Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 1/2-2 tablespoons (fresh) coarse minneola* zest
1 teaspoon five spice powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
8 oz semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg, zest and vanilla paste and combine thoroughly. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until a very thick dough forms. Fold in the chips. Form cookies by dropping 1 teaspoon of dough (I use my on the sheet two inches apart. Flatten slightly then bake until light brown, about 12 minutes. Remove (using a flat turner or spatula) to a wire rack to cool.
One tip: The center of these cookies should look slightly soft (but not shiny) when they are ready to be taken out of the oven. The trick is to take them out when their bottoms are just lightly brown-generally at exactly 12 minutes. They will set up as they cool. If the cookies are large, slide them out on the parchment paper and allow them to cool 1-2 minutes on the parchment on the wire rack before removing the parchment and allowing them to cool directly on the wire rack.
*From one minneola tangelo. You can sub in tangerine or orange zest
My thoughts:
This weather (still snowing and icing in March, really?) has my cooking down. I keep having to scramble together to make dinner and haven’t been super inspired. Then I had a sunny respite in Orlando attending the Food Blog Forum where I ate and drank my way through all of the countries in Epcot except Morroco and England. So fun and food-inspiring! Unfortunately, I had to return to Baltimore just in time for an ice storm and now snow. My savory ideas will have to wait. I did have all the ingredients for cookies on hand so I whipped this up this dreary afternoon. I added a bit of sunshine by way of the tangelo zest and since I love citrus with five spice powder, I tossed some in too. I added chocolate chips because, why not? I like non-chocolate cookies but honestly, I always want a bit of chocolate after eating one. Don’t you? Try these cookies when you need a bit of a pick-me-up.
