Today, I baked up a batch of the most wonderful cookies. These cookies aren’t just regular chocolate chip cookies. The cookies are infused with the zest of an entire Cara Cara orange and turned out refreshingly chocolatey. To be honest, I love any baked treat infused with zest from citrus. Other than orange zest, I equally love infusing lemon zest into baked goods. Winter Storm Gia has continued to pile on tons of snow today. When I woke up in the morning, I peeked out the window to check the road conditions. At around 7:00 a.m., the snow was continuing to fall and stick to cars, ground, and buildings. Thank goodness for the city’s snow patrol team. These team members were already out and about shoveling snow with their snow trucks. I debated back and forth on whether or not I wanted to leave the home to go to the gym. I eventually decided I needed some exercise, so I packed on my winter gear, and trekked through the deep snow to get to the gym. I didn’t expect a lot of people to leave their house on a snowy day to go to the gym, but after 30 minutes into my work out, I noticed a lot more people trickling into the gym. Going to the gym makes me feel a lot better about devouring one too many of these cookies when I got home. These cookies are addictingly good. When Kevin tried one, he was surprised by the bright flavor of the orange zest balanced with the creamy chocolate in the cookies. I actually love turning on the oven to bake treats when it is snowing outside. The oven helps warm up the home when the temperature drops because of the weather. Although I was very reluctant to step outside again, I did take a break from the kitchen to head outside to shovel the accumulated snow off of my car.
Orange and Chocolate Chip Cookies:
· 1½ cups all-purpose flour
· ½ teaspoon baking soda
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
· ¼ cup dark brown sugar
· ½ cup granulated sugar
· 1 large egg, room temperature
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· Zest of one whole orange
· ½ cup chocolate chips, plus additional ¼ cup for pressing onto cookies
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt.
3) In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugars together. Add the large egg. Stir to incorporate the egg into the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla extract and orange zest. Gently fold in the flour mixture until a dough forms. Fold in ½ cup of chocolate chips.
4) Use your hands to roll out about 1-inch balls of cookies. Press to flatten the cookies. Distribute the ¼ cup of chocolate chips among the cookie dough and press a couple into each cookie.
5) Bake the cookies in the oven for 13-15 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Takeaways: I have made variations of these cookies using white chocolate chips, and lemon zest. These cookies are fluffier than traditional chocolate chip cookies, which I like. Feel free to fold in some white chocolate chips and/or lemon zest if you want a creamier and more citrusy cookie.
Snowy January Weekend in Ohio!