Chocolate Orange Swirls

These cookies were inspired by Jake's love of all things chocolate and orange. They aren't really that hard, just a bit finicky to make the dough. Once that's done, it's simply slice, bake, and dip.

Chocolate and Orange dough:

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup butter, softened (you may need to add a bit more to make the dough come together)

1 cup sugar

1 egg
1 tsp orange extract

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 egg white, beaten

4 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted

Melt the unsweetened chocolate in a microwave on low, checking often so it doesn't burn. Stir and set aside to cool. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and mix well. In a different bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Scrape 1/2 of the butter mixture into a bowl and add the orange extract, as well as orange food coloring, if you wish. Stir well. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and stir well until it forms a dough. If the dough is too dry, you may need to add a bit more butter until it comes together.

Add the chocolate to the remaining butter mixture and stir well, also adding the remaining 1/2 of the flour mixture. Again, you may need to add a small amount of butter and continue to work it through the flour until a dough forms. You will have two separate doughs; one chocolate, and one orange. Shape each one into a rectangle.

Place the chocolate dough on a piece of wax paper and roll out until it is approximately a 35x20 cm rectangle. Set aside. Repeat with orange dough. Brush the orange dough with egg white. Gently take the chocolate dough by the wax paper and turn over so that it is on top of the orange dough. Roll lightly with rolling pin and remove top piece of waxed paper.

Trim the edges to neaten, and then using the bottom sheet of paper as a guide, tightly roll up the dough from the long edge. When you reach the end, roll back and forth to seal the seam. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refridgerate for at least one hour

When ready to bake, remove dough from wrapping and place seam side down on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, cut 1/4 inch thick slices and arrange on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 F.



Once cookies are cooled, melt semi-sweet chocolate in microwave until smooth. Dip cookies one at a time, placing on a piece of wax paper to dry. Makes 2 dozen.