WC Holiday Sweets Exchange--Chocolate Dipped Orange Butter Cookies

This is my first year as a WC Nestie, and I was VERY excited to participate in the recipe exchanges. When I got this recipe, I was thrilled, because it seemed easy and fun--and it was.

I made these for a dinner at Walter's office. Hopefully they will be a big hit. Walter stole a couple today when he came home from lunch and loved them.

Chocolate Dipped Orange Butter Cookies



Before I begin, I have to gush. This dough was the BEST cookie dough I have ever worked with. It was so easy to handle and work with, it smelled wonderful, it cooked easily--I was absolutely thrilled with it all around. The cookies themselves were also great--fluffy, with just the right amount of orange without being overpowering. I will definitely be making these (and non-orange variations) often.

I did make one change to the recipe, but it was more presentation than anything. Instead of rolling the dough into tubes and cutting circles for the cookies, I rolled out the dough and used a star-shaped cookie cutter. I also found that I needed about 1 ounce more of each of the chocolates, but I think that is because the star-shapes took a little more coverage than the regular circles would have. I cannot stress how much I LOVE this recipe.



Ingredients
-1 cup butter
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 egg
-1 tsp pure vanilla extract
-1/2 tsp pure orange extract
-2 1/3 cups flour
-3 tbsp coarse sugar
-2 oz bittersweet chocolate
-2 oz semi-sweet chocolate

Directions
1. Cream butter. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla and orange extracts. Gradually beat in flour.
2. Roll the dough into logs about 2 inches in diameter, wrap them in clear plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours. When thoroughly chilled, slice the dough with a sharp knife into 1/4″-thick discs. (I only chilled it for about two hours, and then I rolled it out and cut it with the star cutter. Then I chilled the cutouts overnight)
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cookies on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. (I used red and green sugars for this, but I think orange would look nice since they are orange cookies)
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove pans immediately and place on wire rack to cool. After a few minutes, take the cookies off the pan and move them to wire racks to cool completely.
5. While cookies cool, heat chocolate in a double boiler. After cookies are cooled, dip them halfway into the melted chocolate and place on parchment paper to cool.