Orange Cheesecake Cookies

It was a co-worker's birthday today and I promised I would bake her something. Talk about a potential disaster. I was very nervous about making these cookies because I wasn't using my own oven and I pretty much made the recipe up on the fly. You usually don't want to bake something for for the first time when it is for someone else. I did that with cookies I made for my ex-boyfriend's parents for Christmas and my homemade caramel didn't set and the shortbread it sat on drove me crazy and broke into bits.

I remembered at 9:30 p.m. that I had promised to bake and had zero baking supplies. Running to the store in a complete panic, I looked up a couple of quick recipes rather than scan my brain for my usual recipes. I had found a delicious looking recipe for raspberry cheesecake cookies but it called for raspberry chips and I had no idea how the heck I would find those. So instead, I improvised.

I considered using fresh raspberries, but sometimes the liquid can screw stuff up and I wasn't exactly ready to go into work empty-handed, especially since I'm somewhat known for being the baker at work. [Our photographer tells me I'm missing my calling by not opening a bakery.] Scanning the baking aisle hoping to find raspberry extract [which I don't think even exists], I happened upon pure orange extract and I know my co-worker liked oranges, so I shrugged and thought, "Why not? I'll make orange cheesecake cookies instead."

Well, my potential disaster turned out to be a great success! [Yay!] She loved them as did the other people in my office who tried one. My gamble paid off and I was happy. So I now present my recipe for homemade orange cheesecake cookies.

Orange Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened [not melted]

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 package [8 oz] cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon pure orange extract

white chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in one egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

Whip the softened cream cheese and one egg until blended and smooth, then stir into the dough. [The addition of the second egg causes the cookies to be more cake-like. Use only one egg if you want less cake-like cookies.] Add preferred amount of white chocolate chips to dough.

Spoon a tablespoon of dough onto baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. [As you can see from the photo below, you'll have to keep an eye on them. Mine got a smidge too brown on the bottom. Not burnt, just darker than I would have liked.]

Last step is to consume them! Share them with friends and family or just eat them all yourself with a glass of milk or cup of tea! Enjoy!