Categories: Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 2 eggs
- 21/2 cups white sugar
- 6 Tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
- 5 cups flour
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1/2 cup white sugar in a small bowl for later, when you bake the cookies.
Directions
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DO NOT preheat oven—this dough needs to chill.
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Melt the butter in a pan on the stove, or in the microwave in a small bowl or measuring cup for 1 minute 15 seconds on HIGH. Let it cool while you mix up the following ingredients:
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In a large bowl combine the eggs with the white sugar. Beat them until they’re well blended.
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Add the poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda. and salt. Mix them in thoroughly.
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Add the orange extract and then the orange zest, if you decided to use it. If you can‘t find orange extract in your store, you can use vanilla instead. Mix well.
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Cup your hands around the bowl with the melted butter. If it’s not too warm to hold comfortably, start your mixer and pour it slowly into your mixing bowl. If it’s still too hot to add and you think it might cook the eggs in your bowl, let it cool a little longer before mixing it in.
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Add two cups of the flour now. Mix it in.
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Add the orange juice to your bowl. Mix it in and then add the rest of the flour.
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Mix thoroughly. This dough will be quite stiff.
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Give the bowl a final stir by hand and cover it with plastic wrap. Stash it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Overnight is fine too!
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When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375°F, rack in the middle position.
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Prepare your baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper and spraying the paper with Pam, or another nonstick cooking spray.
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Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator and make dough balls, about an inch in diameter, with your hands. Drop them in the small bowl with the sugar and roll them around to coat them. Then place them on the cookie sheets, 12 to a standard-size sheet. Press them down slightly when you place them on the sheets so they won’t roll off on the way to the oven.
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Bake the cookies at 375°F for 7 to 10 minutes. (Mine took about 9 minutes.) Let them cool on the pan for a minute and then pull off the parchment paper and transfer the paper and cookies to a wire rack.
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If the dough begins to get sticky and you start to have trouble rolling it with your hands, return it to the refrigerator while the cookies are baking and take it out again when you need to make more dough balls.