Spiced Chocolate Orange Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
For Cookies:
1 cup lard, softened at room temperature
1 ½ cups light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed orange juice (I used the juice from cara cara oranges)
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange peel (I used cara cara orange peel)
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated whole nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
For Rolling:
1/4 – 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
2.) In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer, beat lard, sugar, vanilla, orange juice, and orange zest on medium-high speed until combined and smooth.
3.) In medium bowl, whisk to combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and cream of tartar.
4.) Add dry mixture to bowl with lard mixture. Beat to combine, scraping sides of bowl as needed with rubber spatula (dough will be a bit crumbly).
5.) In shallow bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon with a fork or whisk.
6.) For each cookie, roll about 2 tablespoonsful of dough into a ball. Fully coat each ball in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place on prepared cookie sheets, spaced at least 2-inches apart.
7.) Bake on middle rack of oven for 13-15 minutes, or until cookies have deep cracks on top.
8.) Cool on cookie sheets 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to continue cooling. Can serve warm or at room temperature.
Yield: 20 cookies
