Fresh Orange Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup orange juice
3 Tablespoons orange zest (about 5 or 6 oranges)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together sugar and butter. Add sour cream and eggs, then blend well. Add rest of ingredients and mix. Drop on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the tops aren’t shiny. Frost while slightly warm.

FROSTING
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
3 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons orange zest (2 oranges)
3-4 Tablespoons orange juice

Perfectly Soft Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
5 ½ cups flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1. In mixer, cream butter and sugar, and then add eggs and vanilla. Add sour cream.
2. In separate bowl combine salt, baking soda, and flour, then add to mixture.
3. Roll out on floured surface to about  1/4 to 1/3 inch thick. ** see Notes
4. Use a spatula to carefully slide under each cookie and place onto greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 7-8 minutes.  THEY WILL NOT LOOK DONE!  But don’t give in to your temptation to cook “just a little bit longer” or you will get crunchy cookies instead of soft, pillow-like cookies. If you have a golden brown color along the edges then you have baked them too long.
6. Wait about 5 minutes and then transfer carefully to a cooling rack. If you wait longer they will get soggy on the bottom and sometimes get stuck to the parchment paper. Once they are cooled they are ready for frosting

Here is a simple buttercream frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4-1/3 cup milk

**Notes and images for rolling out dough taken from glorioustreats.blogspot.com

These are paint stir sticks (available for free from the paint department of any hardware store). There is a product on the market called Perfection sticks, which are sticks that usually come in a set of a couple different thicknesses. They are designed to help you roll out the dough in a nice even thickness. Since I don’t own Perfection sticks, I just glued two paint stir sticks together, which makes about the perfect thickness for sugar cookies. (So you need 4 sticks total, since you need a double thick stick for each side of your dough.) If I want the dough a bit thinner, I just roll out the dough to the thickness of the sticks, then remove the sticks and roll just a bit thinner.

Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the dough. This helps you roll out the dough without adding additional flour (adding too much flour can make the dough a bit tough, and can create little pockets of flour in the dough that cause bumps to form on your cookies during baking, making it more difficult to decorate later).

No Bake Cookies

A favorite late-night treat! (Could this explain why our diet goals are hard to reach??)

2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup margarine (1 stick)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
3 cups oats (quick or regular)

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, cocoa, milk  and margarine.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
3. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
4. Stir in vanilla, salt, peanut butter and oats.
5. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper.
6. Allow cookies to cool for at least 1 hour.

Fresh Orange Cookies

This is my all-time favorite orange cookie! It’s a very moist and soft cookie (perhaps because of the sour cream?) with an orange glaze on the top. Unfortunately these cookies don’t stack well in a storage container – the glaze will come off on the bottom cookie – so be prepared to eat them fast, or give away a plateful to your friends and neighbors!

COOKIES:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup orange juice
3 Tbsp grated orange peel (about 3 oranges)

FROSTING:
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp grated orange peel (about 1 orange)
2-3 Tbsp orange juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

DIRECTIONS:

Cream together sugar and butter. Add sour cream and eggs. Blend well. Add rest of ingredients and mix.

Drop on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Frost while cookies are just warm. If they are too hot, the frosting will drip off.

**If frosting is too thick, add a little more orange juice. And if it’s too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.

World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Double Recipe:

1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 cup brown sugar
2 cup butter, softened
2 Tablespoon vanilla
4 large eggs, slightly beaten
6 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups milk chocolate chips (eyeball it)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, or 325 convection for multiple trays in one oven.
2. Cream sugars and butter (5 minutes on Bosch speed 2).
3. Add vanilla and eggs and mix well.
4. Combine dry ingredients together and gradually add to mixture.
5. Stir in chips by hand.
6. Roll into balls and place on non-stick cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Single Recipe:

3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk chocolate chips

Updated on September 1, 2023