Orange Vanilla Obsession

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Orange vanilla chip cookies on a white plate with orange napkins.  Cookies and photo by Cecilia Kennedy

Reckless and outrageous culinary threats often spew from my mouth after my first Coke in the morning and today is no different. Nate and Alex are getting ready to go to a swim meet and I’m thinking of ways to entertain myself while they’re gone. So, just as they leave, I down another caffeinated, buzzy sip of Coke—which only fuels my foolhardiness—and I announce the following idea:

“Today, I’m taking the sun, slapping it down from the sky, and putting it in a cookie. You’re gonna be like, ‘Is that the sun that I taste in my mouth? Is this what the sun tastes like? It’s freakin awesome!’”

Nate looks tired. Really tired. It’s very early in the morning and he is unable to imagine what I’m talking about. Who can? Who can imagine what the sun tastes like? Who? I can—after a Coke—and I believe the sun tastes like bright juicy oranges that have fallen into a bath of marshmallow fluff. That’s the cookie I want to make.

“Good luck with that,” Nate says.

Alex, on the other hand, is full of teenage energy and imagination, so he doesn’t need a Coke. Teens like Alex are already caffeinated. They’re born that way and then we give them the keys to the car. In any case, he often takes my culinary threats literally, which kind of scares me.  His eyes sparkle and he gets this look on his face that totally eggs me on, like “Yeah, Mom—go for it! I can’t wait to see that!”

And just like that— it’s on. It’s sooooo on.

But first—here’s a little background about my latest obsession with the blending of orange and vanilla flavors:

I was burning it out hard on the elliptical machine one day, when the Orange Vanilla Coke song came on and I had to grip the handles of the machine so I wouldn’t fly off into the air, while still moving my legs in a futile manner. (Sometimes this happens. Luckily there is a window in front of the elliptical machine and when my head smacks against it, I serve as a warning to birds so that they won’t fly into the window. “It’s glass, everyone!” they say to one another. “Look! The human just hit her head—it’s glass! You can’t fly through!”)

The Orange Vanilla Coke song is not your mama’s “I’d-like-to-buy-the-world-a-Coke- and-keep-it-company” jingle. It’s a “garage-band-jammin’-so-bad-it’s-good” song that had me singing the refrain, “Orange Vanilla Coke” for days on end. There are other words to this song, but they’re unnecessary in my opinion.

The more I listened to this song, the more I thought about the delicious blend of orange and vanilla flavors and before I knew it, I was texting Nate:

“If u r going to the store, please, pls, pls pick up some orange vanilla Coke. It’s new. I need it. Luv you :)”

Then, I dared to think about something so incredibly risky, I’m not sure if Betty Crocker would recommend it: What if I poured Orange Vanilla Coke directly into a sugar cookie batter AND used it to make an orange swirled vanilla icing for the cookie? Is the world ready for such a thing? That depends. This recipe’s success hinges on the quality of the Orange Vanilla Coke flavor.

So, when Nate came home with bottles of Orange Vanilla Coke, we both wore devilish grins on our faces and laughed giddily.

“Maybe just a sip,” we said. “Wouldn’t want to overdo it.”

I carefully unscrewed the cap and took in the aroma first and, well, it wasn’t promising—not to me at least. Then, I poured myself a small amount and tasted it.

“Well?” Nate asked.

“This should definitely not go into a cookie.”

Nate agreed, though he did like how the beverage tasted overall and so did Alex when he had a chance to try it. I, however, am sticking with the original flavor: Coke.

So now, instead of taking the easy way out and dumping Orange Vanilla Coke into cookie batter, I’m trying to figure out how to lasso the sun from the sky and make a cookie that’s worthy of garage-band jingle praise.

And, I think I’ve come up with something. The ingredients and steps for making my version of an orange vanilla cookie, are listed below. The orange flavor, in my opinion, is just right, and a smooth vanilla finish follows. They’re probably pretty good with milk—or a garage band. . . . Come to think of it, I highly recommend eating these cookies while listening to raucous garage band music that makes lyrical wonders of just a few words, like “Orange Vanilla Treats”—masterfully repeated in a looping fashion. Cheers!

Orange Vanilla Cookie recipe:

Ingredients (for a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, with a few variations)

–2 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour

–1 tsp. of baking soda

–1/2 tsp. salt

–one cup of butter

–3/4 cup of granulated sugar

–3/4 cup of brown sugar

–one egg

–2 ½ tsps. orange extract

–the zest from two clementines

–one package of vanilla chips

Method:

–In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking, soda salt. Mix lightly with a fork.

–In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Then, beat in the egg, orange extract, and zest

–Add the flour mixture to the butter/egg/sugar mixture a little at a time and mix well.

–Add in the vanilla chips.

–Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375.

Your Turn: What is your favorite commercial jingle? Or, have you ever tried a product you thought you would really like, but you didn’t? DiscussJ

 

Published by ckennedy

Author of the DIY blog: Fixin' Leaks and Leeks. Paper/Rock Writing Consultation, Sole Proprietor.

27 thoughts on “Orange Vanilla Obsession”

      1. It was actually funny how it happened. My best friend Katie and I saw a billboard for it and spent several minutes discussing why we didn’t think we’d like it. Two days later one of our coworkers showed up with it and said we should try it. I couldn’t resist. Katie could. Lol

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  3. This is very funny, and your recipe sounds great. I love that you included some actual orange zest in it! As for my own eating adventures, I’ve been dining mostly vegetarian for the past year or so. My older daughter told me about a wonderful meat-free hot dog that she had from Ikea. I didn’t know what brand they would have been, but saw some at the grocery store that looked pretty good.

    I sliced several and stir-fried in olive oil, along with some veggies…onions and spinach, I think. They smelled so good while cooking, even though I was never a huge fan of hot dogs. When it came time to eat, I discovered that it was like chewing up hot dog-flavored ‘jello jigglers.’ I made it through a few pieces and then just ate the veggies. Terrible, and I couldn’t even stand the smell in my apartment for the rest of that evening!

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    1. Thank you! Those hot dogs sound awful. Thanks for the warning. I love the black bean veggie burger, so I’ve been wanting to try other vegan/vegetarian items out there. Now I know to avoid the hot dogs:)

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  5. I’ve been wanting to try the new orange vanilla Coke. In theory, it seems like it should be delicious, but we’ve all been down that sad road of dashed expectations.

    Your cookies sound delicious. I don’t bake (other than asparagus) so I’ll just imagine that they are.

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    1. That sounds like a great idea! Also, Alex just mentioned to me the other day that the cookies from this recipe could be used to sandwich a mixture of orange sherbet/vanilla ice cream. I need to recruit him to do that blog post!

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  11. So funny. And bookmarked to try this recipe! I do have some questions though; I’m reading this on April 1st, so is Orange Vanilla Coke really a thing? I don’t think I can get vanilla chips, not heard of those, but as above, maybe I could try using white or milk choc chips and some vanilla essence. I’m not a great cook, so anything that involves turning my oven on is one huge experiment anyway. 😉

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  12. I wish I could get my son to START drinking pop instead of those awful energy drinks. The recipe looks amazing–I might try it with GF flour once this marathon work session is over. My favourite commerical song right now is the one for Apple called Come Along–it’s so cool!

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