Orange Creamsicle Cookies
When I was a kid, I lived in inner city Chicago. Not the suburbs (not till I was a bit older), not someone saying “I’m from Chicago” who actually grew up in Des Plaines or Joliet, but actually right in the heart of the city. And while I’ve been in Kentucky since 1988 (oh, crap, I’m old!) and can’t imagine ever living in a big city again, there are some things I miss about it.
I miss the culture of a city; the museums, the theater, etc. I miss the shopping that encompasses more than Wal-Mart and Target. I definitely miss that. And I miss the food. The largest city near me is Lexington and while I love it, it isn’t exactly a thriving metropolis when it comes to ethnic foods. But they are slowly working on that.
But know one of the things I miss most due to living in the country? I miss ice cream trucks. Yep… ice cream trucks. Hey; this is me! What were you expecting? Something sophisticated and exciting? Yeah… right. 😛 Nope. Ice cream trucks it is. When I was a kid, we still had Good Humor trucks. Ohhhhh, I miss those. We also had ice cream trucks where you could get actual soft serve cones. Those were awesome. AND… we had the ubiquitous ice cream trucks that had a huge scary clown face and tinny music that would have worked well in a Stephen King movie. Thank God I’ve never been the type to get easily traumatized *twitches a little and sucks my thumb* One of the things I used to love to get was a Creamsicle. Or Dreamsicle. I’ve seen it as both, but I prefer Creamsicle. It has the word cream in it, after all. That lovely ice cream bar of vanilla ice cream surrounded by tangy orange sherbet. What could be better? You got sweet mixed with tangy. worked for me.
So I wanted to make a cookie with flavors reminiscent of a Creamsicle. Vanilla and orange, but without dribbling it all over my chin and down my arm. I think I succeeded here. You don’t get as much of the tang is about the only miss. I thought about adding a touch of citric acid to the dough, but I know that not many people keep that in their cabinets and that I’m odd with that one. But this is a wonderful mix of orange flavor, vanilla flavor and a chewy cookie base. If you like the orange/vanilla combo, you’ll enjoy these. They’re great lunch box cookies too.
You know the drill…. 🙂
This makes a boatload of cookies, btw, so if you don’t want enough to give away, either make half a batch or freeze half for later use.
Orange Creamsicle Cookies
- 4 3/4 cups flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons orange extract
- 1 3.4 ounce box or instant vanilla or cheesecake pudding mix
- 1 3 ounce box orange jello
- 3 cups good quality white chocolate chips
-  In a medium bowl, mix, then whisk to combine the flour, salt, baking soda and orange zest.
- In a large bowl (preferably a stand mixer, though this can be done by hand or with a strong hand mixer), combine the butter and the sugars. Mix on medium speed until thoroughly creamed and slightly fluffy looking.
- Add in the eggs, the extracts, the pudding mix and the jello mix. beat on low until thoroughly combined.
- Dump the flour mixture into the bowl and beat on low speed until thoroughly combined, stopping mixer once and scraping down sides of the bowl.
- When nicely combined, add in the white chocolate chips and beat on low speed until combined.
- Dump the dough out onto a piece of foil, wrap tightly and chill for at least two hours. If you made a full batch and aren’t planning to make them all, wrap half of it in a double layer of foil and freeze.
-  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape the dough into golf ball sized balls; smaller if you want smaller cookies, obviously. Place on ungreased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. bake at 350 for between 17 to 20 minutes; check at the earlier time if you want a chewier cookie, later time if you want one that is crispier.
- Let cool on the cookie sheet for a minute, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.
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