Cinnamon Orange Mascarpone Cookies – so easy and so tasty that they were the first Christmas cookies I made this year.
I feel that, at least here in the U.S., come fall, we celebrate one holiday after another. First, there was Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and now we are already in the middle of Christmas season. Today, we finally decorated our apartment. Because we were in Boston over Thanksgiving, we just didn’t find the time to do it any earlier. But, of course, we already had a few things up like our Advent wreath and calendars.
It was only yesterday that I found the time to make our first Christmas cookies. Rich looked after Josephine so that I could use our kitchen without getting interrupted. I wouldn’t mind Josephine next to me on the floor – but recently she wants to be held a lot. And I just can’t bake well with only one hand available.
I chose to bake cinnamon orange mascarpone cookies as our first Christmas cookies this year. I love how well the tastes of orange and cinnamon go together. The cornstarch shortens the cookies.
I made these cookies in a jiffy, which is great when you have a) a husband who really wants to eat them, and b) a baby who demands almost constant attention. It actually took me longest to mix the dough with my hand mixer. Make sure to mix it for several minutes. That is just how long it takes before the mascarpone and the butter bind everything.
Rich eventually tried the cinnamon orange mascarpone cookies first and loved them, too. So it is quite possible that the 30 cookies won’t even last until the end of this weekend. I guess we are lucky that Josephine doesn’t yet eat cookies. By next year I might have to already double the recipe.
Cinnamon Orange Mascarpone Cookies
Ingredients
- 150 g flour (or 1 1/4 cups)
- 100 g cornstarch (or 3/4 cup)
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 100 g sugar (or 1/2 cup)
- 250 g mascarpone (or 1 cup)
- 80 g clarified butter (or 1/3 cup)
- 100 g dried orange slices (ca. 6 slices)
- 100 g powdered sugar (ca. 4/5 cups) for icing
- 2 tbsp. orange juice for icing
- 1 tsp. cinnamon for icing
- 50 g dried orange slices (ca. 3 slices) to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (or 360 °F).
- Add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar to a bowl. Stir.
- Add the clarified butter and mascarpone to the dry ingredients.
- With the help of a hand mixer, mix all ingredients until you have a smooth dough. This takes several minutes.
- Chop up the dried orange slices.
- Mix the orange pieces in with the dough.
- Use two spoons to put little piles of dough onto a cookie sheet.
- Bake in the oven for ca. 20 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool.
- For the icing, mix the powdered sugar, cinnamon and orange juice in a small bowl. Stir until you have a thick liquid.
- Spread the icing on the cookies.
- Cut the remaining dried orange slices into smaller pieces.
- Decorate the cookies with the orange pieces.
I’ll defenitely try these. Sounds so delicous! Have a nice Sunday! Corinna
Ich hoffe, du hattest auch einen schönen Sonntag, liebe Corinna! Die Plätzchen sind inzwischen schon aufgegessen, weil sie so gut sind (oder waren). Liebe Grüße, Jana
Das dachte ich mir. Ich muss sie noch backen! Habe ich mir ganz fest vorgenommen.