Orange Creamsicle Cookies

A recipe for a cakey orange flavored cookie with vanilla frosting, reminiscent of the flavors in an orange creamsicle.

Source:  Myself, for the first time ever.

Yield: about 3 dozen cookies

Testing cookies is fun, but I decided to try my hand at creating a recipe myself.  I think I did a passable job, for my first try.  To be honest, I just took another recipe and modified it a little, but I guess that’s as good a place to start as any.

I wanted a cookie that tasted like an orange creamsicle, all orangey and wonderful with a shot of vanilla creaminess on the inside.  So, naturally, I began with one of my favorite cookie ingredients ever: buttermilk.  Buttermilk makes such tasty cookies!  I followed that up with some orange extract I bought at the local supermarket.  I suppose if I was a real baker, I would use actual oranges or something, but honestly, I was worried about the acidity of the citrus fruit.  Baking cookies is like doing chemistry, after all.

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

 

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Cook time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

 

A cakey, orange-flavored cookie, with white chocolate filling and vanilla frosting, reminiscent of the flavors in an orange creamsicle.

Author: Jen

Serves: 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. orange extract
• 4-5 drops each red and yellow food coloring
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 cups flour
• white chocolate chips or discs (optional)
• FROSTING:
• ½ cup softened butter
• 2 T. water
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

1. Mix together butter, sugar, and buttermilk.
2. Add eggs, extract, and food coloring, and mix well.
3. Mix in dry ingredients until just incorporated. It should form a very soft dough.
4. Drop by teaspoonful onto a baking sheet. Cover with a layer of white chocolate chips or discs, and top with another teaspoonful of dough.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 9-12 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and allow to cool.
6. For frosting, mix ingredients together well, adding as much powdered sugar as is necessary to get the consistency you like.
7. Frost cooled cookies. Allow to set for a few minutes before storing in an airtight container, between layers of wax paper.

1.2.4

Start by mixing together the butter, sugar, and buttermilk.  Add the egg and mix well.  Add the orange extract and food coloring, and mix until well incorporated.

I wasn’t really sure how much orange extract to use, so I started with 1/2 tsp. and just kept adding more until the dough tasted right.  I ended up using 1  1/2 tsp. of extract, but when I tasted the cookies, I was wishing I had used more, so I’m recommending you use 2 tsp.  I also waited until the very end to add the food coloring, and I think that was a mistake.  You’ll probably have better luck adding it before you add the dry ingredients.

Add in the dry ingredients, and mix gently.  It will make a very soft dough, almost more like cake batter.  I was worried that it might be too gooey, and added an extra 1/2 cup of flour.  They turned out kind of dry and crumbly, though, so on my 2nd try, I will keep it to just the 4 cups.

I really liked the idea of finding some kind of surprise in the middle, so I baked my cookies this way:  I put small dollops of dough on the pan, then topped them with some white chocolate.

Reflecting back on this step, I think I would spread the white chocolate out more.  It turned out to be just a little chunk in the middle, and I bet it would be tastier and more effective if it was spread through more of the cookie.  The real problem here is that the cookie spreads quite a bit during baking, while the white chocolate does not.

Then I topped it with another little dollop of dough.  Perfect.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Allow to cool on a cooling rack.  I should mention that I did bake up a few without the white chocolate in them at all, and I liked them just as well, so I’m calling this white chocolate step optional.

I mixed up the frosting while the cookies were cooling. Don’t be stingy with the vanilla, either.  You need a strong vanilla flavor to balance out the orange in the cookie.  Once the cookies are cooled, frost them lightly.  Give them a few minutes to set up before storing in an airtight container between layers of wax paper.  (Or, if you’re like me, aluminum foil, because you realized at midnight that you were out of wax paper and were too lazy to drive to Walmart at that hour.)

This is a pretty sweet cookie, but I predict you will get good reviews from anyone you serve it to!