Recipe: Mandarin Orange Cookies

Happy Chinese New Year to all our Chinese friends and readers!!

It's a long weekend, what are you guys doing to enjoy these few days? Probably collecting hong baos right? :D If you're like Mr @amsyarstifler, he's currently at work. Time doesn't stop for our Singaporean heroes like him ;) Well as for me... I had a lazy morning and then baked some goodies for tea! 

In the spirit of CNY what best to celebrate it with other than Mandarin Orange Cookies!

Orange butter cookies

You can use any butter cookies recipe. Scroll down if you're interested to use the recipe I used. To get the orangey flavour, I added about a tablespoon or two of grated orange peel and half the juice from a mandarin orange.

After that, the dough is chilled in the freezer for about half an hour while I preheat the oven and prepare the frosting.

Into the oven they go

Place the cookies on a cooling rack once they're out of the oven

The orange frosting recipe is very simple, the recipe is provided below but I didn't do any exact measurements. I kept my frosting very thin (it's almost like a glaze) and not too sweet. The orange flavour is intense and the smell is really wonderful!! I love this frosting so much, I will probably drizzle it on cakes next time :)

Remember to place a sheet of plastic below to catch the excess drips!

I would recommend to add a bit of cinnamon powder, it really does wonders!

Hehe. My cute orange cookie!

...and half of it! :D yumms

Mandarin Orange Cookies Recipe:

Serves 5-6 45 minutes Butter Cookie mix
250g unsalted butter (softened)
220g sugar
1 egg
Squeezed juice from 1/2 of mandarin orange
2 tablespoons of grated orange peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
300g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
A pinch of salt

Combine butter, sugar and egg in a bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Add orange juice, orange peel and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix well. Add flour and baking powder, beat at low speed until everything's combined together.

Divide dough into thirds and shape each third into a ball. Cover each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate (by right, it's supposed to be for 2-3 hours but I couldn't wait that long). For the last third, add green food colouring. (this will be for the leaves). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Roll out one ball of dough on lightly floured surface. Keep it at about 1/2cm thick and use cookie cutters to cut it into round shapes. Place about 3cm apart on baking sheets and bake for 8-11 minutes, or until corners appear slightly golden brown. Once done, remove to a cooling rack immediately. Cool completely and apply frosting.

Frosting
Powdered sugar ~80g
Butter ~20g
Juice from the other half of the mandarin orange (Add lesser for thicker consistency)
1 tablespoon of grated orange peel
Red and yellow food colouring = Orange!
Cinnamon powder

Mix everything except the cinnamon powder and it's done!
Frost cookies and sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon powder.

There you did it! Your very own mandarin orange cookies!

*applause*

Best enjoyed with a mug of homemade Ice Lemon Tea!

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it :D

Happy holidays everyone!
And happy baking ;)