Healthy Cookies! (supposedly...)

I had a couple of oranges in my fridge that needed to be used up before they went bad. Since we don't really eat a lot of oranges, just cutting them up was out of the question...so I went looking for an orangey idea...

and came across this.

Yummy, delicious, light, fluffy, frosted orange cookies. Oh. Yes.

I don't have any pictures because I was trying very hard to follow the recipe exactly and get it finished before my family showed up for Bible study this afternoon. BUT...if you look at the original recipe, my cookies looked like that...without the orange slices on top. :-)

SO yummy! Kimberly tried to tell me they were terrible and I should just let her "get rid of" them ;-)

Ingredients:
COOKIE DOUGH:
11 Tbsp (5½ ounces) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (5¼ ounces) granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup (4 ounces) freshly squeezed orange juice (grate zest before juicing)
2 Tbsp grated orange zest (the rind of 1 large or 2 small oranges)
2 cups (8 ounces) whole wheat flour
ICING:
2 cups (8 ounces) powdered sugar
2 Tbsp (1 ounce) unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp grated orange zest (the rind of 1 small orange)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp (1 ounce) freshly squeezed orange juice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Prepare dough: Cream butter, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat in egg, then orange juice and orange zest, scraping the bowl. The mixture will look curdled; that’s OK! Add the flour, beating until smooth. Drop dough by Tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
3. Bake the cookies: Bake cookies, reversing pans midway through (top to bottom, bottom to top), until they’re just barely beginning to brown around the edges, 10 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and let them cool on the pans for 10 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.
4. Prepare the icing: Beat the sugar, butter, orange zest, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl until well combined. Beat in orange juice until the mixture is spreadable. Spread icing on the cookies when they’re completely cool, using a generous 1 tsp. icing for each.
Servings: 30
Yield: 30 cookies

ENJOY!