Orange-Clove Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today at work girl scouts, those sugary little fairies disguised as elementary school kids, were selling cookies inside the store. Sweetly, they smiled, tempting each passing customer or employee to fall into nutritional sin. Needless to say, I bought two boxes. I think I was even a bit below average in this respect (2 customers bought 25 boxes each.) I shared the cookies with my coworkers (mostly out of fear that I might eat them all myself) and one friend declared that thin mints are "the best cookies ever". I was offended. Another coworker took up the fight, insisting that orange-chocolate-chip cookies are the best.

Not to be outdone by adorable little pixies in merit badges, I thought I'd take up the challenge:

Orange-Clove Chocolate Chip Cookies

I started with Smitten Kitchen's recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and added orange zest and juice. I love the combination of clove and orange, so I added a bit of cloves as well. Allowing the heat from the melted butter to caramelize the sugars is a tip I learned from Cook's Illustrated and it never lets me down. I've got environmental objections to brown sugar, so I substituted the brown sugar with raw cane sugar and added a little molasses. (Brown sugar is just the same high-processed, environmentally damaging white sugar with the added processing of making it brown. Using fair-trade, evaporated organic raw cane juice lends a more mellow sweetness and is friendlier to the planet and the people who harvest sugar cane.)

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 and 1/2 cup raw cane sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
zest of one large orange
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the warm melted butter, sugar, molasses, cloves, orange zest and juice. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Set aside in a warm place for 20-30 minutes to allow sugars to caramelize.

Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough one tablespoon at a time. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

The end results are lovely, but mine are a little flat, so I upped the baking soda from the orignal recipe's 1/2 tsp. I also think they could go with a pinch more sea salt but I like my cookies on the saltier side.