Chocolate Cookies with Orange and Toffee Bits

Looking around my pantry, baking selection of ingredients I had on hand, there was a bag of toffee bits that looked intriguing. So the journey begins with what flavors to combine with these toffee bits to make a fantastic cookie.

I usually pick my ingredient flavors first and then decide on the type of cookie. Should it be a shortbread, cream cheese, mascarpone, ricotta, or thumbprint cookie? So many choices but first, what goes with toffee bits?

If you look at the breakdown of what ingredients go into making toffee, it will contain molasses, butter, milk, and sometimes flour and salt. If you search for molasses cookies and after fifty different molasses cookies recipes, you will start to see what others have incorporated into their cookies. A favorite is a form of chocolate, either chips or cocoa powder. Since my toffee was in bits, the right choice was a chocolate cookie.

Ingredients

• Butter unsalted
• Cream Cheese 
• Sugar white
• Orange zest
• Vanilla Extract
• Eggs
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Kosher Salt
• Unsweetened cocoa powder
• Walnuts
• Toffee bits
• Powdered sugar 

Making Chocolate Orange Cookies

One of the great things about these cookies is that they are ooey gooey. This, of course, means that they tend to stick to the parchment paper. I use a Williams Sonoma Signature Fish Spatula, to get the cookies off of the parchment paper. Using a thin spatula will make your life easier for these cookies.

Prepping the Ingredients

I thought you might like to see how I prepare my ingredients. My scale is what I use to weigh all my dry ingredients. I have used my My Weight KD-8000 with AC Adapter for five years, and I love it.

I found Rubbermaid Brilliance Storage containers (the link is for the 60 pieces set, but you can buy them separately) on Amazon (of course). They are great for nuts and open bags of chocolate chip, not to mention sugars and flour.

Now on to making cookies!

Start by weighing the sugar into one bowl. Set this bowl to the side. Next, weigh the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder into another bowl. Don't forget to press the Tare button before you add each ingredient. Use a whisk to blend the dry ingredients, then set that bowl aside.

The last prepping that needs to be done is the orange zest. As you can see, I try not to zest down to the white of the orange, as this part can be very bitter. It looks like a lot, but a whole orange zest will pack into a tablespoon.

Mixing the Cookie Batter

Add the cream cheese and butter to a mixer bowl, blending them for 2 to 3 minutes.

With the cream cheese and butter, it becomes lighter in color and creamy. Scrape the bowl sides down.

Start the mixer and add the sugar; mix for 3 minutes on medium speed. See how light and smooth these 3 ingredients become.

Next, add the orange zest and the vanilla extract turning the mixer on to a medium-low speed. Add one egg at a time until the eggs are incorporated. Scrape down the bowl. Turn the mixer onto a low speed and gradually add the flour and cocoa mixture. Blend for a minute or less.

I take a spatula and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure all the flour is mixed in, then add the toffee bits and chopped walnuts. Mix for 30 seconds. Lightly cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

See how many toffee bits are throughout the cookie dough? It just screams toffee!

Bake and Finish

Line two cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. Set your oven to 350°F (175°C or 180°C) and grab a medium-size cookie scooper.

Place 12 scoops on your prepared sheet pan. I leave about 2" between each mound. Then, I take 2 or 3 walnut pieces and place them on top of each cookie mound (lightly press them down)—Bake for 13 to 15 minutes.

Once the cookies are out of the oven, leave them on the pan for at least 5 minutes. These cookies are so good, but getting them to a cooling rack can be a little tricky. The toffee sticks to the parchment paper, so you need a thin metal turner to get under the cookie. When the cookies are cooled, they are firm but soft right out of the oven.

I sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top, which looks good against the chocolate color.

Storage

I store these cookies in a container with a lid and parchment paper between the layers. The toffee can stick to the cookies under it without protection.