Spiced Orange Cookie Recipe

At the recent cake decorators seminar in Sydney I demonstrated how to decorate a selection of my cookie designs – this relatively new idea to Australians seem to go down a treat so due to the multiple requests for a good recipe, I have copied below my favourite  from my ‘Bake me I’m yours… cookie’ book.

Spiced Orange Cookie Recipe
75g (3oz) butter
75g (3oz) soft brown sugar
30ml (2tbsp) honey
Zest from one orange
10ml (2 tsp) orange juice
225g (8oz) plain flour, sifted
5ml (1 tsp) bicarbonate soda
5ml (1 tsp) cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/ 325ºF/ Gas Mark 3
2. Place butter, sugar, honey, orange zest and juice in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and the butter melted.
3. Sieve the flour and dry ingredients in a bowl and add the melted ingredients. Mix well until the dough becomes firm.
4. Place the dough in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for 40 minutes
5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 5mm  thick and stamp out the cookies, using your chosen cutters. If you are using a template, cut around the template with a knife for each cookie.
6. Lightly knead and re-roll the trimmings together again to use up all the dough. Place the biscuits on baking sheets.
7. Bake biscuits for 10-15 minutes until lightly coloured and firm but not crisp. Leave on the tray for two minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tip: Why not try adding the zest and juice of a lemon for Zingy lemon-flavoured cookies

Here are acouple of examples I created at the seminar using my platform stiletto shoe cutter

Platform Stiletto shoe cookies by Lindy Smith