Blood Orange Crinkle Cookies

My friend Jean the lovely mastermind behind the scrumptious Lemons and Anchovies kept teasing me on Instagram with her Lemon Cookies she was cranking out.  Not fair I tell you when you are sitting down with your cup of tea and not a lemon in sight to make such glorious treats.

Lucky for me I had a couple of blood oranges sitting on the counter waiting for something good to happen to them.

A few tweaks here and there and my tea was no longer lonely.

Ingredients:
1½ cups (7½ ounces) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup powdered sugar
1¼ cups (8¾ ounces) granulated sugar
4 teaspoons grated blood orange zest

4 tablespoons blood orange juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, and cooled
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk 

1-2 drops red food coloring (optional, but the cookies will be much paler in color without it)

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350° F and line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl and set aside. 

Process granulated sugar and orange zest in food processor until finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add melted butter, oil, orange juice, egg and yolk, and red food coloring and process until pale and thickened, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl with flour mixture and stir until incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.  Although I've found with this type of dough overnight chilling works best and then it is much easier and cleaner on the hands to roll.  

Roll a piece of dough about 1½ tablespoons into size into balls, toss in powdered sugar, and space them 2-inches apart on prepared sheets. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the cookies are cracked and set on top but still look moist within the cracks, about 10 to 12 minutes. Be sure to rotate the sheet halfway through baking.

Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 24-27 cookies.

Hot Dog Dude is usually my first line of taste testers and I busted out laughing when he told me, "These taste exactly like Fruity Pebbles!"  I haven't had that cereal since I was a kid, so I can't exactly confirm that.  Then again, I won't buy kids cereal for a grown man, so I think this means I am no longer the wretched wife who won't buy her husband children's cereal.  Either way I think I win here.

Either way you try these, in the lemon or blood orange I think you will be a winner too.

Enjoy,

Gina

Blood Orange Jam - Just One Jar

Everyone has been parading around blood oranges lately with reckless abandon.  The more I saw them, the more I wanted them.  Usually I've already found blood oranges at the market by now, scratch that; stalked the produce isle relentlessly till I've found the crimson beauties.  I peppered the produce guy with questions as to the where abouts of my favorite winter obsession.  I kinda got this strange feeling I was starting to bug him. Nah.

I even threw out a few names thinking it might ring a bell in his memory.  Surely you know Buttercream Blondi or Nami; they have both been spotted using blood oranges.  That's when I lost it; I knew he was holding out on me.  "Look Dude I don't want to have to get all up in your grill but quit hiding all the freaking blood oranges for yourself before I have to get ugly up in here." The next few moments were a complete blur and I have no idea why I was swiftly escorted out of the store at that point.

The fact I was shouting, "Don't you know who I am, I'm SPCookieQueen" or "Don't think I won't blog about this", probably wasn't helping the matter.  So I threw on some dark sunglasses, an over sized hat and slunk into another grocery store unnoticed.

Blood Orange Jam

5 blood oranges, medium sized (1 1/2 pounds)

Juice from 2 Meyer lemons

Zest from 2 of the blood oranges

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 teaspoons low-sugar pectin

Clean, empty one pint jar with a tight fitting lid

Wash and dry all of the oranges.  Zest two of the oranges and put the zest into a small saucepan.

Cut the top and bottom off of an orange, stand the orange up on the cut off end and cut away all the rind from the orange, don't leave any of the white pith behind.  Cut out the segments of flesh with a paring knife.  Squeeze the orange for the remaining juice and discard the membrane. Repeat.  Add the orange segments and lemon juice to the sauce pan.  Add sugar and pectin, stir.

Cook on medium low heat for 16-20 minutes until the jam is starting to thicken.  Stirring every few minutes, and turn down the heat if it is boiling too rapidly.

This recipe makes 1 pint of jam.  Put a seal and lid on the jar and store it in the fridge.

The jam never made it two days in this house due to the fact I made Becky's - Meyer Lemon Bread. Talk about a crazy good combination.

Note:  This jam sets up firm, if you want a little looser jam decrease the pectin to 2 teaspoons.  I just prefer mine a little thicker.

Meyer Lemon Bread - adapted slightly from Becky's recipe

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

Zest of 2 Meyer lemons

Juice of 2 Meyer lemons

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, or 325 degrees F for a glass pan.

In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter and sugar, till light and fluffy.  Add the 2 eggs, lemon zest and juice.  Beat well.  Add the flour, baking powder and milk, mix until combined.

Pour the batter into an 8"x4" pan sprayed with no-stick spray and dusted with flour.  Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I used a metal pan and Becky used a glass pan and hers took much longer, so don't worry if you use glass and it seems like it isn't cooking as fast.

The bread ends up being super lemony and has a nice moist cake like texture.

I'm hoping that if I drop in and bring the produce guy and store manager one of these cakes and a jar of jam that all will be forgiven and they let me start shopping there again.  Gosh I hope it works, I miss that store already.

Enjoy,

Gina