Last night we were invited to dinner at my in-laws. (turkey dinner was delicious by the way, thanks Maureen!) I decided the appropriate thing to do would be to bring some sort of dessert or treat. I love baking and this way I get to try new recipes (without having to eat the whole thing) , have something to blog about, and hopefully, eventually find some great "go to" recipes that I know would be a hit at any gathering.
I recently have started trying to alter recipes. This is helping me understand a lot more about baking and flavor combinations. I pulled out, what I like to call, my big book of baked goods and started thumbing through the pages in search of a recipe that I had the ingredients (or similar ingredients) on hand for. This way I could save myself a trip to the store with two cranky kids. One is teething and the other is, well, three.
By mid-afternoon I had finally narrowed it down to two recipes. I didn't have candied orange peel and wasn't sure what to put in it's place so I opted for the recipe that was a little bit more time consuming to prepare. They are called citrus crescents and because of the changes I made, I am calling them whole wheat citrus moons with citrus glaze. Steve tried talking me into leaving the 'whole wheat' off of the title for fear that it may push some people away from trying them, but I look at it as a notice that there is whole wheat flour involved in the recipe.
The taste of whole wheat flour is definitely different from white flour and if you aren't used to it, you may not like these cookies. I had never had cookies with whole wheat flour in them before and I actually liked these a lot! It took me a few bites to decide for sure because it was, for lack of a better term, interesting, but then I tasted more of the orange, lemon, and lime. A lot of the orange actually. That zest really brought out the flavor. In my opinion they were a hit, but not a crowd pleaser. There was hardly any feedback and everyone migrated towards the other desserts after trying a piece of a cookie. Steve ate a few of them and his response was that they were just different.
Maybe I didn't roll them out thin enough, maybe my oranges weren't fresh enough, or maybe they would taste better with fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice and some more zest. Trial and error is what makes a good recipe a GREAT one. I'm sure I will try to make these again in the future.
Citrus Moons with Citrus Glaze- adapted from Citrus Crescents (this is the same recipe that is in my cookbook)
Citrus Moons
7 T. butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
heaping 1/3 C. sugar
1 egg, separated
scant 1 1/2 C. King Arthur white whole wheat flour, plus extra for dusting
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 1 1/2 oranges
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. lime juice
Citrus Glaze
1/2 orange juiced
1/4 tsp. lime juice
1/4 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 C. powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 400.
Lightly grease two large baking sheets. Beat butter and sugar together until well combined, then gradually beat in the egg yolk. Sift flour into butter mixture and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Add orange zest and citrus juices until a soft dough forms.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface and then cut the dough into rounds with a 3 in. cookie cutter. Re-roll the trimmings to make about 17-20 cookies. Place the moons on the prepared cookie sheets and prick with a fork. Whisk egg white in a small bowl and brush over the tops of the cookies.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cookies cool on a wire rack then dip the tops in the citrus glaze and let sit until the glaze has hardened, about 5 minutes.
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| Take a bite, enjoy! |
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