I have mentioned before that I don’t have many pleasant food memories from my childhood.
My family didn’t put food very high on their list of priorities.
When a certain cookie craving popped into my mind though, so did a memory.
My mother had a recipe book, surprising come to think of it, on cooking with children.
I almost remember it’s cover, a white book, but definitely it’s pages, all stuck together with dough and other concoctions from recipes well used or from a particularly messy cook!
She didn’t spend much time with me as a child but I do remember the couple of occasions where we made orange and chocolate cookies, and they were edible, a very memorable trait in my household!
I don’t know quite how good they were but the smell of the oranges in the cookies is still with me and even now chocolate and orange is my favorite chocolate combination.
Unfortunately I don’t have that book so it was time to make new memories with my own orange and chocolate cookies!
These cookies are lovely and chewy with the help of a little brown sugar but also have a scrumptious cookie crumb.
For the chocolate, you can use dark or milk chocolate, whichever you prefer, but please do cut up a chocolate bar instead of using chocolate chips as it’s absolutely glorious to get a hunk of melted chocolate in your bite of cookie oozing out.
Despite not using a “kid friendly” recipe, these cookies are really easy so why not get your kids involved and give them fond memories of you and your cooking?
Orange & Chocolate Cookies
Makes 20 approx
Ingredients
2 large unwaxed oranges
260g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
110g softened butter
110g caster sugar
110g brown (muscovado) sugar
1 medium/large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g milk or dark chocolate bar
Method
Preheat the oven to 160oc in a fan oven or 180oc in a normal oven.
Measure out the sugars and place them in a large bowl.
Add in the butter and grate in the zest (orange coloured skin) of the oranges.
Cream them together by incorporating the butter fully with a strong spoon and making the mixture slightly fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla and stir until combined.
Add the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to the mix and stir until fully combined.
Take your chocolate bar and cut each square of chocolate into quarters with a knife, add the pieces into the cookie mix and stir until they are dispersed.
Line three standard sized baking trays (less with larger) with greaseproof paper and using a teaspoon, heap on a spoon of the mixture.
Arrange the heaps so they have enough space for expansion.
Bake them for 10 – 12 minutes until they are a pale golden color around the edges with a paler center.
Slide the paper away from the baking trays and leave the cookies to cool for a few minutes on a kitchen side before taking the cookies off of the paper and putting them on a cooling rack until completely cool.
Enjoy!
