Spooky Moon

When I saw La Pêche Fraîche’s Orange, Chocolate, and Vanilla Swirl Cookies, I had to give them a try. I shortened the name to be less descriptive and helpful. Mine have a little more orange color in real life, but not much. I’m okay with that, but there will be more food coloring next time. I halved her recipe, and still got six dozen cookies out of it. My measurements:

Vanilla Dough:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup sugar (I actually used a sugar substitute called Whey Low)
• 3/4 tsp salt (she uses Kosher, which is coarser. I didn’t have it on hand, so I reduced the salt a little)
• 1/2 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups flour

Orange Dough:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• zest of one orange
• orange food gel
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups flour

Chocolate Dough:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, unpacked
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 egg
• 1-1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

To mix, I followed her directions to the letter, even setting a timer.

I noticed that the vanilla dough was not quite as moist as the orange, perhaps because of the oils in the zest.

But then the chocolate was also extra-moist. *shrugs* All of the doughs were very workable.

I dutifully put the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I’m so glad I’ve become more patient in my old age.

Here’s where I start to diverge from La Pêche Fraîche. Florida is very, very humid. At the moment, it’s been raining for a week, and is even more humid than usual. That means the dough is going to be somewhat sticky. Thing is, you don’t want to flour the board or roller, because you want those layers to stick together nicely. My solution was to put down a sheet of Press ‘n’ Seal, sticky side to the counter, and pat out the dough instead of rolling. This actually gave me a lot more control over the shape of the dough, so I was able to make neat rectangles. Patting out also made it much easier to push cracks together. The slabs were about 1/4″ thick, and measured about 6″ x 7″.

Nice thing #1 about using the Press ‘n’ Seal: you can see if the slabs are the same size before you put them together.

Nice thing #2: it’s really easy to pick up the top slab and lay it on the bottom slab, then peel off the Press ‘n’ Seal from the top.

Nice thing #3: the plastic makes it really easy to roll the slabs together. I was able to keep them tight with little effort, and I didn’t have to worry about cracks.

I used that same plastic to wrap the roll and put it back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Once they come out, it’s a good idea to slice the whole roll (if you’re using all of it), then put the slices on the parchment-lined pan. That way the dough doesn’t get warm and squishy while you’re futzing with individual cookies.

And I totally futzed, but only a little, neatening edges and making them more round. You’ll notice that mine are more swirls than spirals, like the original. This is probably because I did half batches, so my length of dough was shorter. I suppose I could have made the rectangle thinner and longer, creating fewer, but larger and swirlier cookies.

The cookies have a delicate flavor, and aren’t too sweet. Definitely an adult treat. The texture is similar to shortbread. Yum.