Sunday 1 November 2009

Milk Chocolate and Orange Cookies - Sweet and Simple Bakes

Happy November everyone! Where exactly has this year gone? - I can't believe it's November already and time for the next installment of Sweet and Simple Bakes! Maria has chosen a cookie recipe for us this month, and I have to admit to being a little unsure about cookies. Cakes, yes, cookies, hmmm, maybe. It's not that I don't like eating them, more that I'm just not very good at making them. I have a tendency to over-bake them and they come out too crispy and not as soft as I'm hoping for. Perhaps the cure for this is just to bake lots and lots of cookies! Doesn't seem such an onerous task does it! So let's start with the Sweet and Simple recipe. You can find the recipe here, at the Sweet and Simple recipe blog and be sure to check out the round up, published tomorrow at the Sweet and Simple bakes blog, here.

As with all of the sweet and simple recipes these were easy to put together, once I'd remembered to leave the butter out of the fridge to soften (difficult when my kitchen is so cold that the butter stays hard anyway!). I decided to use milk chocolate, as I sometimes find white chocolate too sweet and I thought milk chocolate would go well with the orange flavour. My absolute preference would have been dark chocolate (70% or so) but I know this isn't that popular at work and didn't want to have to eat the whole batch myself! These really spread a lot during baking, so be sure to leave adequate room between them for expansion. If you don't you'll end up with one ginormous cookie, as shown below.....oops!!!


Cookie sheet!!!

Luckily I was baking in two batches, so managed to get some normal shaped cookies too! So what were they like? Well, they seemed to go pretty well at work, and were very nice. But I feel that I did succumb to my old weakness of cooking them for too long as they were mostly crunch with very little chew. This is a perfectly nice recipe, but my quest for the perfect cookie has just begun. Stay tuned.......

Perfect cookie!

17 comments:

Katie said...

The cookies sound yummy. I don't think it matters about the cookie sheet, that way you can eat one mega cookie! Good luck on your cookie quest

Chele said...

How good do they look! Even the cookie sheet which would be my prefered method for consumption anyway ;0)

I've not had the chance to make these yet!!! Hoping to get some whipped up in and in the oven today so I can post tonight, so I'll keep your 'spreading' comments in mind.

Janice said...

Cookies look great. I've been there with the giant cookie lol! Yes, the only answer is to keep making them till you get them right, your oven will be a factor too, mine is very hot, so I always have to reduce the temperature and the time.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous! Don't complain: a giant cookie like that could satisfy many a hungry student!

Rosie of BooksAndBakes

The Caked Crusader said...

"one ginormous cookie"...I've been trying to think of a downside and simply can't!!!

Maria♥ said...

Your cookies look lovely!

Thanks for taking part and hope you will join us in our next bake.

Maria
x

Johanna GGG said...

It was helpful to me to bake cookies with a friend who told me to take them out after the time on the recipe even though I thought they needed more cooking - I remember his advice every now and again when baking cookies - it is not intuitive but it worked

Anonymous said...

Cookies look perfect.

lilmizlynn said...

Cant complaint about the gaint cookie!! Your cookies look great. Good luck on your cookie quest!!!

Lucie said...

Your cookies look delicious.
I loved these!
Best wishes
Lucie x
http://cookingatmarystow.blogspot.com/

Choclette said...

Mine spread all over the place too, but they still look delicious.

Joanne said...

When I bake high sugar content cookies that tends to happen and I hate spreading them farther apart because then it means more baking sheets to use. I simply make nice cuts around the spread cookies while they are still warm.
Besides, when they don't turn out so pretty, I get to eat them myself. :)

Your cookies turned out super in any event.

Lisa said...

LOL at your cookie sheet! Your second batch look so perfect. Looking forward to trying the milk choc version too. Lovely blog! :)

Min said...

Mine didn't spread at all! (but I always have issues converting from metric) Yours look delicious. And, when in doubt UNDERbake! I always bake for the minimum time, and rarely have too-crunchy cookies (unless they're supposed to be crunchy!) If they're too soft to get off the pan, let them sit there for a few minutes before removing them. Hope this helps!

The Bad Girl's Kitchen

Cookie said...

One perfect cookie, indeed.

Beside the baking time, I made mine chewy by replacing some white sugar with brown sugar. Hope you try it out.

Cheers!

Chats the Comfy Cook said...

What a wonderful quest to have. It has to be fun all the way. Even "bad" cookies usually taste good unless you burn them to acrisp. I am a star at that except I do it with cakes. You missed some of my cakes which were so dark, they could only be seen as to shape and certainly no texture.

Good luck with this venture and enjoy every cookie you eat and every one you give away.

Dips said...

Your cookies look great and I think something creative could be done out of the cookie sheet..remember Miranda's big 'I Love you' cookie in SATC...Its an art !

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