Chocolate-Dipped Orange Cookies

As I stated before, Anthony likes those chocolate oranges. So I decided to use this as inspiration for his present this year. I also decided that this would be one of the recipes from my physical copies since orange and chocolate are both popular ingredients. I finally settled on one from one of the Taste of Home mini magazines that you can get at the cash register.

Double Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes

Remember those chocolate oranges that were also flavored orange? I vaguely remember seeing them a lot when I was a kid (apparently this was because Anthony was a big fan so Mom would always get him one for his Christmas stocking).

Like most fruit, orange just goes great with chocolate. So I've wanted to make something chocolate-orange for a while. I decided that the Labor Day BBQ at my parents' house (side note: it's been 4 years and I'm still not used to not calling it my house) would be the perfect time to make something chocolate-orange. Since I hadn't made cupcakes in a while, I decided on those. I chose a recipe from one of the Simply Sweet magazine, a dessert magazine from the same publishers as Southern Living and Cooking Light (among others).

Oh, and if you're wondering where I got that chocolate orange pictured above, I found it partially hidden in a display at a sweet shop I adore called Lolli & Pops. There are several locations in the Seattle-area (two of which I can get to via transit - not exactly a good thing).

Madeleines

A few months ago I was at Bed, Bath, & Beyond to see if they have a broiling pan so I could make burgers at home (I've discovered that it's a good place to go before Amazon for stuff for my apartment that Safeway and Target don't have. Plus I get a coupon with my Good Housekeeping magazine that I like to use). As I usually do when I'm there, I started walking around the area of the kitchen section where the kitchen tools and baking pans are. I came across a pan for making madeleines - a.k.a. mini tea cakes. A madeleine pan is one of the few items left on my Amazon baking items wish list because I've always wanted to make them. So I decided to buy it with the plan to use up leftover chocolate chips from baking Christmas presents. I even found a recipe.

Except that plan never really came to fruition. I wanted to make them for me but never really had an opportunity (yes, I'm one of those bad people who has to have dessert after dinner. However, as I've said before, my hands are magnets to new/limited flavors of Oreos and I want to eat them before making cookies from scratch. This has yet to happen). And I was unsure about how they would be received at work. So the pan sat on my storage shelf, the label still on it. Until I found out we were having brunch for Mother's Day. Perfect! Madeleines seem like the kind of thing you serve at brunch as well as tea. So I pulled out the saved recipe - something simple that I could add chocolate chips to - and got to work.