Dreamsicle Meltaway Cookies

Intro: Dreamsicle Meltaway Cookies

AKA - Winter Storm Draco Cookies!!

What do you do when school is canceled, the wind is howling, you can't go shopping and you are entirely snowed in?

PANIC??!! Nope....BAKE COOKIES!!! It's a much better use of time!

These delightful little cookies literally melt away in your mouth just like the Dreamsicles I savored when I was a kid. Maybe you remember the perfect combination of orange and vanilla too. It's magical and sort of reminds me of snow. No wait, everything reminds me of snow when there are complete whiteout conditions and the ground is blanketed in 15 inches of the powdered fluffiness.

STEP 1: Zest and Juice Orange

Using a microplane zest one entire orange. Set zest aside.

Cut orange in half and squeeze one half to get 2 T. fresh orange juice. Set juice aside.

STEP 2: Make Dough

Dreamsicle Meltaway Cookies
3/4 c. butter
3/4 c. powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
zest of one orange
2 T. orange juice
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 c. flour
1/4 t. salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter on medium speed until pale yellow. Add powdered sugar, juice, zest and vanilla one at a time mixing well after each addition.

Add flour and salt and mix until well combined.

STEP 3: Freeze Dough

Divide dough in half and place one half on a large rectangle of waxed paper. Shape dough into a log. Roll the waxed paper around the dough and twist the ends up like a tootsie roll.

Freeze for 30 minutes or until the dough is firm.

STEP 4: Bake Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove dough from freezer and remove the waxed paper.

Place dough on a cutting board and using a sharp knife cut log into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange slices on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes.

Transfer cookies to a wire rack. While cookies are still warm lightly dust with powdered sugar using a small sieve.

Optional - dust with orange sanding sugar over the top of the powdered sugar.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

Comments

[wintersmith87]

They sure look delicious! At first glance, they remind me of my favorite cookies from Spain (minus the orange), Polvorones: https://www.thespruce.com/polvorones-recipe-almond...

The same type of cookies seem to exist in Greece as well. With the almond flour they taste so delicious :) The important thing is the heavy dusting of powdered sugar!

I will try your recipe next

[wold630]

I've never seen a recipe for Palvorones. They sound delicious! I agree that the powder sugar makes these cookies! Let me know what you think after you make them...they are delightful. :P

[Luv2cook74]

yum, I use lemon zest and lemon juice and they taste lemony

[ehudwill]

These look good.

[wold630]

They are delicious, thank you!

[sheryle]

I tried to follow your recipe. The cookies are in freezer. Can you leave for future use? Also, my dough was Very dry. Is that normal? Do you think caster's sugar on top would be good?

[wold630]

I'm so excited for you to taste your cookies! Yes, I would say if you left the cookies in the freezer for a few days the dough should be fine. I baked mine right away so I can't say for sure. My dough was not dry - not sure about that. I hope this helps.

Caster sugar would probably be good the powdered sugar just makes them look so pretty!

[bluesquirrel]

These are delicious, and so very easy to make! However, Powdered sugar and my lungs are mortal enemies, so instead I made a glaze with some powdered sugar, orange juice, vanilla flavoring, and a drop or two of orange-flavoring. I'm going to try this later with lemon, and then again with lime. I'll have to use a drop or two of food coloring in each batch to help distinguish the three flavors.

[WUVIE]

Great presentation. Lovely cookies! A winner in my book! Best of luck!

[wold630]

Thanks.

[valhallas_end]

Saw this 'ible a few hours ago, decided to try. I've never baked cookies before - bread still manages to defeat me most days - but these came out quite edible and (I think) delicious. Mine came out a tad too flour-y, more like a mix between Italian wafer cookies and sugar cookies, but very tasty!

Made almost 40 cookies...only 9 left...

[bigwhitebear18]

From the picture, I would surmise that you over cooked the cookies a little bit too much. You should take them out of the oven when the edges are just golden. The tops may look like they aren't done yet but when they sit to cool they'll firm up and you have wonderful cookies. If the taste is too flour-y you may need to add a little less. To get a better flour measurement make sure to "fluff" your flour so that it isn't packed when measuring it. By fluff I mean scoop it out and pour it back in a few times, then get your measured amount. You can also add a little extract for a stronger flavor or a little more of the juice.
My recipe calls or regular sugar, lemon zest, and half of a squeezed lemon but I always put all of the juice for a stronger bite. Keep making them and you'll get it.

[valhallas_end]

Thanks for the tips! Tried again over the weekend - definitely used too much flour last time, but fluffing really helped...and made a huge mess, but all is fun in baking and war! I keep cooking them a bit too long - the glass on my oven is hard to see through - but they were much more meltaway-y this time.

Next up - lemon-lime cookies!

[WUVIE]

Hey, you did great for never having baked cookies before! Keep up the good work.
We all had to start somewhere, and you're off to a good start! :-)

[wold630]

I'm so glad you made these and posted a picture. Thank you.

They are definitely not overly sweet cookies but very delicious none the less!

[shazni]

oh so tasty looking?...we have something called burfi here...it seems like this...must do it and see if it taste the same :-)

[wold630]

I've never heard of burfi. Let me know how they turn out and what you think. You won't be disappointed I don't think!

[bigwhitebear18]

I just made a lemon version of these today. I form the dough into a rectangle to make ladyfingers, and also because it's easier.
I either dust with the powder sugar or in a bowl mix the powder sugar and a little of the juice to make a paste to spread on top of the cookies.

[wold630]

A paste would tasty on top of these cookies. They are also delicious with citrus curd!

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Those sound delicious and I love the way you roll them up to freeze them! So much easier to get the right size cookies!