Orange Choco-Crispy Cookies

HOWDY friends…I’ve actually been baking a good bit lately, but I haven’t had much time to catch up on posting my recipes.  Thought I’d squeeze in a little time today to share this one with you.  I came across the original recipe over at Modern Mrs. Cleaver’s blog site.  She calls them “One Cookies” because almost all the ingredients are measured with a “one”.

I love crispy cookies, and these looked good, so I couldn’t wait to try them.  As usual though, I had to experiment a bit.  The original recipe calls for maple extract, and I’m not a huge fan of maple flavoring, so I decided to try something else instead.  I made one batch using orange extract, and another batch using regular vanilla extract.  Both came out delicious, so I’m thinking of trying lemon extract next time.

As I went, I divided each batch into 3 portions, and experimented further.  With the orange batch, I made some basically by the recipe (with my usual substitutions in place), some with orange zest added, and the rest with orange zest and miniature chocolate chips added.  I think the orange zest added something special, so I if you make them, I’d recommend starting with those, then…IF you like the orange/chocolate combination (which I definitely do!)…toss some miniature chocolate chips in.  If not, leave them out.  They’re good either way.  If you don’t have fresh orange zest, they’re fine plain too.  I just think they’re BETTER with it.

With the vanilla batch, I again made some pretty much by the recipe, then to one portion I added some toffee chips, and to the last batch I again added miniature chocolate chips.  According to my taste-testers, again, all were yummy, but the ones with the toffee chips were a definite favorite.

The base recipe is GREAT…thanks Modern Mrs. Cleaver…so…based on my own experimentation…my recommendation is to give it a try using your favorite flavored extract, and any add-ins you may tend to like.  Who knows you may come up with the best cookie yet!  (If you do…please be sure to let me know what you tried!)

I’m sharing the recipe for my orange-chocolate version, but if you like maple, please stop by Modern Mrs. Cleaver’s blog to say hello and give her original recipe a try.

Orange Choco-Crispy Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter (softened to room temperature, but NOT melted)

1 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar (I actually used DiabetiSweet sugar substitute, but feel free to use whatever you prefer)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg (as usual, I used HEB Real Egg - egg substitute)

1 teaspoon orange extract (I substituted vanilla extract in one batch as well)

2 cups all-purpose flour (the original recipe calls from 3 cups all-purpose flour, but you know me, I always adjust that a bit!)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oat flour (NOTE:  I made this myself by putting some old-fashioned oats in my food processor and processing them until as fine as possible.  Then I sifted it to get the biggest chunks out.  I plan to use those to top a cobbler or something one of these days.)

1/2 teaspoon salt (the original recipe called for 1 teaspoon, but I always use half as much!)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup oats

1 cup Rice Krispies

1 cup coconut

1 cup chopped pecans (other nuts would work too)

2 tsp. freshly grated orange zest (I actually used the zest from one navel orange…the measurement is approximate -- I also left this completely out in the vanilla-based version)

Miniature chocolate chips (these are optional…use as many or as few as you like! -- you can do the same with the toffee chips if you’re making the vanilla-based ones)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream together the butter, oil, sugars, egg and extract, until light and fluffy, using your mixer.

Whisk together the flours, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda, then slowly add to the butter/sugar mixture.

Mix at medium-speed until everything is mixed well, then remove from the mixer and stir in the oats, Rice Krispies, coconut, pecans and chocolate chips.  Stir until all ingredients are well combined.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight or at least 3 hours.

Roll the dough into 1″ balls (I used a small cookie scoop to measure them, and that was just right!) and place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  (The original recipe called for 2” balls, but these will flatten out and spread as they cook, so mine came out pretty big anyway.)  Be sure to allow plenty of room for them to spread when putting them on the cookie sheet!  (If you don’t have any parchment paper, don’t worry, I ran out, so most of mine were made directly on ungreased cookie sheets and they turned out fine.)

Dip the bottom of a small glass in sugar and gently press each cookie ball, flattening just a little.  (Be sure to re-dip the glass in sugar after each cookie.)

Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  (The more brown they get, the crispier they become, so if you like them a little chewy, don’t let them brown as much.  I like mine very crisp and light, so I let mine brown fully.  Just be sure to keep an eye on them so they don’t BURN!)

Let the cookies cool on baking sheets for a couple of minutes and then transfer them to cooling racks.

(I’ll admit, I couldn’t wait until they were cooled to give them a try.  They were wonderful, both warm and cooled…and the flavor just got better over the next few days!)

This makes a nice large batch (mine came out to about 11 dozen!), so if you can’t eat them all at once (although you may want to try!), they also freeze very well.

This is a great recipe to use because it makes plenty to share with a neighbor, friend or stranger who could use a lift.  They’re sure to bring a smile, so please try ‘em, share ‘em, and let me know what you think!

Don’t forget to take a minute to THANK GOD for all your many blessings today!

Wishing you many more,

--Faithy

Taken from:  http://modernmrscleaver.com/2011/09/06/one-cookies ..