Orange Kissed Cookies

Look, I'm no dumb bunny. If I can see a way to maim two birds with one stone (I don't really feel like killing them), then I'm gonna do it. So when I decided to make THIS for dinner recently, I thought "That's going to be some perfectly good orange zest going to waste." And then I was trolling through "Our Best Bites" dessert section (read the post below this one if you need to know why) and saw this cookie recipe and said to myself "GENIUS!"

Do I say too often that everything on this blog is easy and delicious?

Well guess what, these cookies are easy AND delicious!
You might note that these call for shortening instead of butter and you might be thinking "Sandi, you'll do shortening instead of butter but not cool whip instead of homemade whipped cream?" And to that I would say "YES. DEAL WITH IT!"
Also, even though you judged me about the whole shortening thing, I would not be judging you if you stole a few tastes of the dough. Or the frosting.
Oh the frosting.
Please be adding orange food coloring into your frosting so as to get the whole, beautifully delectable, orangey effect.

Orange Kissed Cookies

1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. butter-flavored shortening
1 egg
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (add another 2 tablespoons for high altitudes)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. thawed orange juice concentrate
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest

Frosting1 tsp. grated orange zest
1/4 c.  thawed orange juice concentrate
1/2 c. softened butter
3 c. powdered sugar
2-3 drops orange food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a mixer, combine the white sugar and shortening.  Beat until well-combined.  Add the egg and beat well, then add the sour cream and vanilla and beat for about 1 minute or until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Add the orange juice concentrate and orange rind and mix well.

Using a cookie scoop, drop the dough/batter (the mixture will be VERY moist–thicker than a cake batter but thinner than traditional cookies) by the tablespoon-ful onto a lined, un-greased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are set and just starting to turn golden brown around the edges.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

For the frosting, combine the frosting ingredients with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Pipe or spread over the cooled cookies.

Yield: Approximately 36 cookies.

I got nothin' to add to this recipe. Isn't that great? Oh wait! I didn't let mine sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. They got too brown on the bottom for my liking. I took them off after about 2 minutes.

Less talky, more pictures!

The dough is going to be something between cake batter and cookie dough consistencies.

They're not going to be all the same shape (unless your OCD, which I'm not?). I would recommend being a TINY bit OCD however, and smoothing out the pieces of dough that stick up, or...

You'll end up with little brown pieces that bake faster than the rest of the cookie. If this happens, feel free to break them off and munch on them. If you want.

ORANGE COOKIES!!!!

Oh also, I had about two tablespoons orange zest leftover. Did you know you can freeze citrus zest for a few months and it's totally fine???? Freeze it in tablespoon sized portions, pull it out when you need it, and there you go. Awesome.

Recipe Source: Our Best Bites