Cranberry Orange Cookie

this was an inspired bake... by Marks & Spencer.

a friend gave this to me (above) for xmas & i love the orangey punch of it...so it got me browsing cranberry orange cookie recipes online.

& i found this recipe...tweaked it here & there..& now, this is my adaptation:

Australia Oranges ($2.50 for 5 in Fairprice)


These Aussie oranges have an extraordinary zest; it filled my whole kitchen and cookie dough with a very strong zesty orange aroma.

I have used Navel oranges' zest, but the aroma and punch wasn't as strong as these.

2 cents worth for choosing oranges for bakes:
go for the Australian dark-orange variety.

all prep-up to go 

creaming the butter till smooth before adding in the icing sugar

if you noticed in the center picture (I was so preoccupied snapping pictures), I added flour-mixture first instead of the icing sugar, oopsy...but the batter should be look something like the last picture (above).

adding in the flavours !
dried cranberries, orange zest & vanilla essence

cookie dough would look like this

rolling up the dough into logs, cling-wrap & chill for 1 hour

heads up: it was a messy time cutting the logs into cookie slices
the cookie dough was very soft when it was first mixed up... I thought it'd get harder during chilling.. guess I should have added more flour so the dough would be harder & easier to cut, otherwise it'd be like mine...'melts' when you grab it to slice the dough logs.

so I had to pat these messy cut-up dough into circles to place on the baking trays. 

cookies baked

they smell fantastically orangey-good.

as inspired by Marks & Spencer ;)

Makes 40 cookies

Ingredients

- Butter, unsalted, softened, 230g

- Icing sugar, 110g

- Vanilla essence, 1 teaspoon

- Orange Zest, 1 1/2 tablespoon

- Cranberries, dried, 70g

- Plain flour, 235g

- Instant oats, 45g

- Baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon

- Salt, a pinch

Methods

1. Cream butter with an electronic mixer until smooth (about 1 minute on high speed).

2. Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

3. Add vanilla, orange zest and cranberries. 

4. Mix until just combined before adding in the flour, baking powder and salt until well-blended --> you'll get a very soft dough.

5. Seperate the dough into 2 portions and shape each one into a log (size of log depending on preference).

6. Cling-wrap it and chill for 1 hour.

7. Preheat oven to 175°C.

8. Remove cling-wrap and slice logs into 1/4-inch rounds.

9. Place on to the lined-baking trays, spacing 1-inch apart.

10. Bake ffor 12-15 minutes until golden at the sides.

11. Let cool almost completely.

How was it?
way too sweet. the oats taste/texture is not there at all. one of my least favourite bakes but I do love the zesty orange taste in this. that's about it. 

Better it up!
try 1 cup flour & 1 cup instant oats.
decrease sugar to 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (try to use fine granulated sugar - see if this makes the dough more firm..but if you like the shortbread kinda texture, go ahead stick to icing sugar)


The Verdict