead, and while at the grocery store I ran across some Extra Dark Chocolate Chips from Guittard's. Extra Dark Chocolate complements Orange perfectly. And here we go!

After I zested the orange, I chopped the long strips up a bit so they wouldn't hang out of the cookies. Orange zest smells so good! After it was combined with the butter and vanilla, the mixing bowl smelled like a Creamsicle! Very encouraging! I'm not a "sifter" so I just threw the dry ingredients in the bowl after the zest and mixed everything up.

Good news! The cookie dough looked like cookie dough! It tasted amazing, you could eat it with a spoon if you were so inclined. I rolled the cookies into balls and flattened slightly, as directed. I tasted the first cookie just seconds out of the oven, and it was begging me for some pecans. So I quickly chopped up some pecans and tossed them in with the rest of the dough. Now the rest of the dough is as happy as I am. Incidentally, you do have to flatten the dough balls or they just sort of stay ball-shaped. Trust me, I tried it.

Although my cookies don't look like they flattened out as much as the originals, these little gems are cute and round and have the just right ratio of orange to chocolate to pecans. Somehow I don't think white chocolate would have tasted anywhere near this good.

To see all the other participants' cookies, go to Sweet and Simple Bakes.


Dark Chocolate & Orange Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

Grated zest of 1 orange

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cup plain flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/2 pound chocolate chips (white or milk or dark chocolate)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

Beat the butter and sugar. Add the egg, orange zest and vanilla extract.

Sift together the dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until combined; stir in chocolate chips.

Roll into balls. Use your fingers to flatten onto a non-stick baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

When cool, store in an airtight container for up to four to five days.