Monday 12 December 2011

Chocolate, orange and cranberry cookies


It's a new month and therefore a new We Should Cocoa Challenge. December is hosted by Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog and she chose orange as the ingredient for this month. Chocolate and orange is quite a classic pairing and a few ideas ran through my head - cupcakes, cakes, brownies, cookies.... I finally decided that I would create my own recipe in the form of a cookie. I absolutely love cookies, probably more than cake! My inspiration came from this lovely bag of Orange Nice Spice Puddles from Hotel Chocolat - they were part of the Christmas Collection Gift Bag that I won from a giveaway hosted by purelyfood - thank you so much! :)



So on to the cookies. Well it's a basic sugar cookie with the addition of orange zest, fresh orange juice, dried cranberries and the orange puddles. The result - a really lovely and festive cookie. You can clearly taste the individual flavours which complemented each other well. The cookie was light with a slight crunch and smelled amazing! I'm definitely making these again. You can substitute the chocolate puddles for chopped chocolate or chocolate chips - I'm thinking bits of Terry's Chocolate Orange next.

 adding the orange zest 

 I made sure every cookie had at least 1 chocolate puddle :)




I'm also submitting this to Vanessa's Let's Make Christmas Event as it would be a great Christmas gift


And finally to a cookie bloghop from mikesbaking #cookielove


An original recipe by bakingaddict
Makes 22 cookies of size shown

125g butter
75g sugar
1 egg
Zest of 1 orange
Juice of 1/2 orange
150g plain flour, sifted
110g chocolate puddles as shown here
50g dried cranberries 

  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. 
  • Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  • Add the egg and mix well.
  • Add in the zest of 1 orange and juice of 1/2 an orange.
  • Sift in the flour and mix well.
  • Finally stir in the chocolate puddles and dried cranberries with a spatula. 
  • Use a small ice cream scoop to place cookies on the baking tray spaced apart. 
  • Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes until lightly brown around the edges.
  • Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. 





34 comments:

  1. They look yummy! What a great combination...all those things go perfectely! :-)

    I've just started the Chocolate Log Blog... I may have to enter one of the challenges too!

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  2. laura - thanks! The flavours worked really well together so I was really pleased. Do join in the we should cocoa challenges - so much fun!

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  3. Love the combination of chocolate, cranberries and orange - two at a time is all I've ever done; swinging three sounds heavenly!

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  4. Laura at the art of cooking real food - the 3 ingredients definitely work well together.

    Gloria - thanks

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  5. Yum! I'm definitely craving cranberries over the holiday season - maybe because I can't find any fresh or frozen to cook with in Australia. I can, however, get dried, so this might just be the recipe to get me over the hump.

    So happy to have stumbled across your lovely blog!

    Catherine @ The Spring (in Brisbane)

    http://www.thespringblog.com

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  6. Yum! I'm definitely craving cranberries over the holiday season - maybe because I can't find any fresh or frozen to cook with in Australia. I can, however, get dried, so this might just be the recipe to get me over the hump.

    So happy to have stumbled across your lovely blog!

    Catherine @ The Spring (in Brisbane)

    http://www.thespringblog.com

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  7. Catherine - thanks for stopping by. I hope you can satisfy your cranberry craving with this recipe.

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  8. These sound scrumptious!

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  9. These look really delicious..of course the combination of sweet/citrus would be wonderful!

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  10. What a brilliant new invention. It's very satisfying to come up with a new recipe. They look so pretty and I bet they taste fantastic. I'm really enjoying these festive WSC entries. Thanks for yours, they are just lovely.

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  11. Haha, I bet these didn't last long! They look amazing, and the chocolate puddles... mmmmmmm!

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  12. Your own recipe, cool! I've had no time at all to enter competitions or baking challenges.. maybe in January!
    Also just added myself to the 'blog hop' - never heard of that before, where did it come from? Would be nice if it drove a few people to my site as well :-))

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  13. yummychunklet - thanks!

    Brittany - the combination was absolutely delicious

    Choclette - Thanks! I should try creating my own recipes more often. Thanks for hosting WSC.

    Charles - lasted less than an hour!

    Caroline - Do enter in Jan, its good fun! blog hops are cool- so many recipe ideas in 1 place.

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  14. Yeah for me red velvet just tastes of nothing! it's not chocolate-y enough...I'd rather pick an actual chocolate cupcake over a red velvet! Your cookies look so yummy, what a great festive flavour combo and I'm loving the massive chunks of choc you used! They look like Ben's Cookies style!

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  15. These look yummy! I love the fact they have big chunks of chocolate in, my kind of cookie!

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  16. Dei biscottini appetitosi ^_^
    Lieta di averti trovata, ora ti seguo!
    Buona giornata
    Sonia

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  17. I do like the sound and look of these, Perfecto.

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  18. Beautiful flavour combination, so good for this time of the year!

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  19. cupcake crazy gem - thanks I love using chunks of chocolate in cookies :) Ben's cookies are my favourite!

    Lottie - thanks! see above

    Sonia m - Thanks for dropping by
    grazie per aver visitato il auguriamo che questi biscotti

    Cakeboule - thanks! :)

    Laura@howtocookgoodfood - thanks, they are quite festive :)

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  20. This is really a great recipe! I never know what to do with cranberry . But hey thanks to you, now I'm gonna try to bake these lovely cookies.

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  21. What a perfect combination! These cookies look very yummy!

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  22. Chocolate and orange is such a nice holiday combination. We went to Hotel Chocolat while we were in London, and it was magical!

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  23. i'm yet to bake with cranberries this winter - I imagine they'd taste really nice with the chocolate and orange. Yum

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  24. Best combo! I love LOVE LOVE chocolate and orange!!!! Add cranberries YUM YUM ~

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  25. These look gorgeous and all those flavours are so evocative of Christmas. Yum!

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  26. lostinausten - Do let me know how you get on. I love cranberries :0

    Zoe - thanks!

    Cookie Sleuth - Yes Hotel Chocolat has some good stuff. Can't wait to hear about your London adventure.

    Caked Crusader - They go really well together.

    Daisy - Thanks! They were really, really good :)

    Thelittleloaf - Thanks, very Christmassy indeed :)

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  27. What a lovely gift, and what good use have you put it to!!:) It was a really flavorful combination for your cookies, and I am sure it tastes awesome;)

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  28. This is such a mouth watering preparation,can't wait to try it

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  29. They sound so festive! And cranberry and orange is such a nice combo together! :D

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  30. What a GREAT flavour combination! I LOVE the look of these cookies and they are so seasonal!
    Karen

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  31. Glad you put some of the chocolates to good use. I bet these cookies were delicious as I loved the flavour of these buttons.

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  32. Christy - thanks it really was awesome :)

    Loveforfood - thanks, do let me know what you think.

    Lorraine - definitely a great combo!

    Karen - Thanks :)

    Purelyfood - thanks again for the chocs, the cookies were really good!

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