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 1/2 tablespoons Tuaca
2 tablespoons coarse Cara Cara orange zest*
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup 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 Tuaca 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 heaping teaspoon of dough two inches apart. Flatten slightly then bake until light brown, about 12 minutes. Slide them out on the parchment paper on to a wire rack 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.

*Or regular oranges. I use this to coarsely zest my orange.

My thoughts:

I recieved some pretty pink Cara Cara oranges in my produce box a week or so again. I was just going to eat them but then I was reminded of those chocolate oranges they sell this time of year and thought I’d make some cookies inspired by that instead. Orange and chocolate are a classic combination. Cara Cara oranges are extra sweet and less acidic than some varieties of orange so they make the perfect zest for cookies. The Tuaca adds a bit of richness and a hint of orange that went great with the coarse orange zest and didn’t fade after baking like fresh orange juice can. The best part is that these cookies were in the oven in only 10 minutes. They bake for 12 and once they cool for a few minutes, they are ready to eat. Fresh cookies ready to eat in under 40 minutes? Yes, please!