How to impress your boss's boss.

Recently, I had a pretty important meeting with my boss's boss. Part of our time together was enjoying a coffee tasting I would prepare for him. (sounds so 1950s) This involves me choosing a particular coffee to prepare in a french press and pairing it with a food item that enhances the nuances of that coffee. I chose one of my favorite coffees: Organic Peru Tingo Maria. Not to sound like a coffee fancy pants snob but lately I've been enjoying more African coffees so, this Latin blend surprised me with its depth and smooth nature. It's flavor profile includes sweet citrus and bittersweet chocolate. I was thinking of what to pair it with...the chocolate orange torte I recently made would go well but it's a bit rich for the kind of coffee tasting I wanted. I also wanted to highlight the sweet citrus more than the chocolate because that's a more difficult profile to enhance than chocolate. (Yes, I wanted to be super impressive.) Lemon is just too easy I decided, so made some orange zest cookies with bittersweet chocolate drizzle. (I am a bit infatuated with the chocolate-orange combination.) Here's my recipe. They turned out tasting a lot like Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies with orange. Sooo delicious and super easy.

1/2 c. butter (room temp)
1/4 c. shortening
1/2 c sugar
zest of one large orange
1 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. semi sweet dark chocolate (better quality is best)

Prep: Preheat oven to 400

Cream butter, shortening and sugar together. Add zest and egg, beat longer.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder together and add to mixture.

Add vanilla and beat until well blended. It was a similar consistency to play-doh

Form 1" balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake until bottoms of cookies are golden brown. Mine took 11 minutes...yours may take a little longer. Keep an eye on them, they bake quickly!

After the cookies are cooled, melt your chocolate over a double boiler or put a bowl on top of a pot of water to melt the chocolate. Drizzle to your contentment. A little goes a long way with these cookies. I made another batch the other night and all said and done the whole process took me about 30 minutes total.