Orange-Spice Glazed Cookies

By Patricia_Scarpin

A rich butter flavor, a heady scent of spices, and a tangy, slightly sweet glaze... is your mouth watering yet?

Ingredients

• COOKIES:
• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• GLAZE:
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• a splash vanilla
• 2 tablespoons orange juice

Details

Servings 3
Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 80mins

Preparation

Step 1

Grease two baking sheets well and set aside – I lined the sheets with baking paper.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the egg and vanilla extract, and mix well.

Add the cream of tartar, flour, zest, spices, and salt, and mix on low speed until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is smooth.

Remove the dough from the mixer and form it into a ball. If it's too soft to handle, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it firms up a bit – I refrigerated mine for 1 ½ hours.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC) and make the glaze by mixing the powered sugar, vanilla, and orange juice until smooth.

On a well-floured board, roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut into shapes with the cookie cutters of your choice. Place on the prepared pan and bake 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately brush each one with a good amount of glaze, then place them back in the oven and bake until the glaze starts to crackle and the cookies are a golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes more. Remove the cookies and let cool on the pan.

Makes about 30 medium-size cookies – I halved the recipe and got 35 cookies with a 5cm flower cutter