Orange Cookies

So, I’m not always a huge fan of fruit. Aside from bananas, I definitely don’t eat it fresh. I know, I know….I’m supposed to. Blah blah blah health, blah blah blah vitamins. But they just don’t taste good. I’m sorry, but you know it’s true.

Now, throw some sugar and some vanilla and some flour and what have you into the mix. NOW you’re talking fruit I can get behind.

These orange cookies are super simple to make (like, let your kids make them simple). And, they have fruit so they of course count as a serving of fruit on any “watching what you eat” program you’re on. (if I had a lawyer here’s where they’d tell me to add a disclaimer in here that this is not at all verified, but I don’t so as far as I know I’m right.)

So make these and marvel at the good choices you’re making in your life!

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

· ½ cup shortening

· 1 cup sugar

· 1 egg, brought to room temperature

· ½ cup buttermilk

· 1/2t vanilla

· 2 ½ cups flour

· 1 ¼ t baking soda

· 1 ¼ t baking powder

· ¼ t salt

· 1/2 cup orange juice

· 1 T + 1 t orange zest (these last two are basically the juice and zest of one decent-sized orange)

Icing

· 2 ½ cups powdered sugar

· ¼ cup orange juice

· 1 T orange zest

· 1 T butter, softened to room temperature

· ½ t vanilla

· ¼ t salt

Directions

Like I said above, these are really simple. We’ll start with the cookie part. Mix the shortening and sugar until they’re smooth. Then, add in the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and mix that until everything is well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients – the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until they’re well combined. Then, alternate mixing your dry ingredients and your orange juice and zest, mixing well after each addition until everything is in the batter.

Bake the cookies at 350 for about 10-12 minutes, or until they start to get a little golden brown on the edges. Remove from the oven, let them rest on the cookie sheets a couple minutes and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Next the icing – even simpler than the cookies. But, one thing – make sure the cookies are completely cooled before you ice them. If you ice them while they’re still warm the icing will just slide off in a sticky, gross mess.

For the icing, just plop all the ingredients – powdered sugar, orange juice, orange zest, butter, vanilla and salt into a bowl and mix until well combined. Seriously, that’s it. Ice the cookies and serve!