Chocolate Orange Creams

Let me start out by saying I was pretty sure I hated orange and chocolate together. I think I actually hate fake orange and chocolate together. My mother in law made these and I tried one. So tasty! Hers had ginger in them as well. Mine don't because I forgot to look for it at the store. They're soft, slightly crumbly and the orange isn't overpowering. It's just fresh. And really good with the cream cheese.

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

4 oz cream cheese

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp grated orange rind

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Cream butter, shortening and cream cheese, then cream in sugar. Beat in eggs and orange rind. Combine dry ingredients and blend into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by the tablespoonful on cookie sheets and bake at 350 for 15 mins, until golden around edges.

Makes 5 dozen. I got just short of that (55) but would have had more if I'd been more uniform in sizing and not sampled the dough. I love cookie dough of any variety.

If you want to add the ginger: Add 1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger with the orange rind.

Two New Recipes

Both are Taste of Home recipes. I have good success with those, generally. I'm guessing because they are usually reader submissions and not just developed in a test kitchen under optimum conditions. They've been tried and true in someone else's home for their family. First off is Soy Garlic Chicken. I will absolutely make this again. All 3 of us loved it (the baby was sleeping). It was quick to prepare for the crockpot, and required ingredients pretty much everyone always has on hand. We actually ended up having smashed yellow nugget potatoes (skins and all) and broccoli with it.

Next up is Gooey Chocolate Cookies. Mike says they fall into the absolutely make them again category. He was originally disappointed I hadn't made my traditional chocolate chip cookies, and then quickly discovered that was ok. He actually suggested they would be good with vanilla ice cream, possibly for ice cream sandwiches. For those, I reversed the flavours, though. I had a white cake mix and chocolate cream cheese on hand. Still tasty. And I added some chocolate chips like reviewers suggested. If you read the reviews, there is complaints of the dough being sticky on your hands. That's not a big deal to me. I'm baking, it could get messy. Whatever. Do keep them on the small side, flatten slightly with your hand, and they'll turn out just fine.