Orange Slice Cookies

I hate orange slices. I think they are gross. And yet, these cookies are amazing. I took these in for Breuklyn's Halloween party. Any kind of cookie that has candy in it is sure to be a hit with Kindergartners.

I baked these cookies at 1:00am, so you will have to forgive the horrific lighting in my kitchen. What? You don't bake in the middle of the night? These cookies are great because they can be made and baked immediately. No chilling necessary. This recipe makes about 8 dozen cookies, so if you need a lot of cookies, this is the recipe for you.

You will need: 1 c. candy orange slices, 1-1/4 c. sugar, divided, 1 c. butter, softened, 1 c. butter flavored shortening, 1-1/2 c. packed brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla extract, 4 c. all-purpose flour, 2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt and 1 package vanilla or white chips. You will also need to preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Let's get baking!

The first thing that you need to do is measure out roughly 1 cup of orange slices. It doesn't have to be exact, no worries. Cut each orange slice into 8 pieces. These things are ridiculously sticky. Toss the cut pieces into a bowl that contains 1/4 cup of white granulated sugar. Toss them around after each addition so that they won't stick together. Set the bowl aside.

In another bowl assemble the dry ingredients. I didn't sift them, only because the orange slices are going to weigh down the cookie, so I am not concerned with light and fluffy. In the bowl, add the 4 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. salt. Set this aside.

This is a very basic recipe. Cream together the 1 cup of white granulated sugar, 1-1/2 cups of firmly packed light brown sugar, 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter and 1 cup of butter flavored shortening. Cream until light and fluffy.

It will look like this. Add the 2 eggs, one egg at a time, and the 2 tsp. of vanilla.

Grab the bowl that has your dry ingredients and slowly add them to your butter mixture. Slowly.
We are going to mix in the last two ingredients, the orange slices and white chips, by hand. Once the flour is incorporated into the butter mixture, add in the orange slices and white chips. Do not over mix the flour. Just incorporate it.

Alright. Let's mix it all together. You are going to need a heavy duty wooden spoon for this because we have accumulated quite a bit of dough. Yum. It smells heavenly.

Line your cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper. Roll the dough into approximately 1 inch balls. And again, I don't know how big that is. The most important part is that they are roughly the same size so that they will cook evenly. Bake these in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Yum. These are part of my Christmas cookie collection. Are you getting ready for Christmas cookies? We make about 15 different kinds of cookies at my house to pass out to friends and family. I have already started freezing cookie dough in preparation! I love, love, love Christmas cookies. I bet that you probably already knew that.

Happy Baking!!! :)