[Photograph: Elizabeth Barbone]
I love orange-flavored chocolate. So when a friend asked me to make my “famous” orange-chocolate cookies for her bridal shower, I jumped at the chance. Her choice of cookie surprised me.
To quote Sandra Lee, these cookies are semi-homemade. I simply dip store-bought shortbread cookies in chocolate I’ve flavored with pure orange oil. I could bake the shortbread cookies from scratch of course, but since I do a lot of baking, I’m okay with taking the occasional shortcut. Especially when it makes it even easier to get my chocolate and orange fix.
For this recipe I use confectionery coating. Like any ingredient, quality varies greatly from brand to brand. I use Merckens candy coatings because they taste good and are gluten-free and tree nut/peanut-free. If you prefer to use real chocolate, remember to temper it before using.
Variation: Orange is my favorite but I really do like any citrus-flavoring with chocolate. For fun, I occasionally use colored white candy coatings for the cookies: yellow for lemon, light green for lime and, you guessed it, orange for orange. For the lemon cookies, I add a tiny pinch of granulated citric acid. This adds a small bite of tartness to the cookies without making them sour.
