Kawaii Orange Cookies

Kawaii Orange Cookies - Gluten Free

These Kawaii Orange Cookies are not only tasty they’re cute as well.  Most of my food is just food and I don’t really pay attention to the cute factor.  Cuteness is not really my thing.  I had never even heard the term Kawaii before my young YouTube friend, Anna, asked me to do a video to help kick off her new collaboration channel called KawaiiChefs.  I thought  Kawaii might be geographic area related to Hawaii in some way.  Turns out Kawaii means cute in Japanese and these cookies are my attempt at cute.  My daughter thinks they’re cute but isn't really sure they’re Kawaii.  I hope I haven’t missed the mark too much.  I also hope if you’re reading this blog you might check out the new KawaiiChefs collab channel and show these young girls your support by subbing.  It's sure to be an awesomely creative channel.   

Kawaii Orange Cookies

Prep time:  10 min

Cook time:  20-22 min

Ingredients

•          ½ cup butter, very well softened
•          ½ cup sugar
•          1 egg
•          1 orange (the zest goes into the cookie dough  & the juice goes into the glaze)
•          1 ½ cups gluten free Bisquick (see notes for regular instructions)
•          1 cup plus 2tbsp of confectioner’s sugar, divided
•          1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
•          red and yellow and green food coloring

Video Tutorial: 

Instructions

1.    Preheat the oven to 350°F  or 175 °C

2.    In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until well combined and slightly fluffy then add the orange zest and egg and beat until well combined. 

3.    Stir in 2 drops of red food coloring and 2 drops of yellow food coloring to tint the dough to match its orange flavor.

4.    Add the bisquick and mix until you have a stiff dough. 

5.    I made a dozen pretty large cookies.  Divide the dough into 4 sections then roll 3 large balls from each section. 

6.    Place the balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet then flatten them slightly with the palm of your hand to reach about a ½ inch thickness.   Make sure the spacing is even so that they don’t run together when they bake. 

7.    Bake them for 20 – 22 minutes or until they’re golden around the edges then cool them on a baking rack. 

8.    To make the glaze combine 1 cup of powdered sugar with about 1 ½ - 2 tbsp of the orange juice and stir until smooth and with a consistency resembling melted ice cream.  If it’s too thick add more juice, if it’s too thin add more of the sugar.

9.    Remove about 1 tbsp of the glaze from the batch and stir in 1 drop of green food coloring then por it into the corner of small Ziploc and secure it with a twist tie.

10.  For the larger batch of glaze mix in 2 drops of red and 4 drops of yellow then stir until well combined.

11.  For the chocolate glaze mix 1 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder with 2 tbsp of confectioner’s sugar and as much of the orange juice as you need to get that same thick melted ice cream consistency.  Then put it into the corner of a small Ziploc just like the green glaze.

12.  Dip each cookie into the orange glaze and allow the excess glaze to drip off before placing the cookie back onto the baking rack.   

13.  Once they’re all done allow them to set for about ½ hour to dry a little on the surface then snip a tiny piece from the corner of the chocolate glaze then draw on the cute faces. 

14.  Next you can add the green detail at the top now they just have to dry for a few hours. 

Notes:  If you’re not following a gluten free diet substitute 1 ½ cups of flour stirred together with 1 tsp baking powder and 1/8 tsp salt.