Recipe: Chocolate Orange Cookies

Chocolate is delicious – we all know that. But one of the things I love most about chocolate is how you can combine it with so many other flavours and make it taste even better. I love experimenting with different brownie flavours because it’s pretty much impossible to get it wrong: add almost anything to a brownie recipe, and you’ll only enhance the flavour and make it taste more delicious (within limits, of course).

I’ve thought about this long and hard, but I think my favourite combination is probably chocolate and orange. There’s just something about the chocolate orange combo that makes me very happy (and very hungry, now that I’m typing this). I know not everyone is a fan, but I absolutely adore it.

That’s why I decided to make these chocolate orange cookies. You can’t really see it from the outside, but there’s lots of fresh orange zest and just a little bit of orange juice within these chocolate cookies to kick the flavour up a notch. If, like me, you’re a fan of the chocolate orange combination, I definitely recommend giving these a try (or use the search bar to find the many other chocolate orange recipes on this blog)! 

You’ll need… (for 16-20 cookies)

• 125 g butter (softened)
• 160 g light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• zest of 1 big orange (or 2 small ones)
• 1 tablespoon orange juice (from the orange you just zested)
• 220 g plain flour
• 35 g cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 100 g dark chocolate chips
• parchment paper
• baking tray
• and an oven of course! These cookies need to be baked at 180 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1. Mix butter and sugar Put the softened butter and the light brown sugar in a bowl and mix them together until you’ve got a nice creamy consistency. You can use a wooden spoon, which works perfectly fine for the entire recipe, but you can also use a hand or stand mixer with dough hooks, which does make things easier.

2. Add egg, zest and juice Once the butter and sugar are nicely mixed together, add your egg, as well as the orange juice and zest to the mixture and mix together again.

3. Add baking soda, cornstarch, salt, chocolate chips, cocoa powder and flour Time to add the dry ingredients. Firstly, add the baking soda, the cornstarch, the salt and the chocolate chips, and mix them all through. Then, sieve the flour and cocoa powder about the bowl (preferably in parts) and mix all of it through. You’ll have a nice, solid dough at this point.

4. Let the dough rest in the fridge Now, this is going to take some time, because if you want the best flavour for your cookie, it’s best to let the dough rest for at least 5 hours (I usually make the dough in the evening and then bake the cookies the next morning). Just put the entire ball of dough in the fridge in a bowl wrapped with cling film. 

5. Divide dough in balls over baking tray Line your baking tray with parchment paper, and then transfer the dough in little balls to the baking tray. Gently press them down a bit, so they are not entirely round. Leave enough room between the clumps of dough, because they will spread out quite a bit. 

6. Bake! Put your baking tray into the oven and bake the cookies for 14 to 16 minutes at 180 °C. Since these cookies are dark brown, it’ll be difficult to see if they’re properly done (since you can’t check for golden brown edges), so you’ll have to trust the baking time. Also remember that cookies always toughen up when they’re cooling down, so don’t bake them until they feel hard and solid – they’ll come out very overbaked. Take the tray out of the oven and let the cookies cool on the tray for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack (or a plate).

And that’s it! You’ve got your own chocolate orange cookies. Enjoy!