Biscuits à l’Orange: Orange cookies by the Careless Cook
I like cookies. Perhaps it’s a throwback to childhood when I followed my mother around the kitchen. Ah the aromas! And the excitement for a child! Often she let me stir, or when things were too difficult for my childish fingers, she would explain and show me what she was doing and why she was doing it, this way and that. And, of course, with pies and cakes and especially cookies, she let me lick the bowl. Magic words when she handed me the dough covered spoon or the beaters, or the spatula. I’ve written earlier about my mother’s recipe for sugar cookies. Never saw that? Never made her sugar cookies? Ah, I pity you for your loss.
Today I have another cookie recipe, but this one didn’t come from my mother’s kitchen. Matter of fact, it didn’t come from anyone’s kitchen but mine. Bold statement, not having been in everyone’s kitchen. But, hyperbole is my stock in trade.
These cookies require little time to make, have few ingredients, cook fast, and the icing on top is so simple even an idiot can make it. I proved that.
As Mark Twin famously said, “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But, then I repeat myself.
Biscuits à l’Orange (Orange cookies)
Heat oven to 325ºF or 160º
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
2 sticks butter (a cup)
1 cup fine sugar (I put regular sugar in my electric coffee grinder)
2 tablespoons of grated orange rind
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of milk
The icing
2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup of milk, or maybe a little more. Be careful; you’re not making soup!
candied orange rinds for decoration (Make these while the cookies bake: See below.)
Make the Cookies
Use a hand-mixer or food processor to cream the butter and sugar. Add the flour and orange rind, mix well, then add the milk.
Roll out the dough to about a quarter inch thickness and cut into rounds. I used a well-washed tomato paste can, with both ends removed, which gave me 28 cookies. Put the cookie rounds on a baking sheet and slap ‘em in the pre-heated oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are just barely starting to brown. Note: check the cookies once or twice on the way to 15 minutes! Every oven heats differently.
Candy the orange rinds
Cut a few tablespoons of orange rinds into very small pieces (see cookie photo)
Put them in a small pan or skillet. Add a half water, half sugar solution and cook on low heat for about ten minutes. Discard the sugar solution and put the candied rinds on a plate to dry and cool.
When the cookies are ready, move them to a room temperature surface or a cooling rack.
When the cookies are cool, dip or paint on the icing and immediately add some cooled candied orange rind on top of the soft icing for decoration.
If you didn’t make enough cookies, now you have a problem because your unruly guests will eat these by the handfuls and then want to take a bunch home.
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