Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Orange Decorator's Frosting

These are the teeniest tiniest little cookies. I don't know why I made them so small, but they are the perfect, pop-in-your-mouth size.

As you can see, these are about half frosting. I think it gives a much needed moisture to these otherwise dry cookies.What I discovered in making these is that I'm really not a fan of cocoa powder. It just doesn't taste right when I'm looking for a chocolaty treat. I do, however, still enjoy citrus sweets in just about every way.

The recipe for these cookies comes straight from Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cookbook. The only difference is, I apparently made them bigger than she wanted because I ended up with about 20 less cookies that the recipe said I'd get. These are meant to be super small.

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Old Fashioned Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1/2 c butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
1 1/4 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 c cocoa powder

Cream butter until soft and fluffy. Beat in sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat thoroughly. Add milk. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder in separate bowl and stir into butter mixture. Mix well and arrange by teaspoon on buttered cookie sheet about one inch apart. Bake at 325 degrees for 8-11 minutes. Makes 50-60 (I got 32)

Note: These don't flatten out very much while baking, so if you're looking for a thinner cookie, flatten slightly with your fingers or a fork before putting in the oven.

Second note: This mixture is a little bit too think to spoon on, so I found it easier (though messier) to just roll them into balls my hand.

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The frosting on these is an altered version of my Christmas cookie frosting. I wanted orange frosting. This was, indeed, that, but it could be much better. I'll work on that another time.

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Orange Decorator's Frosting

2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest

Cream butter and vanilla until soft. Blend in sugar, juice and zest.

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So school is starting up in less than a week and I'm not sure what that's going to leave me with for baking time. If I had to guess, I'd say little to none. But! I'm not too worried about it. I'll do what I can to keep this going without massive gaps between updates.

(My birthday is next week, too. Happy birthday me.)