Grace Rupert’s Orange Cookies

This is my darling boyfriend’s mom’s recipe. His lovely sister, Dori, gave me the recipe to include in my blog. She said their mom would make these cookies every Christmas. The recipe calls for sour milk which I’d never used in a recipe before. I learned that just by adding in some lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to milk, it will sour the milk for recipes. Grace used apple cider vinegar to sour the milk so that’s what I used. (I do want to add that milk that has gone sour on its own is not safe to use). You can also substitute buttermilk or yogurt for the sour milk and the cookies will turn out perfectly tasty.

After chilling the dough, the batter will still seem very soft. Don’t worry about that as the cookies will plump up very nicely.

These cookies are bursting with orange flavor and when you add in the citrus icing, they are so incredibly scrumptious! I will definitely be making these more often.

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Delicious orange cookies with orange and lemon zest icing.

Author: Karen - Oventry.com

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Grace Rupert's Orange Cookies

This wonderful recipe is from my honey's mom. She would make them for Christmas every year, but you can make them year-round. They're exceptionally good!

Prep time: 8 MinCook time: 9 MinTotal time: 17 Min

Ingredients

Cookies

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup sour milk (see notes)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (add to sour milk)
• 2 Tbsp orange juice
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Citrus Icing

• 1 tsp orange zest
• 3/4 tsp orange juice
• 1 Tbsp butter (melted)
• 3/4 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 Tbsp lemon zest
• 2 - 3 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Make the sour milk and set aside. (See notes below on preparing sour milk).
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, add the sugar and orange zest and rub them together with your fingers. This releases more of the essential oils from the zest and brings out lots of lemon flavor and aroma. Another way to do this is to use a mixer on low speed for a few minutes.
4. Add the baking soda to sour milk.
5. Add the butter, orange juice, and sour milk mixture to the sugar/zest and mix with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed until well blended (about 2 minutes). Batter will look curdled but that's okay.
6. Add in egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
7. Gradually add in the flour mixture. Mix only long enough until you no longer see the white flour. Do not overmix.
8. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
9. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet and preheat oven to 375° F.
10. After the oven has been heated to the correct temperature, use a cookie scoop to place the cookies 2" apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
11. Bake for 9 - 10 minutes or until the cookies are golden on the edges and firm on top.
12. Place cookies on wire rack to cool. Use the parchment paper that the cookies baked on or use paper towels under the wire rack for easier clean-up and drizzle the cookies with citrus icing (see instructions below).
13. Enjoy!

Citrus Icing

1. In a small bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients except for the powdered sugar.
2. Gradually add in the powdered sugar in small increments and keep stirring until the desired consistency.
3. Drizzle over cooled cookies and let set for 10 minutes.

Notes

How to make sour milk for this recipe: Pour 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup. Add in milk until you reach 1/2 cup. Stir and wait 5 minutes for the milk to sour. The original recipe used apple cider vinegar to sour the milk so that's what I used to make these cookies.

Sour Milk Substitute: Use 1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup plain yogurt

To store:

Cover and store in fridge up to 3 days. Can also be stored in freezer in airtight container for up to 3 weeks.