Orange Snaps

Here is another recipe from Joanne Fluke’s Lake Eden Cookbook.  As I mentioned before, the cookies in this book turn out so moist and chewy just like a cookie should be.  These ones have an interesting twist to them- orange juice concentrate.  You can use the sugar free kind because there’s plenty of sugar already in this recipe.  

DO NOT preheat the oven – this dough needs to chill before baking.

Ingredients:
1½ cups melted butter
 2 cups white sugar
 ½ cup frozen orange juice concentrate
 2 eggs, beaten
 2 tsp baking soda
 1 tsp salt
 ½ tsp orange zest
 4 cups flour (don’t sift – pack it down in the cup when you measure it) 
1 cup white sugar in a small bowl for coating dough balls

Method:

1. Melt the butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Add the sugar and orange juice concentrate, and stir it all up. Let the mixture cool to room temperature. 
2. Add the beaten eggs, baking soda, salt, and orange zest, stirring after each addition. 
3. Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing thoroughly after each increment. 
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough at least 2 hours (overnight’s even better). 
5. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
6. Roll the chilled dough into walnut-sized balls with your impeccably clean hands. Put the cup of white sugar in a small bowl and roll the balls in it to coat them. 
7. Place them on a greased cookie sheet (or a cookie sheet you’ve sprayed with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray), 12 dough balls to a standard-sized sheet. Press the dough balls down just a little so they won’t roll off on the floor when you put them in the oven. 
8. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees F. The dough balls will flatten out, all by themselves.
9. Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Yield: Approximately 7 to 8 dozen cookies, depending on cookie size