Orange Drop Cookies with Citrus Browned Butter Icing

Here is one for the cakey cookie lovers out there.  These light little mouthfuls turned out even better than I had hoped!  Light and melt in your mouth for both the cookie and frosting.  Hey, you just about can't go wrong with browned butter.  Whole spelt, being a slightly sweet and nutty flour already, is wonderfully complemented by the orange juice in the dough.  The cookie itself uses unrefined sucanat for the sugar.  There is powdered sugar in the frosting (I use an organic brand made with tapioca starch instead of corn), but I suspect you could carefully powder some rapadura and have a go at a completely unrefined sugar experience.  It would likely be just a touch gritty unless you cooked it like a penuche.  Maybe some time in the future...

Don't make the frosting until all the cookies are baked and cooled as it sets up rather quickly and you will need to work fast to get all the cookies nicely frosted.  You may need to thin the frosting with a drop or two of juice as you go to keep it spreadable.  We tried the drizzle of chocolate since it goes well with orange and it is nice, but overall we liked the cookies best with just the orange flavor.

Orange Drop Cookies with Citrus Browned Butter Icing

makes 3 dozen cookies

2/3 cup butter

¾ cup sucanat

1 egg

7 tbsp orange juice (that's ½ cup minus 1 tbsp)

zest of one lemon

2 cups whole spelt flour

½ tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp soda

¼ tsp fine grain sea salt

Icing (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Cream butter and sugar well.  Add egg and beat for two more minutes until texture is no longer lumpy at all, about two minutes.  (The texture of the batter will change to perfectly creamy and almost gummy when the egg has done its work.)  Stir in the orange juice and lemon zest.  Mix together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl and blend into batter in about three additions.  Chill dough for 30 minutes. Drop by rounded spoonfuls of dough about 2" apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.  (I used my #70 tablespoon cookie scoop.)  Bake for about 8 minutes or until just lightly browned on edges.  Cool.  Frost with Icing.

Citrus Browned Butter Icing

(you may want to make two batches...) ☺

2½ tbsp butter

1½ tbsp orange juice 

1 tsp lemon zest

1½ cups sifted powdered sugar

Brown the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat until a delicate brown, a few minutes.  (It will foam up twice.)  DO NOT WALK AWAY; this small amount of butter will burn in seconds when it gets to the brown stage.  Let cool for a couple minutes, then blend in sugar, juice and zest.  Frost each cookie with about ¾ tsp of icing.  Work quickly so the icing doesn't set up in the pan.  If you are a little generous with your cookie icing (or sampling), you may want to make a double batch.  But don't worry, I won't tell if you don't.  ☺

Store in a sealed container and they will still be soft and yummy the next day.