Simple Cooking: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Orange and Walnut

By Caitlin Klein in Food on Feb 29, 2012 5:00PM

Classic chocolate chip cookies are a year-round favorite, but here’s a fun way to give them a citrusy, wintery kick: add orange zest and walnuts. The key to getting that perfectly chewy, soft cookie is to work with butter that is at the right temperature. Butter that is too cold or too warm will flatten out, burn cookie bottoms, and do other funny things in the oven.

Chicagoist’s Chocolate Chip Cookies with Orange and Walnut
Makes about 18-24 Cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly colder than room temperature (should feel cool, but not cold, to the touch)
Zest of 1 large orange
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of 1 large orange
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups semi sweet or milk chocolate chips (your preference)
1 cup walnuts, chopped, plus extras for topping

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350.

Using a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter until it’s fluffy. Add the white sugar, brown sugar, and orange zest and beat on high again until thoroughly combined.

Add the egg, vanilla, and orange juice and beat until blended. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into the bowl. Mix on low speed just until dough forms. The dough should be sticky and a little firm. If yours is too liquid, add Tablespoons of flour at a time to stiffen it up a little. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Using a tablespoon, drop spoonfuls of dough onto greased or parchment-paper lined cookie sheets. Top each mound of dough with a large walnut piece. Bake until the cookies are golden, 12-15 minutes (exact time will depend on your oven). Take the cookies out a few minutes earlier if you like them really chewy.

Transfer the cookies to racks to cool. Eat. Repeat.