For crying out loud, how did I stray from low-calorie dessert treats? Okay, this was totally worth it. Soft, buttery, and tastes very gourmet – here is your new favorite cookie. Don’t eat them all at once, please; otherwise, who else would know you bake so well?
Components of heaven:
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c superfine sugar (this is now the sugar I carry on hand at all times)
grated rind of an orange
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
2 tsp orange juice
2.5 c flour
1 tsp ground ginger
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
salt
1. Put first three ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Beat in egg yolk and orange juice. Stir flour, ginger, and pinch of salt into the mixture until thoroughly combined. Shape dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for 30-60 mins.
2. Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment (I will comment on this later).
3. Unwrap dough and roll out between 2 parchment sheets to a rectangle. Using a sharp knife cut into 4 x 3/4 in strips and put them on the prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for about 5 and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
5. Put chocolate pieces into a heatproof bowl and melt over a saucepan of gently simmering water, then remove from heat and cool. When it is cool but not set then dip cookies in 1/4 to halfway (whatever you prefer) and put on wire racks and let set. Makes about 35 cookies.
Fabulousness dipped in even more fabulousness. . .
A few things:
When a recipe tells you that you need to chill the dough, this is to make it easy to handle. So when you’re working with the dough, once it reaches room temperature again, it becomes pretty slippery and very soft so it is best if you can work fairly fast. As you can see I tried to get all the cookies to be of the same size and shape but I took my time rolling the dough out and cutting it out in strips and the dough became pretty soft again.
Additionally, I only had so much parchment paper left and so I used a baking spray on my cookie sheet. I have one extra large Ultrabake cooking sheet which I absolutely love because my cookies never burn and come out perfect every time. However, I had extra dough and ended up using another cookie sheet with spray and the cookies browned so much faster and some even burned (you can probably notice it in the upper RT corner of the photo). If you’re into baking cookies often, definitely invest in a good cookie sheet – saves money in the long run.
Be careful when dipping your cookies in the chocolate because they might break!
These cookies are approximately 110 calories each – Blah!
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#1 by Bob - February 2nd, 2010 at 22:08
Those sound awesome. Seriously. I second the quality baking sheet suggestion, I wound up buying the top rated one from America’s Test Kitchen and it’s the bomb. Only 15 bucks too.
#2 by Eileen Devlin - February 2nd, 2010 at 22:11
The lingering aroma in the kitchen is by far a wonderful side effect of making these cookies. I’m actually going to make a second batch when I’m done working tonight.
Which baking sheet do you have? Mine was 15 dollars also!
#3 by Eileen Devlin - February 2nd, 2010 at 22:18
@Bob And those taco fries look sinful!
#4 by Van Santos - February 3rd, 2010 at 22:33
Umm… is 110 bad?!?
#5 by Eileen Devlin - February 3rd, 2010 at 22:47
@Van – when you’re on a low-cal diet, yes. These are very addicting!