Melting Moments
Classic British butter cookies with orange zest and juice, featuring a light, cloud-like texture that melts instantly in your mouth.
Ingredients
all-purpose flour (spoon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off)
1¼ cups
cornstarch
¼ cup
baking powder
4 tsp
salt
½ tsp
unsalted butter (softened)
8 tbsp (1 stick)
confectioners' sugar
1 cup
large eggs
2
vanilla extract
1 tsp
orange extract
½ tsp
orange zest (finely grated)
2 tsp
Instructions
1
Step 1
Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 325°F (160°C).
2
Step 2
Stir the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
3
Step 3
Combine the butter and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed with the paddle until well mixed. Increase the speed to medium and continue beating until lightened, about 2 minutes.
4
Step 4
Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Beat in the extracts and orange zest.
5
Step 5
Decrease the speed to low and beat in the flour mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to give a final mixing to the dough.
6
Step 6
Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough (a tiny ice-cream scoop is perfect for this) on the prepared pans about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on all sides. After all the cookies have been placed on the pans, flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough, flattening it slightly.
7
Step 7
Bake the cookies until they spread and become deep golden, about 20 minutes. After the first 10 minutes, place the pan from the lower rack on the upper one and vice versa, turning the pans back to front at the same time. If you know that your oven gives strong bottom heat, stack the pan on the lower rack on top of a second one for insulation. Slide the papers off the pans to cool the cookies. If you only have one more pan of cookies to bake, readjust one of the racks to the middle level.
