Chocolate Orange Crisps

I made these cookies for a jazz concert reception tomorrow. I have experimented with using orange, cinnamon and chocolate together before and had great results (check out this recipe). I hope you enjoy these crisp, flavorful treats.

Chocolate Orange Crisps
1 cup softened, unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbs roughly grated orange peel (a cheese grater would work better than a fine grater for this)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/3 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
for the glaze:
the juice of one orange
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the butter and sugar with the zest in a mixing bowl until creamed. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, until all ingredients are incorporated.
Roll the dough into ping-pong sized balls and press them onto a prepared pan with at least 3/4" of space inbetween each one. They will spread slightly. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crispy. Let cool on a drying rack and then glaze.
To prepare the glaze, fill a measuring cup most of the way with powdered sugar. Squeeze the orange into the powdered sugar. stirring until you have reached the desired consistency. A ratio with more powdered sugar will be thicker and will look more opaque on the cookie. A thin glaze will just leave the cookie looking glossy. Once the glaze looks right, I like to set my drying rack over a cookie sheet with parchment on it (the one I just baked with usually) and pour the glaze over the cookies. That way, the glaze will drip onto the parchment, which makes cleanup much more manageable.
Allow the glaze to set and enjoy.

Oranges in Blossom Syrup

I have a presentation in French class tomorrow morning. My group is doing a 35 minute presentation about Morocco in French. Since I'll be talking about music, fashion and food, I offered to do a Moroccan recipe. Another girl in my group will be making an orangey cake, so I opted to make these oranges in blossom syrup to add to our sweet Moroccan breakfast.
I got the recipe from this gorgeous book that I bought a while back. It's called "Made in Morocco" by Julie Le Clerc, who I have since realized is a prolific food writer. The book not only has great recipes, but facts about different towns and regions and the foods and spices that each region is famous for. I increased the recipe slightly for my presentation and for future use since I have a large family!
I got the cute spoon in the picture a month ago at a cute shop in Berkeley, called Maison d'Etre.
Orange flower water often tastes very strong and perfume-y, but this delicate syrup only heightens the floral notes in the oranges.

Oranges in Blossom Syrup
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbs orange flower water
1 1/2 cups cold water
6 oranges, peeled and sliced

Place the sugar, honey, water, cinnamon and blossom water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Simmer gently until reduced by half.
Place the orange slices in a bowl and pour over the hot syrup. Set aside to cool and infuse the oranges with flavor.

Chocolat Movie Night! Part 2

This post has been moved to tiramipursuit's new site.

Lemon Hummingbird Cookies

Today my mom officially adopted me at the courthouse, which is funny because I am leaving in a week for college! But better late than never! (:
She loves hummingbirds and I like them too, so I made these lemon hummingbird cookies. I adapted the recipe from this awesome book called Paris Patisseries. The book is real eye candy, just gorgeous photographs of famous patissier's creations in Paris. Find it in my books section.

Big turnout from the family (+Max)

Silly balloons my aunt brought.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup + 2 tbs butter, unsalted and softened to room temperature
1 pinch of salt
the zest of a lemon
the zest of a small orange

Blend the sugar, butter and zests together. Add the salt and flour and mix. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Prep three cookie sheets with parchment. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface (it may be crumbly and need to be warmed a little with kneading) to 1/2" thickness or so. Flour the top lightly and begin to punch out your shapes. Place the cookies on the sheets with a little room around them, they don't expand much but they do puff up. Bake until light gold.
Let cool, then drizzle with icing and sugar. I made my icing by adding a little bit of lemon juice and water to a couple cups of powdered sugar, then drizzled it with my fingers over the cookies. Then my boyfriend helped by sprinkling the sugar over the top! (:
C'est fini! Bon appetit mes amis! <3