How to Make Madeline Tasting Orange Poppy Seed Sugar Cookies (Frosting Optional but not really)
Pictures at bottom. Makes 36 smallish cookies. Because trying to put the recipe into Myfitnesspal is a pain and also I made a ton of edits to the recipe I decided to make my own link with instructions so I remember what I did and how I made these so here I go. If you’re anything like me, please read all the way through to make sure you’re actually able to make this, and not read it at the time you’re making only to realize you’ve halfway made this but you can’t do the rest.
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs (or any size eggs I don’t actually know)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 clementines or 1 regular sized orange
Heat oven to 350 degrees. I usually save this bit for later because I’m slow. Depending on how fast your oven preheats, you can preheat it after mixing the dough but before grating the clementines. Again, depending on how fast you grate your oranges.
Melt the butter in the microwave for 25 seconds or however long it takes for it to be melted but not completely melted.
Mix together the sugar and butter until completely combined. Using a whisk makes things easier but you don’t have to, you can use a fork.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat together until you have a mixture that looks well combined. Remember if you wanted to taste the mix, you should have done that before you added the eggs, when it was just butter and sugar. You’ve played yourself waiting this long to taste it.
Now, to be honest, I did not use all purpose flour when making this. Thanks to Covid we got cake flour during one of the grocery delivery service runs we did. And it had yet to be used up and my dad has been using the all purpose flour for pizza dough. So when looking up substituting cake flour for all purpose flour it says 1 cup and 2 tablespoons for every cup of all purpose flour, but I find cake flour has a strong semi-unpleasant taste so it’s safer to use a little less than called for. So basically just the same amount as what was called for the all purpose flour.
Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to the sugar mix. I didn’t stir until all the ingredients had been added. Then I carefully whisked it all together until well combine.
The batter will look viscous, and you couldn’t roll it out, but it holds its shape better than you’d think.
At this point if you’re slow at grating you can now preheat the oven. If you’re anything like me and your oven is anything like mine, it’ll be done before you’re finished grating.
Take two clementines and using the smaller holes one a grater, start grating your orange. I’d suggest going around the side instead of from end to end, if that makes any sense. So you can simply roll your orange around while you zest instead of pausing and turning it for a blank ungrated spot.
Safe the mutilated clementines for the frosting.
Add the grated orange zest to the dough, and then the poppy seeds, mixing together well.
Using a spoon, add to a parchment paper atop a baking sheet, and pop into your oven for 10 minutes of loving. They’ll be slightly browned, soft, and taste a little dry but that makes them perfect for pairing with a hot beverage such as coffee or hot chocolate.
Frosting can be found here.
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theartofmadeline
