Last week I bought some Cara Cara oranges for Mike’s favorite orange almond cake, a sweeter, seedless variety of the navel orange. I’d really wanted Valencia oranges but couldn’t find them, and figured the Cara Cara would make a good substitute. The leftover oranges (well, their juice and zest) went into these orange blossom cookies, a wonderful recipe from King Arthur Flour.
You’ve likely had cookies like this before, perhaps from the cookie table at a Pittsburgh-area wedding. They’re soft and cakey, with just enough icing on top to enhance the flavor. I chose to bake smaller cookies than the recipe originally called for and used a one-inch cookie scoop, and also increased my icing quantity just a bit to make sure I had enough to cover them all. The end result is absolutely delicious, and one that could be easily adapted for other citrus flavors, like lemon or lime.
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 11 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- zest from 2 oranges*
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia
- 2 cups flour
For the icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- zest from 1 orange*
- 4-5 tablespoons orange juice
*Cara Cara oranges are smaller than regular navel oranges; you can get about 1 tablespoon of zest from each one. If you’re using regular navel oranges in this recipe, you’ll have a bit more zest than you need. Zest yields a stronger flavor, so you can adjust how much you use based on your own tastes.
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, then orange juice and zest, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and fiori di Sicilia. The dough will look clumpy and kind of curdled, but that’s okay – add the flour and beat to combine, and the dough will smooth out. The end result will be kind of fluffy dough.
Using a one-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet about halfway through baking, until the edges are just golden. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for 1-2 minutes, then place on wire racks to cool completely.
Once cookies are cool, make the icing: beat butter, powdered sugar, and orange zest on low, then medium speed, for 1-2 minutes. Add orange juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, to reach a spreadable consistency. Frost cookies and allow them to set before serving. Store between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container at room temperature.
Makes about 40 cookies.
amy bakes in the 'burgh 