Grandmother's Orange Cookies

Grandmother's Orange Cookies

My Grandmother made these for my wedding shower! She mailed them to me in Alaska, so they ship very well. Soft little pillows of cakey cookies with a wonderful buttercream

2/3 cup shortening

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons grated orange rind

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

FROSTING:

2 1/2 tablespoons soft butter

1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

3/4 teaspoon orange rind

Preheat oven to 400

Mix shortening, sugar and egg.

In a separate small bowl, mix orange juice and rind

In another separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add flour to shortening mixture alternately with the orange juice.

I used the large-ish medium scoop to drop them onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You don't have to use parchment, they don't stick.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until browned around the edges.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen.

For Frosting:

Mix all ingredients for the frosting and frost when the cookies are cool



Bonus! Ninja Sugar Men

I got a request to make sugar cookie Ninjas for a birthday boy.  SO much fun

FarmHouse Sugar Cookies (made into Ninjas!)
This sugar cookie comes from the Farm Journal. We have used this one as our go to sugar cookie forever.   It is good with royal icing, or buttercream.

1 1/4 cups soft butter (2 1/2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375. I only lined the baking sheets with parchment to make clean up easy. They don't stick to an ungreased pan

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

Add alternately with the milk to the creamed mixture. Begin and end with the flour.  If the dough is sticky, add more flour till dough is smooth and no longer sticky.  Use only 1/2 cup at a time of flour.

Roll out 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured board. Use your favorite cookie cutter to cut out what ever shapes make you happy

Place cookies on baking sheet. Add any decorations you want to have baked on now.



 Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until just very lightly brown.

Makes about 5 to 6 dozen cookies. I made 3 1/2 dozen ninjas, and froze about 1/3 of the dough in disks to use later.

I decorated the cookies with Paula Deen's Edible Paint Recipe. It is wonderful to work with. LOVE it!

Paula Deen's Edible Paint

1/4 cup cold water (I add 1/4 teaspoon of any flavoring I am going to use to the water)

3 tablespoons meringue powder (I used Wilton brand)

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

any color you are going to use.

Combine water (flavored or not) with the meringue powder. Whisk till foamy.  Whisk in powdered sugar.

USE ASAP. This hardens up fairly quickly.



I found a new to me color to make real red and beautiful blacks.  AmeriColor. The stuff works great! 

Turtle Cookies

Yes, turtle candy in cookie form!

This cookie has been tripled to make 6 dozen cookies, so you can take it back down to the  one dozen size. I will put the smaller list of ingredients in parenthesis.

Turtle Cookies

 1 1/2 cups cake flour (1/2)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (1/4)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda (1/4)

12 ounces (2 cups) milk chocolate chips  (4 ounces)

12 tablespoons cold butter (4 ounces)

1 1/2 cups sugar (1/2)

3 large eggs (1)

3 teaspoons vanilla (1)

1 1/2 cups pecans (1/2)

1 1/2 cups caramel bits (1/2)*

*Caramel Bits are wonderful little things from Kraft.  They are small round bits of caramel that are unwrapped and perfect for putting in cookies.  If you can not find these little pearls, take a regular size caramel and cut it into quarters. 

Sift together cake flour, cocoa, and baking soda in a large bowl, set aside.

In a small sauce pan, over super low heat, melt 1/2 the chocolate chips and the butter together. Watch it carefully so it does not burn. Stir often.   Remove from heat, allow to cool a little.  Add sugar and vanilla. Stir well, it might look a little grainy and that is okay.  Add eggs, one at a time.

Pour chocolate mixture into flour mixture. It will take some arm work to mix it all together.  I think next time I will use a hand mixer or the regular mixer to make it easier. 

Add in the caramel bits and pecans.

Chill at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350

 Put parchment paper on to baking sheets. The caramel will leak a little and parchment will help!

Use the medium scoop, drop onto the prepared sheets.

Chill the dough balls for 15 minutes. To make my life a little easier. I made the dough balls, and put them on a plate and kept that in the fridge until I needed them. My cookie sheets are big and hard to put in the fridge.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.  Let cool on sheet for about 6 minutes or until firm enough to move off the sheet. 

Makes 6 dozen

Baklava

I love good baklava! It is not as hard as it looks, but it is not inexpensive!  I make mine with 4 different nuts and an amazing amount of butter. It is soooo good!

Baklava!

1 pound frozen fillo (phylo) dough, thawed

1 cup walnuts, rough chopped

1 cup slivered almonds, chopped

1cup pecans, chopped

1 1/2 cups pistachios, chopped

1 cup butter, melted (more may be needed)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Lemon Honey Syrup

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

1 lemon, sliced seeds removed

4 tablespoons honey

Thaw dough at room temperature for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350

Place chopped nuts, sugar and spices in a food processor and pulse  four or five times till they are all mixed and chopped a little finer. 

Brush melted butter on the bottom of a 15x10x2 inch pan (jelly roll). Gently lay one layer of fillo dough onto the prepared pan. Butter the dough. Add another single layer of dough, brush with butter. Keep doing this till you get 10 layers of dough.

Put about 2/3 of the nut mixture on the top of the 10 layers.  Drizzle with butter.

Put a single layer of fillo dough on top of nuts. Brush the dough with butter. Add single layers of dough brushed with butter till you get about 5 more layers. Add the rest of the nuts, drizzle with more butter.  Add the rest of the fillo dough in single layers, each brushed with butter till you have used the entire package.

Cut, WITHOUT CUTTING THOUGH THE BOTTOM LAYER, into diamond shapes

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Finish cutting the diamonds. Cool completely.

Pour the warm honey syrup over the top. It will all soak in. Might not look like it, but it till

HONEY SYRUP

In a saucepan, combine sugar, water and lemon slices. Boil gently for 15 minutes. Remove lemon slices. Add honey. Stir till combined. Pour gently over baklava.

Italian Snowballs

Today was a snow day, again. It is wonderful to have snow.  I wanted a cookie that was not too sweet, still good and sort of snowball shaped. I adapted this recipe from 100 Best Cookies 2004.

Italian Snowballs!

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond  (I used a full teaspoon of princess flavor. That is available at King Arthur Flour)

GLAZE

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350

Line baking sheets with parchment

In a medium size bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of the mixer, combine eggs, sugar, oil and extracts. Beat till well combined. Add flour mixture. The dough will be stiff!

Use the small scoop and drop the them onto the prepared baking sheet

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.

Cool completely then glaze.

Mix the almond extract with the milk, add to the powdered sugar until the glaze is fairly thin. Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze.  Then add sprinkles before the glaze dries!

My helper liked the red sprinkles.

Makes 4 1/2 dozen.

Luscious Lemon Drops

Luscious Lemon Drops
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
2 large eggs
zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 ounces white chocolate chips (1 bag)
1 1/2 cups coconut

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar in the mixer till creamy. Add eggs one at a time till well blended  Add lemon zest and lemon juice.  In a small bowl, mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.  Add to butter mixture, mix till just blended.  Add white chocolate chips and coconut.

Using a medium scoop, drop onto parchment lined baking sheets. You don't have to use parchment for this, but it makes clean up easier.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Let cool for 2 minutes on the pan, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Tropical Escapes

The weather is lousy this first week of January. I would love to go somewhere warm! This is about as close as I can get.

Tropical Escapes

1/3 cup butter

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons  vanilla

1 teaspoon pineapple flavoring

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

9 ounces ginger vanilla macadamia nuts (I got these as a Christmas gift and they were so GOOD! but regular nuts will also work, just add 1/2 teaspoon of ginger to the dry ingredients)

6 ounces of dried pineapple, chopped up to about the size of raisins (one package)

10 ounces of white chocolate chips (one package)

2 cups of coconut (about half a blue bag)

Preheat oven to 375

Line two baking sheets with parchment. You don't have to with this recipe, they don't stick, but it makes clean-up easier

Mix shortening and butter in the bowl of a mixer. Add sugars, eggs and flavorings. mix well. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda and salt (and ginger).  Blend into butter mixture. Mix well.

Add the nuts, chips, pineapple and coconut.

Drop by medium cookie scoop onto prepared pans

My goofy helper!

Place the cookies about 2 inches apart

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Cool for a minute or two on the pan, then remove to cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 5 dozen.