Cocoa-Orange Snap Cookies.

I love baking cookies. I love eating them too! With a cup of coffee or tea it's pretty hard to beat. I rarely buy them in the grocery store because a)i love baking and b)commercial cookies can have stuff in them that don't belong in food...
This recipe is also from Sarah Philips' "Healthy Oven", each cookie as approximately 50 calories. Not bad...I tweaked it a bit by adding orange zest, because orange and chocolate go together so well, and I also I'm fascinated with citrus zest.



These cookies take a bit of thinking ahead because they need to chill in the fridge for a while.
So here's the recipe: it'll give you about 30 cookies.

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt

1 cup sugar(plus 2TBSP for dipping)
6 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 TBSP light corn syrup
1 TBSP vanilla

zest of one orange(keep 1/2 tsp for dipping)

-In a bowl, mix flour, sift in cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside
-In another bowl, beat sugar and butter until it starts looking like breadcrumbs(with a hand mixer is better, and quicker!!)
-Add egg, corn syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the zest and mix lightly.
-Stir in the flour mixture, in 2 batches.
-Transfer to a sheet of wax paper and shape the dough into a log, about 1 1/2-2 inch in diameter. Wrap tight and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
.......
-Turn oven on at 375F, set rack in middle, oil spray a cookie sheet.
-On a small plate, mix 1-2 TBSP or so of sugar with the one half-teaspoon of zest. Mix it well, take time to crush it good so the oil gets out and the sugar becomes a little yellow.
-Cut the dough into 1/2 inch rounds, dip one side in the sugar/zest mix, put on the sheet sugar side UP(obviously...).
-Bake for 10-12 minutes.
-Let stand 5-8 minutes on tray before transfering to a cooling rack.



The cookies might seem underdone after 10 minutes but keep in mind they will keep baking for a bit once out of the oven. They're snap cookies so they'll get hard. Perfect for dunking in tea, or milk, etc.



Note to self...: try not to eat the whole stack...