Orange Olive Oil Cookies
SKU:
A sweet cookie full of orange flavor with a soft/crunchy texture. It can be tricky to make a good cookie without butter, but this one works.
Made especially for a friend who doesn't do dairy, and one of the few cookies where I don't even miss the butter.
Adapted from LalaLunchbox and Mama'sGotta Bake.
PSA: Uses a Kitchenaid mixer.
Made especially for a friend who doesn't do dairy, and one of the few cookies where I don't even miss the butter.
Adapted from LalaLunchbox and Mama'sGotta Bake.
PSA: Uses a Kitchenaid mixer.
Ingredients
|
A little bit less than 1 cup granulated sugar
Zest from 2 oranges, about 2T 2 ¼ cups flour 1t baking powder ½ t baking soda ¼ t salt 3T finely minced mint (optional) |
1 egg
1t pure vanilla extract ⅔ cup olive oil 3T freshly squeezed orange juice from one of the zested oranges |
What To Do
Orange-zested sugar
Cream sugar and orange zest until it is slightly clumpy, smells like oranges, and is the color of Kraft Mac-n-Cheese, see photo at right.
In a separate large mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add mint if you are using it and mix together.
Add egg and vanilla extract to the orange infused sugar and mix til just combined. Add one-third of the flour mixture and beat til combined. Add ⅓ cup of olive oil and beat until just combined. Repeat, ending with the last third of flour. (Pattern will be one-third of flour mixture, ⅓ cup olive oil, second-third of the flour mixture, ⅓ cup olive oil, last third of flour mixture.) Dough will be very dry and crumbly.
Add 3T of orange juice and mix until the dough forms. It will be shiny and a bit sticky. Remove bowl from Kitchenaid, and set in the freezer for about an hour.
Pre-heat oven to 375°F and make sure you have one oven rack just below the middle of the oven, and another just above so you can bake the cookies on one batch.
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Take the dough out of the freezer. Roll about 2t of cookie dough into a ball that is slightly smaller than a ping pong ball. 12 should fit on a large cookie sheet. Smash gently with your hand to flatten slightly.
Bake for about 14 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets about halfway through. The cookies do puff up slightly (see photo), and should be start to be turning slightly golden brown at the edges.
Remove from the oven. Wait a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. I always sneak on to test it.
In a separate large mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add mint if you are using it and mix together.
Add egg and vanilla extract to the orange infused sugar and mix til just combined. Add one-third of the flour mixture and beat til combined. Add ⅓ cup of olive oil and beat until just combined. Repeat, ending with the last third of flour. (Pattern will be one-third of flour mixture, ⅓ cup olive oil, second-third of the flour mixture, ⅓ cup olive oil, last third of flour mixture.) Dough will be very dry and crumbly.
Add 3T of orange juice and mix until the dough forms. It will be shiny and a bit sticky. Remove bowl from Kitchenaid, and set in the freezer for about an hour.
Pre-heat oven to 375°F and make sure you have one oven rack just below the middle of the oven, and another just above so you can bake the cookies on one batch.
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Take the dough out of the freezer. Roll about 2t of cookie dough into a ball that is slightly smaller than a ping pong ball. 12 should fit on a large cookie sheet. Smash gently with your hand to flatten slightly.
Bake for about 14 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets about halfway through. The cookies do puff up slightly (see photo), and should be start to be turning slightly golden brown at the edges.
Remove from the oven. Wait a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. I always sneak on to test it.
Notes and Talking Story
- Makes about 24 cookies.
- I used Cara Cara oranges because this is what was in season at the time.
- I like my cookies to have a slightly browned underside, while still being a bit chewy in the middle. The LalaLunchbox recipe recommended only 8 minutes, but this was too soft for my taste.
- My dairy-free friend likes her cookies to be even crispier, and she further crisped up her batch in the toaster oven.
- The LalaLunchbox recipe had an additional step of rolling the dough balls in sugar before smooshing and baking, which I skipped. The cookies are plenty sweet as they are.
