Chocolate, Orange and Cinnamon cookies

Today I want to share with you a recipe for luscious chocolate cookies. This recipe comes from my desire to replicate the taste of my favourite chocolate bar: Maya Gold by Green & Black’s, a scrumptious combination of chocolate, orange, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.

I wanted a shortbread-like cookie, so I started with the recipe for green tea biscuits, swapped matcha tea with cocoa, and tried several combinations of cocoa, orange and spices.

I made a few batches, and enlisted the help of friends and colleagues to taste the cookies-  not that anybody complained, mind you! – until I found the right balance.

These cookies combine the richness of dark chocolate with the refreshing taste of orange, the warmth from cinnamon and nutmeg, and the delicate flavour of vanilla. Deliciously crumbly, but with a slightly crunchy texture, they’ll make a wonderful addition to your Christmas baking. Give them a try!

Tips & Notes

• Use a good quality dark cocoa powder, unsweetened (Dutch cocoa for those in the U.S.), fresh spices, and a good quality vanilla extract (better still, make your own).
• This is an easy recipe that doesn’t require using a cookie cutter; the dough is shaped into logs, refrigerated (from 2 hours up to 1 day), then sliced and baked.
• The logs can be frozen for up to 6 weeks – just double wrap them in cling film, to prevent absorption of odours, and write the date of freezing on a label. When you want to use the dough, you can slice the cookies from frozen, although leaving the logs to defrost in the fridge for a few hours will make the cutting easier.
• If you prefer, you can cut your cookies  into different shapes using a cookie cutter.  Once the dough is made, take a large piece of cling film, pour the dough over it, cover with another piece of cling film and  gently pat into a disk. Chill the dough from 2 hours up to 1 day, then roll it to a thickness of 5 mm thick  and cut your cookies with the cookie cutter.
• If you have a stand mixer – like a Kitchen Aid – follow the same procedure: cream butter with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg & cocoa, add egg yolks, pinch of salt, vanilla extract and orange, then add sifted flour until combined.

Chocolate, Orange and Cinnamon cookies

(makes about 50 cookies)

100 gr icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)

120 gr butter at room temperature

2 egg yolks

40 gr dark cocoa powder (unsweetened)

120 gr plain flour (all purpose flour)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pinch grated nutmeg

grated zest of a medium orange

Pinch of salt

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• Place butter in a bowl; sift icing sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa over the butter and work with a fork until smooth and fluffy.
• Add the egg yolks, pinch of salt, vanilla extract, and grated orange zest and mix until well combined.
• Sift the flour in the bowl and stir until incorporated, but don’t overwork the dough.
• The dough will be really soft and hard to manage, so that’s what I did to shape it into logs: cut two pieces of cling film, each roughly as large as a baking tray.  Spoon the same amount of dough onto the centre of each cling film piece, in a heap. Fold the cling film so that it completely covers the dough. Lightly roll each piece until you get a log, about 3 cm in diameter, then press the log gently with a small chopping board to flatten the sides, repeating on each side until you get a rectangular/square log.
• Make sure that the dough logs are well wrapped with cling film, then chill them in the fridge for at least 2 hours, until completely solid. I let them rest overnight, and they were the perfect consistency for slicing.
• Preheat oven to 180° C (350° F). Remove logs from the fridge, then use a sharp knife, cotton thread or dental floss (clean!) to slice the logs into cookies, about 5 mm thick.
• Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for about 10-12 minutes (depending on your oven), until slightly darker around the edges.
• Take cookies out of the oven – they’ll be still a bit soft, but will harden when cooled. Let the cookies cool in the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer on a rack to cool completely.
• Store in a tin box or air-tight container for 5-7 days.

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Tagged as: baking, beautiful food, biscuits, chocolate, Christmas baking, cinnamon, cocoa, cookies, orange, recipe, spices, sweets