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!