Citrusy Chocolate Chip Cookies

We spent the week on the boat, at the dock, in mostly wet and windy weather, and I knew I would rather bake than do anything useful. I just couldn’t decide what kind of cookie to make using only the ingredients on board. Decisions, decisions, decisions! The weather made baking a very attractive indoor project, but not attractive enough to walk to the store for supplies. Now how lazy is that? Eventually chocolate chip cookies won out over biscotti as an easy choice.

One fat naval orange almost begged to be part of the action. It looked so lonely sitting in the fruit basket, days after it’s friends had disappeared one by one. 

Orange zest, hmmm - citrus might be a welcome contrast to the double-sweet dose of chocolate and brown sugar.

 I decided to add the zest of that large orange to a half-recipe of cookies, using the recipe on the back of the package of chips.

The batch of chocolate chip cookies was a perfect test subject. Note the past tense, “was”. We taste tested the cookies while they were still warm from the oven - ummm, good. We nibbled on a few more after they cooled - ummm, still good, and the tangy hint of orange really came through. Friends came by and soon the pile of cookies had shrunk by half. 

These treats were going fast, and I worried that we would be wearing the evidence for weeks. The crew at the nearby Water Taxi office enjoyed a dozen and soon this was all that remained to be photographed.

Note: This post is just a poorly-disguised excuse to play with the Macro and SuperMacro settings of my new camera - features I'm still getting used to. (Turn this dial to P for Program - press that icon two or three times on another button - and don’t expect the zoom to work on SuperMacro, just move the camera body - now remember all of these steps tomorrow…) Hey, I was excited to work with regular Macro, but SuperMacro is a whole new world of fun. Dozens of shots are waiting to be analyzed, discarded or Photoshopped... but I think I'll just keep playing with the camera instead.