orange Archives - The Midnight Baker

Chewy Cranberry Orange Cookies

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:53 +0000

These chewy cranberry orange cookies are so addictive, you can’t stop at just one.

Cranberry Orange Cookies

You love the flavors in the quick bread and now enjoy the same cranberry orange flavor in a cookie!

Cranberry and orange are one of my favorite flavor combinations. It lends itself to a lot of dishes–sweet and savory. If you love the bread of the same flavor, you’ll flip for these cookies.

The basic batter can be used for any multitude of flavors and/or add-ins. That’s a real timesaver at holiday time. One basic batter, many different cookies. You can’t beat that.

And yes, they’re eggless.

The Secret Of Chewy

It’s not much of a secret once you know it! You can make any cookie chewy by doing just one thing: adding a teaspoon of cornstarch to every cup of flour called for. That’s it in a nutshell.

I like chewy cookies–always have–but especially now that my teeth are failing me. Crispy and dense is an accident waiting to happen (at least right now for me), so I love using this little trick with my cookies.

Since you can make any multitude of flavors just using this basic batter, anything you want to not have the chewy texture, merely leave the cornstarch out of the batter. It’ll work.

Better With Age

As if being delicious and easy wasn’t enough, these cookies get better as they sit.

Naturally, that’s because the essential oils in the orange zest need to mellow to get great flavor. So try very hard not to eat all of them the first day. That’s going to be hard, but trust me on this one. They’ll be better the day after. They’re also a good keeper as long as they’re stored air-tight. My best guess is they’ll last about a month stored that way. As I said, it’s a guess because I’ve never had these hanging around that long. In a couple of days, they’re usually solid gone!

The Recipe

Print Recipe Add to Recipe Box

Chewy Cranberry Orange Cookies

Delicious and addictive cranberry orange cookies everyone will love

Prep Time20

Cook Time12

Course: cookies, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cookies for Santa, cookies that store well, cranberries in cookies, soft chewy cookies with fruit

Servings: 12

Calories: 358kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbs grated orange zest
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries i.e. Craisins

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven. To 350F/180C. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment
Beat cream cheese, butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and orange zest, beat to combine.
Mix the flour, salt, soda and corn starch and add to the cream cheese mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
Fold in the dried cranberries.
Drop by heaping tablespoonful onto prepared sheets, spacing about 1-in/2.5cm apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges just begin to become golden brown. Leave on the sheets for about a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Makes about 18-24 cookies.

Notes

For UK readers--light brown sugar is light muscovado sugar in UK

Video

Nutrition

The post Chewy Cranberry Orange Cookies appeared first on The Midnight Baker.

Orange & Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 23:00:17 +0000

A secret ingredient makes these cookies special and as a result make a cookie chewy.

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

There’s not too many people who don’t love a delicious chocolate chip cookie.

And chocolate chip cookie lovers will flip over these because they are rich and chewy. They get additional great flavor from rich dark chocolate and citrusy orange. .

These cream cheese chocolate chip cookies are just full of surprises because you will never believe what they contain and by the same token, what they don’t.

Apart from the surprises, they’re ultra easy to make and do not require the dough to be chilled as many cookies containing cream cheese require.

Make A Cookie Chewy

Want to make a cookie chewy? Add a bit of cornstarch. Yes. Cornstarch.

You don’t add much. All it takes is one teaspoon per cup of flour to make a cookie chewy. It also seems to stop the cookies getting hard and brittle. Of course these cookies are so good, they won’t last long enough to get stale. So that’s something that requires little worry.

The orange zest may be left out if you like and make it a good old plain chocolate chip cookie and of course, you can use any variety of chocolate morsels you wish. I just have this “thing” about dark chocolate and orange.

Yes, It’s Eggless

Surprisingly, there isn’t a trace of any egg in these cookies. This make it a good choice if you have someone with an egg allergy.

I was dubious about the egg bit when I first tried the original recipe. I adapted Mary’s recipe because I like the fact that you don’t have to chill this cookie dough for hours. I want cookies when I want them and cooling (no pun) my heels for an hour or more doesn’t excite me.

The Recipe

Print Recipe Add to Recipe Box

Chewy Orange & Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies

An upscale chocolate chip cookie with a secret ingredient

Prep Time20

Cook Time12

Course: cookies, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cream cheese cookies, gourmet chocolate chip cookies, how to make cookies chewy

Servings: 12

Calories: 464kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs grated orange zest
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
12 oz dark chocolate chips 60% cacao

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven. To 350F/180C. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment
Beat cream cheese, butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and orange zest, beat to combine.
Mix the flour, salt, soda and corn starch and add to the cream cheese mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overtax.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Drop by heaping tablespoonful onto prepared sheets, spacing about 1-in/2.5cm apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges just begin to become golden brown. Leave on the sheets for about a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Makes about 18-24 cookies.

Nutrition

The post Orange & Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies appeared first on The Midnight Baker.

Orange Ginger Cornish Hens

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 23:00:59 +0000

Cornish hens with a tangy orange ginger flavor. Small chickens work with this too!

Any Poultry Works

Who remembers when frying chickens were 3 pounds and under? Heck, I can remember when they were 19 cents per pound–and that was the regular price–but I digress.

The original recipe called for poussins, which are very young and small chickens, I opted to use Cornish game hens in this orange Cornish hens recipe. Cornish hens are approximately the same size as a poussin. However, if you can find very small young chickens (and you can but it’s difficult) then by all means use them in this recipe. Regardless, any chicken parts will work here, they just need a longer cooking time.

Spatchcock Easily

Since you use small chickens or Cornish game hens in this recipe, the poultry is more or less cooked “whole,” and spatchcocked.

Spachcocking is removing the backbone and flattening out the bird. This isn’t an easy task if done with a knife–even a very sharp one. I know; I’ve tried. Believe it or not, I never owned a set of poultry shears so I treated myself to this pair. Well, this old bird (pun intended) found out what I’ve been missing all the years I didn’t have a pair in my kitchen. They work like a dream and if you love chicken as much as I do, then treat yourself to a pair.

The Gravy

All I can say is, “Oh my!”

The gravy is the best part of this orange ginger Cornish hen dinner. And even better, the gravy makes itself.

It grabs all the flavor from the juices, then slowly reduces in the final cooking time. Because it reduces, the flavors become very concentrated so there’s a definite citrusy flavor and the ginger intensifies that flavor as well.

This is one meal you’ll make often because the family is going to love this!

The Recipe

Print Recipe Add to Recipe Box

Orange Ginger Cornish Hens

Easy to make Cornish hens and the gravy is to die for!

Prep Time25

Cook Time35

Marinate1 6

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: British

Keyword: Asian chicken recipe, cornish hen recipe, ginger chicken, orange chicken

Servings: 6

Calories: 543kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3 Cornish game hens
1 tbs honey
1 rounded tbs cornstarch
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the marinade:

1 1/2 cups orange juice
3 large garlic cloves crushed
2 tbs olive oil
4 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs chopped sage plus extra leaves to garnish
2 tsp thyme leaves
1 tbs coarsely grated fresh ginger

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

First cut the backbone out of each Cornish hen. Place the birds, breast-side down, on a chopping board and, using a sharp pair of kitchen scissors or shears, cut along either side of the bone to remove completely. Turn over and flatten the hens by pressing down with your hand over the breast bone.
Combine all the marinade ingredients and place in a large, resealable freezer bag with the hens. Seal the bag and leave to marinate in the fridge for about 24 hours.
When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200C).
Take the birds out of the bag, reserving the marinade to make the sauce. Arrange them, breast-side up, in a large roasting tin and drizzle over the honey.
Place in the oven to roast for about 20 minutes. Measure the cornstarch into a small bowl, add the marinade and mix until smooth. Pour the marinade over the hens and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cut each bird in half along the breast bone. Strain the juices left in the tin to make a sauce, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Serve half a hen per person, with some of the sauce spooned over.

Notes

May also be made with regular but small chicken parts. Large parts require a longer cooking time (around 50 minutes)

Adapted from Mary Berry.

Nutrition

*Post contains affiliate links

The post Orange Ginger Cornish Hens appeared first on The Midnight Baker.

Orange Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Judith Hannemann — Thu, 11 May 2017 23:00:17 +0000

Not only will your family love these chocolate chip and orange muffins, but they’ll flip at the cheesecake filling.

Who Doesn’t Love Chocolate Chip Muffins?

Big bakery style chocolate chip muffins are a perennial favorite. They’re wonderful just plain, but can they be made even better? You betcha!

All you do is add a bit of cheesecake filling.

Make ‘Em Big

I always make Texas-sized muffins just because I like huge muffins!

Obviously, there’s more to eat, but bigger muffins make a better presentation. Therefore, the advice I give anyone is always have a regular-size pan on hand because it’s useful for more than muffins, but buy the big pans too. Once you’ve gone “big” you probably won’t go back to regular.

In fact now when I look at muffins made in a standard pan, they look sad and skimpy. As far as “portion control,” if you’re concerned then eat half and store the other half for later. Problem solved!

Orange And Chocolate

Orange and dark chocolate are a very tasty combination. If you’ve ever had a Terry’s Chocolate Orange at Christmastime, you know what I mean.

If you’ve never tried this combination, I encourage you to do so because I’m sure you’ll love it. But these muffins are equally as good if you don’t add the orange accents.

Do make sure to use the dark semi-sweet morsels. Milk chocolate will give you less flavor impact. You may use regular-sized chips, but you will have to double the amount. I use mini morsels almost exclusively for baking, and there’s a couple of reasons for this. First, minis seem to disperse much better in a batter so you can use half the amount of regular morsels called for in a recipe. Also since it’s half the amount, it’s also half the fat–and that’s in any recipe where you replace regular morsels with mini. Because they do disperse better, you won’t feel shortchanged on chocolate flavor. When I fist heard this tip about 25 years ago, I was skeptical, but it’s true and I’ve done it ever since.

The Recipe

Print Recipe Add to Recipe Box

Orange Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Not only will your family love these chocolate chip and orange muffins, but they’ll flip at the cheesecake filling.

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Total Time40

Course: Breakfast, Brunch, desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cheesecake muffins, chocolate chips, oranges

Servings: 6 (12)

Calories: 721kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

MUFFINS

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted & cooled slightly
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk or buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp grated orange zest
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

FILLING

8 oz cream cheese softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour

SANDING coarse sugar for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray or line (with paper or parchment cups) a 6-cup Texas/Supersize muffin tin or a 12-cup regular muffin tin.
In a small bowl, beat together the filling ingredients; set aside.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips to a large bowl and stir to combine.
In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, eggs. milk, vanilla and orange zest.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
Place about 1-2 tbs (use the lesser amount if making regular-size muffins) of the batter in each cup. Divide the filling equally between all the cups.
Divide remaining batter between all the cups. Sprinkle with about 1 tsp sanding sugar if desired.
Bake for 5 minutes at 425 then reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F and continue baking for 12-15 minutes for REGULAR muffins and 15-20 minutes for TEXAS muffins.

Nutrition

The post Orange Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins appeared first on The Midnight Baker.

Maple Orange Glazed Roasted Carrots & Parsnips

Judith Hannemann — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 23:00:39 +0000

Slow roasted carrots and parsnips glazed with a sweet maple orange sauce. A great autumn side dish.

The Flavors Of Autumn

When fall arrives, my vegetable thoughts go to squash and root veggies.

This side dish is flavored with one of autumn’s leading flavors–maple. I love orange and maple together as a flavor combination, but if you’d like a hint of warm spiciness, then a pinch or two of cinnamon would be wonderful in this. If you do parsnips alone, try adding a pinch of ground cloves since it goes so well with this vegetable.

Save Energy

Roasting is a great way to cook a lot of vegetables and is perfect for root vegetables in particular. The process is very simple because all you do is peel the vegetables if necessary and just toss them with a bit of olive oil. Another benefit of this cooking method is if you are preparing a roast, the veggies can go in the oven along with the meat. Saves energy too!

Alternate Veggies

I used carrots because I had quite a lot of them, but I bought the parsnips specially for this. I love parsnips and often serve them with pork.

You can use most any root vegetable in this dish. Butternut and/or any of the winter squashes would be good here. And don’t forget sweet potatoes! I flavored my Maple Cinnamon Orange Sweet Potatoes that I make during the summer on the grill in a similar way.

The Recipe

Print Recipe Add to Recipe Box

Maple Orange Glazed Roasted Carrots & Parsnips

Slow roasted carrots and parsnips glazed with a sweet maple orange sauce. A great autumn side dish.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Comfort Foods, side dishes, vegetarian dishes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: carrots, maple glaze, parsnips, roasted vegetables

Servings: 4 -6

Calories: 299kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

2 cups carrots peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 cups parsnips peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

SAUCE / GLAZE

1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp grated orange zest
Pinch of cinnamon or cloves optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place carrots and parsnips in a large bowl. Add the olive oil and toss to coat.
Lay veggies in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Stir and turn the vegetables half way during the cooking time so they roast evenly.
Place maple syrup, butter, orange zest and spices (if using) in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat stirring until butter is melted. Reduce the heat to low and let the sauce reduce to a syrupy glaze. This should take about 5 minutes.
You can either toss the roasted veggies with the glaze or serve it on the side so your guests can add their own.

Nutrition

The post Maple Orange Glazed Roasted Carrots & Parsnips appeared first on The Midnight Baker.

Orange Pecan Streusel Coffee Cakes

Judith Hannemann — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Orange Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake

Just a few additions to a simple yellow cake mix produces this outstanding streusel coffee cake.

I found this recipe a few years ago on a top-brand cake mix site, but it was for one of their flavored mixes that I happened to have.

Delicious orange undertones make this a great cake

The cake came out OK, but I wasn’t really wild about the flavor. The orange cake mix had a weird and artificial orange flavor which killed the deal for me. But I thought the cake has some possibilities if made with a plainer yellow cake mix and a few naturally flavored ingredients. So I do what I usually do under the circumstances–channel my friend Lori’s mom, Janet Krouslis–the ORIGINAL “Cake Doctor.” Mrs Krouslis was doctoring cake mixes long before it became so popular.

First, I didn’t use any cake mix for the streusel crumbs–I made my own with flour and real butter. Plus I added some fresh orange zest and slightly toasted pecans. You don’t have to toast the pecans–it’s fine made with ones right out of the bag.

Even the icing is delicious and orangy

I also used a more neutrally flavored cake mix–yellow. In this particular cake, I used French vanilla flavored pudding as I was out of the regular, and I substituted 1/2 the sour cream with low-fat Greek yogurt (because…you guessed it–I ran out of sour cream). Turned out FINE. You can substitute 1 for 1 Greek yogurt for sour cream in any recipe.

Because of it’s orange undertones, this makes a great breakfast cake. Make it and watch it disappear!

Print Recipe Add to Recipe Box

Orange Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake

Just a few additions to a simple yellow cake mix produces this outstanding streusel coffee cake. This recipe makes 2 coffee cakes.

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Total Time1 10

Course: desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: coffee cake, orange pecan coffee cake, streusel topping

Servings: 24 people

Calories: 232kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

For the Cake:

18 oz yellow cake mix
4 eggs
3 oz instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup oil

For the Streusel:

1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup pecans
2 tsp orange zest

For the Glaze:

1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2-3 tbsp heavy cream or half-and-half
1/2 tsp orange extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 small (8 x 4 x 3-inch) loaf pans.
Combine all streusel ingredients in a food processor. Process until nuts are coarsely chopped. Set aside.
Combine cake mix, instant pudding, sour cream and oil in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for 2 minutes.
Divide 1/2 of the batter between the 2 pans, spreading out evenly. Sprinkle 1/4 of the streusel filling on top of batter in each pan. Divide the remaining batter on top of the 2 pans. Top each with remaining streusel.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cakes from pan and cool completely on a rack.
Mix glaze ingredients, using only enough cream to make a thick but pourable mixture. Drizzle over cakes.
Makes 2 loaf cakes.

Nutrition

Orange Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake

Follow The Midnight Baker Food, Glorious Food #7 on Pinterest

The post Orange Pecan Streusel Coffee Cakes appeared first on The Midnight Baker.