Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The jury is still out



Chocolate Orange Dreams
The Great American Cookie Cookbook Copyright 2001

COOKIES
1 Butter Flavor Crisco Stick or 1 cup Butter Flavor Crisco all-vegetable shortening plus additional for greasing
1 cup granulated sugar
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
2 teaspoons strained fresh orange juice
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (6-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

GLAZE
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
2 ½ teaspoons strained fresh orange juice
1 ½ teaspoon orange flavor liqueur

1. Heat over to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheet with shortening. Place sheets of foil on countertop for cooling cookies.
2. For cookies, combine 1 cup shortening, granulated sugar and cream cheese in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixture until well-blended. Beat in eggs, orange peel, 2 teaspoons orange juice and salt. Add flour gradually at low speed. Mix until well blended. Add chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly brown around edges. Do not overbake.
4. For glaze (prepare while cookies are baking) combine confectioners’ sugar, 2 ½ teaspoons orange juice and liqueur. Stir until well blended. Brush on cookies immediately upon removing from oven. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to foil to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

These are new this year. It's too soon to tell how I feel about them. After a couple of days of baking, my judgement is not that clear. Sometimes I'm not sure how I feel about a new cookie recipe until weeks later, when I pull a frozen leftover out of the freezer.

Two things bother me about this recipe. The first is that there is no baking soda or baking powder is this recipe but they came out okay. Dense, of course, but not in an unpleasant way. They look almost exactly like they do in the picture in the cookbook.

The second thing is that I wish I had not doubled this and used the butter-flavored Crisco in all of these. I wish I had tested a batch with butter.

But so far I'm thinking I'm liking these. I loved the glaze. It hardened. I hate when glazes stay sticky.

3 comments:

Heather said...

My question you is do you have a favorite cookbook? You seem to have quite a few, as do I, but I wish I had the best of the best! Although then I would have to look through all of them and make that determination.

The Cookbook Junkie said...

No, I don't have a single favorite cookbook. I own a few of the 'classics', modern and old - Joy of Cooking, The Gourmet Cookbook, New Best Recipes - but so far they haven't proven to be any more useful or exciting to me than many of my bargain book finds.

I do have a favorite cookbook publisher - Publications International. They put out all of the 'Favorite Brand Name' books and the Great American Cookie Cookbook is one of their's too. Maybe the recipes aren't cutting edge, but they're usually very good. I'm cooking for a man who douses everything in condiments and a two-year old so I can't get too fancy around here. Not on a daily basis anyway.

Anonymous said...

Greetings! I'm just about to mix up a batch of these cookies, and considering this was posted in 2005, how do you feel about the cookies now?