Truely melt in your mouth cookies, these dark chocolate orange melting moments should definitely be on the cookie platter this Christmas.
The first time I heard of melting moments was from Great British Bake-off. Typical of me, per the description from the show, I had to try it, I had to bake it. I couldn’t wait to try it, all I thought of that week was melting moments which lead me to dream I was baking melting moments before I actually did it.
Today’s post features dark chocolate orange melting moments. These cookies basically melt in your mouth when you bite into. Dark chocolate, orange, melting moments, this is the deal.
The ingredients for melting moments are a bit different from the everyday cookies or biscuits. You need the usual butter or margarine, flour, sugar and flavouring. However, we melting moments the sugar used is confectioner’s (icing) sugar and a part of the flour is replaced with corn flour AKA corn starch. Corn flour is the magic dear. It makes the cookies melt in your mouth. In this issue, orange zest and orange juice is added to the dough for an orange flavour and later dipped in dark chocolate.
Before mixing all the ingredients together, we will mix the sugar with the orange zest like it was done in the orange cardamom biscuits. Then we add the butter or margarine, cream it, then goes orange juice, vanilla essence, flour, corn flour and salt. Form a soft ball and chill for 40 minutes to an hour to get the fat (butter or margarine) to set and relax . After chilling, form balls, press it lightly with a fork and bake.
Now on to the fun part, melt some good dark chocolate. You decide either to dip the whole melting moments in the chocolate or half. It would not mind going whole!
I used this recipe from joy of baking the first time I made melting moments which I adapted for this.
- 1 ¼ cup/ 150g pastry or all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup/ 84g corn flour/ corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon teaspoon
- 1/3/ 65g icing sugar/ confectioner’s sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon orange zest
- ½ cup/ 113g margarine or butter
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence/ extract
- 220g dark chocolate
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In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, corn flour and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, rub orange zest and icing sugar together with the back of a spoon so the oils get into the sugar and you can smell the orange.
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Add the butter or margarine and using the stand mixer or hand held mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth.
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Beat in the vanilla essence and orange juice. Add the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated. Cover and refrigerate the batter for an hour or until firm.
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Preheat an oven to 180˚C/ 350˚F and line baking sheets parchment or baking paper.
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When batter is firm, scope about a tablespoon into your palm, form into ball and place the dough on the prepared baking sheet. Press lightly with a fork. Do the same for the rest of the dough, spacing them apart on the baking sheet.
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Bake for about 10 - 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies just start to brown. The cookies will look plain and very soft, like it is uncooked. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 3-5 minutes. Transfer the melting moments to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Dip each completely cooled melting moments half way into the chocolate and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or baking paper. Sprinkle with orange zest if desired and place in cool place or the refrigerator to help the chocolate to set.
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Store baked melting moments in an air tight container for up to seven days. Unbaked melting moments dough can be stored in the freezer for three months.
