Featured Recipes for Spring

Orange Flower Cookies

Fresh, light and fragment with the smell of fresh oranges, these delectable cookie are sure to become one of your favorites.

½ cup softened butter
¾ cup sugar
1 "large" egg (NOT "extra large" or "jumbo")
1 Tablespoon orange rind, grated fine
1 Tablespoon orange liqueur, preferably
or 1 Tablespoon orange juice
2 cups All-Purpose Flour (dip your measuring cup into the bag, scoop up flour, then level the cup with the back of a knife)
¼ teaspoon salt
large pinch grated nutmeg
Cream the butter and sugar together until they are light, either by hand or with a mixer set on the slowest speed. Stir in the egg, the grated rind and the orange liqueur. Now mix the salt and the nutmeg with the flour. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Knead the dough for a minute on an unfloured surface until it is smooth, then refrigerate for 20 minutes before forming the cookies as directed in the section of our web site called “Helpful Hints For Molding Cookies”.

Bake the cookies on the top rack in a 350 degree oven until the edges are browned and the detail of the cookie looks a little toasty. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Edible "Painted" Cookies

A friend of mine from North Liberty, Iowa told me how to make these beautiful cookies. She calls them “stained glass” cookies because the colors can be as vibrant as those found in stained glass windows; a beautiful image. And the cookies are delicious.

You will need:
freshly baked cookies, cooled completely
1 egg white
½ cup powdered sugar
set of paste-type food colors
toothpicks
brushes*
In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until it is frothy, then stir in the powdered sugar. Paint the cooled cookies with a thin layer of this icing glaze, using a soft pastry brush. You want a thin but complete coating of glaze on your cookies. This will seal the cookies and form a “ground” for the painting you will do with the food colors. Let the glaze dry completely.

Using tooth picks, place tiny dabs of food color around the edge of a plain plate. Leave an open space in the center of the plate to mix your colors. (I usually use a white paper plate to make cleaning up easy.) This will be your “painter’s pallet”. Place a glass of water beside your plate of colors.

When your cookies are dry, you can paint them with whatever food colors or mix of colors you want. Be sure to thin the colors with lots of water, as they are very concentrated. You can always make them darker, but you can’t make them lighter.

NOTE: Be sure you use a set of brushes that you reserve for food use only. Many water colors and acrylic paints contain toxic ingredients that can become lodged in the metal ferrels that hold the bristles to the handles of brushes. I find that good quality watercolor- type brushes are available at craft stores much more reasonably than similar ones found in art supply stores.