Every year before the Big Holiday Brouhaha, I go nutty with the baking and make about a gazillion cookies until I can’t stand the sight of a bag of flour and don’t want to roll, stamp, drop, or press another cookie, let alone even smell one until…NEVAR AGAAAAAAAINNNNNN! Of course, only to do it all over again the next year.
Gonzo baking, which I thought I’d explained in the past but can’t find the explanation entry, is something I started doing a few years ago, where I kind of remix a very basic recipe to get a different flavor and create something new. A few of my old experiments have become standards. The mint-chocolate-chip cookies are always a big hit. I had this gigantic candycane stick one year, so I smashed it up with a hammer, then ran the shards through the food processor and used the resulting powdered minty pink sugar in place of half of the sugar in a traditional chocolate chip recipe. That one has been a big hit, so I have replicated it. Likewise my double-ccocoa chocolate-chip cookies, which are a pretty traditional chocolate chip cookie with like 1/2 cup of black cocoa powder and triple the vanilla.
I’m not much of a chocolate chip cookie person. I actually don’t like them, but I know lots of folks who do, so I am more than happy to make these annually. It’s all about the giving, and you give people what they like, right?
My newest successful recipe remix was based on a classic gingersnap recipe, with two additions and a MAJOR substitution. I got the idea to change up the gingersnap recipe by adding orange extract and cocoa powder to create a spiced chocolate orange flavor reminiscent of the scent of LUSH’s “Sonic Death Monkey” shower gel. Yeah, it sounds weird to make a cookie inspired by a bath product, but if you ever smell “Sonic Death Monkey,” you will be tempted to taste it. I’m serious. The substitution happened because once I got the sugar and butter creamed and the spices/extracts/cocoa and the wet ingredients mixed in, I realised that I didn’t have even half enough white flour, so I made them with whole wheat flour instead…which actually improved the texture beyond all belief.
So, here you go…Whole Wheat Orange Cocoa Spice Cookies.
1 1/4 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 c dark molassas
2 c whole wheat flour flour
2 tsp soda
1.5 tsp each ginger, cloves, & cinnamon
1 tsp orange extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add cocoa, ginger, cloves, cinnamon & orange extract; mix well.
Add egg & Molassas and beat well.
Sift together flour & soda. Add slowly to the creamed mixture.
Chill dough at least 1 hour
Roll dough into 1″ balls; dip in additional sugar (turbinado sugar works well and looks really pretty)
Place 2-3″ apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake at 375F until browned (approx 8 minutes) Do not overbake. Cool on sheet approx 5 minutes, & layer into storage container. Seal lid when cookies are absolutely cooled.
[…] his famous dolma and I made a great big salad. Earlier in the day I’d made a bunch of the chocolate-orange-spice cookies, but because I was kind of gronked out on cold medicine, I forgot to put in the baking powder. They […]