My Famous Orange Chocolate Chunk Cookies (and bonus Honey Cookies)

I have loved to bake cookies for many years now, and I always like finding new recipes to add to my repertoire, but there are some cookies that I am known for - the orange chocolate chunk cookie is one of them.  I made a batch this week to take to my nephew's high school graduation and I thought this would be a good time to post the recipe, as so many people have asked for it.

I originally found the recipe in Mrs. Fields Best Cookie Book Ever.  I bought it years ago from a book vendor - the kind who comes to schools and leaves out some cool items for a week - so I don't even know if the book is still in print or not.

Many people have asked if I use orange chocolate.  No - here are the secret weapons for this recipe:
Orange extract and orange peel.
Here's the recipe as printed in the book with my notations in parentheses:

Orange Chocolate Chunk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
(I only ever use buttered flavored Crisco when I bake)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon orange extract
8 ounces semis sweet chocolate bar chopped.
(a bag of chocolate chunks or chocolate chips is fine too)

- Preheat oven to 300 (I usually do it on 350 and cut the baking time)
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt and orange peel.  Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside/
- In a large bowl, blend sugars with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add butter and beat to form a grainy paste, scraping sides of bowl if necessary.  Add eggs and orange extract, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour mixture and chopped chocolate. Blend at low speed just until combined. Do not over mix.
- Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookies sheets, 1 1/2 inches apart to bake.  (Here are two of my secrets to baking success - I always use cookie scoop, like the ones from Pampered Chef, and I always use parchment - it means I can sweep the parchment and baked cookies off the baking sheet, and sweep another sheet of parchment with dough right on and back into the oven it goes.  The cookies come out nice and even and it saves a lot of time)
-Bake for 18 to 22 minutes (if baking at 350 ten minutes or so will do) until the cookies are slightly brown along the edges.  Transfer cookies immediately to a cool surface with a spatula.

One warning - the dough is fantastic even before it's baked, but don't eat too much!

Another cookie that I baked for my nephew's party is what we call Awesome Honey cookies.   A few years ago, we were studying the Beatitudes in our Sunday School. ONe of the Sundays, the kids made several different kinds of treats with honey, we sold the treats, and then used the money to buy two beehives through Heifer International.  This is one of the recipes we used, although I have no idea now where I found it.

I usually double the recipe to get a good amount of cookies.  I also discovered when I baked this week, that it's a good idea to put the batter in the fridge while there are some in the oven.  The first few sheets came out great, and then the cookies were flatter and really thin at the edges.  They still taste great though, which must be why Sam ate a dozen of them when he was home alone.

Here's the recipe as I first found it.  Sorry, I don't have pictures, but they got gobbled up so fast!

Awesome Honey Cookies
1/2 cup of butter (again, I used Crisco)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat the oven to 375

- Beat butter, sugar, honey and egg.
- Add the rest of the ingredients
- Drop spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheets (I used the smaller cookie scoop)
- Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. Cookies will still look shiny.

Well, there you have it, two of my most asked for recipes.  I hope you enjoy them too, and remember, don't eat all the batter!

Love in Every Stitch

   This spring, bumblebees set up housekeeping under the overhang of our dining room window.  As the drive way is right outside the dining room, this can often make more mad dashes to the car by the littlest members of our family.  When the windows are open, I can often hear their buzz as I work on projects at the dining room table.
   And I have been working!  I am so happy to be able to cross several items off the UFO lists and enter their photos in the project gallery.

   First, I finished Sam's football quilt.  How fortunate that I did not start and finish this one all at once, as the boy kept on growing! The "Big Guy" is about to turn 13.  (He calls me "Shorty" much to my chagrin, but somewhere my mother is laughing because I'm pretty sure I did the same to her).   I can't believe how the time has flown and how much he has grown up, particularly in just the past few years. I hope that his football quilt will be something that he will use for years, and always know that there is love in every stitch.

Here is a detail of the hand sewn swirls in the border.
The rest of the it was machine quilted in the ditch. 

 Second, I finished the Fall Log Cabin that I had started before Sam was even born! Originally, I wanted to hand quilt leaves in the large border with metallic gold thread.  Not being able to find the leaf shaped cookie cutters I was going to use as a pattern, I looked at other leaf shapes and realized that they were very detailed for a quilt (translation - too time consuming) so instead I drew swirls - like an illustrator would use to indicate the wind had blown something - and quilted it with gold floss.   At the beginning of May I had a minor, elective surgery (nothing big!) which afforded me a few days of "down time".   Spring had finally sprung, so I took the quilt outside on our back porch and sewed while soaking up the fresh air, and listened to Siri read the newest Nora Roberts to me from my Kindle (I love that feature!).  I am rather pleased with how it turned out, and I already know the perfect place to display it this fall.

The third UFO that I can cross of the list is called Life's Treasures by Gail Bussi from the March 2010 edition of Cross Stitch and Needlework.  The living room in my old house had a "cottage" look to it - all pastels with cream and gold accents.  This piece seemed to suit the color palette well, and I thought the four words: Love, Family, Home, Friends, summed up four of the most important things in life for me. I found a nice distressed gold frame that will complement, not overpower the gentle picture. Now it will sit in the living room or dining room of our new home.

The fourth project I finished recently was not a UFO.  My winter coat is brown and blue so when I saw this gorgeous blue fuzzy, soft, yarn I grabbed two skeins (the color is not as grey in real life as it came out in the picture).  I must have started this scarf about four times - I couldn't find a pattern that I liked.  I tried several, like ribbed and seed stitch, but because of the thickness and the super fuzzy nature, you could never really see the pattern.  Finally I just did stockinette with it reversed at the edges for a little border.  I will block it to make it lay flat before I use it this winter. Maybe I'll track down another skein or two and attempt to make a hat to match!


Whew! Four things to cross of the list. That puts me at 22 projects completed, more than half way to my goal.  I know there's not a lot of time left until I turn 41, but I'll give it my best shot.  The end of school is just around the corner, so soon I'll be working on the teacher gifts I have planned.  They involve terra cotta pots and chalkboard paint.

See you soon!