Orange and Walnut Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread cookies are rather simple to make.  This recipe has a subtle nutty aroma, and the sort of orange you select for zesting strongly influences the final result's smell.  If you have no turbinado sugar, you can easily substitute white sugar, but I also recommend adding a couple pinches of shaved dark chocolate to the batter.

Ingredients:

♕1/2 cup / 120g butter, unsalted, at room temperature.
♕190g / 1.5 cup white flour
♕1/4 cup / 55g turbinado sugar
♕10 walnut halves, ground
note: you want the largest pieces no larger than 3mm
♕zest of one small, aromatic orange
♕1 t / 3mL vanilla extract
♕Approximately 30 walnut halves
note: or more, depending on how thin and small you cut your cookies

Procedure:

♕Combine butter, zest, and sugar.
♕Mix in chopped walnuts flour, and vanilla and combine until dough is homogeneous.
♕Roll the dough into a tubelike shape and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
♕Preheat oven to 375˚F / 190˚C.
♕Cut the dough into thin cookie slices.
♕Top each cookie with a walnut half.
♕Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway if you have poor convection.
♕Allow to cool, and serve.

Orange Rye cookies

I'm a big fan of rye flour, as well as cookies.  These cookies are very wintery in appearance, which is a pity, since Winter is almost over for everyone except for our friends in the southern hemisphere.  Perhaps I will make them once more as Easter rolls around, but include rabbits as the garnish.
These cookies have a very strong orange taste, and the honey merges well with the rye flour.  The dough's flavor would be much more accurately described as "light", not at all reminiscent of rye bread.

I intended to make a very small batch with this recipe, but the ingredients used in their recorded proportions yield a surprisingly high amount of cookies, good for one small Christmas party.


This recipe makes 26 cookies 2 cm in diameter.

Ingredients:
For the cookie
♕1/3 cup/65g rye flour
♕2/3 cup/100g white flour
♕4 T+1t/90g honey
♕5 1/2 T/60g butter, cut into cubes
♕zest of 1/2 orange

For the filling:
♕30g dark or white chocolate
♕1 sprig rosemary
♕a pinch of orange zest

Procedure:
♕Preheat oven to 350˚F/175˚C
♕Combine dry ingredients including zest, mix in honey, and stir in butter
♕Stir vigorously (or just use clean hands) to mix everything into one mass
♕Once the mass is ready, begin pinching off pieces the size of your lower thumb joint.  You should get 26.
♕Onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper, place rolled circles of dough.
♕Press an indent into each cookie with your finger note: if you don't want to put any filling in your cookie, roll your dough out and cut shapes, instead.  The cookies are good with and without a filled center.
♕Bake for 16-20 minutes
♕Remove from oven and cover with a cotton cloth while it cools
♕Melt the chocolate, adding a few crushed up leaves of rosemary halfway through the melting process
♕Using a very small spoon drip the chocolate into each cookie's indent
♕While the chocolate is still pliable, garnish the cookies with rosemary leaves and orange zest


♕Serve cold