Orange Cream Cookies

Orange Cream Cookies - made dough September 3, 2019 from Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri

I've always liked this cookie book from Nick Malgieri and have had my copy for years. I recently dusted it off and paged through it to look up all the recipes I've been meaning to try, also for years.

I went with this fairly simple one for Orange Cream Cookies. Don't be put off that it's a "rolled" cookie, meaning you have to roll it out and cut out shapes. You could skip that part and just portion into dough balls if rolling out dough sounds like too much trouble. But it wasn't for this recipe as the dough was really easy to handle and doesn't spread out too much so your cookies will hold their shape.

I didn't roll out the dough too thin as I like my cookies to have a certain degree of thickness. I liked how these turned out.

The cookies are good orange-flavored butter cookies, easily served plain or you can dress them up with a little orange glaze made from powdered sugar and orange juice. Just whisk the two and add one or the other until they’re the consistency you like.

If you want more of a frosting, use more powdered sugar and less orange juice. Vice versa if you want more of a glaze. I served them both ways and both versions were good.

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1 tablespoon strained orange juice
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; whisk to mix.
2. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy and light-colored, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and orange zest, beating until smooth.
3. Lower the mixer speed and beat in half the flour mixture, then all of the orange juice and cream, one at a time. Beat in half the remaining flour. Stop the mixer and work in the remaining flour by hand with a large rubber spatula.
4. Scrape the dough onto a floured work surface and pat into a rough rectangle of even thickness. Cut the dough into quarters. Wrap three of them and set aside.
5. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Using a fluted cutter between 2 and 3 inches in diameter, cut the cookies. Place the cookies as they're cut onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving about an inch of space all around each cookie. Repeat with remaining dough.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Bake cookies for about 15 to 20 minutes or until they first become dry and dull-looking and feel slightly firm when pressed with a finger tip. Do not overbake. Remove to wire racks to finish cooling.