Orange Sugar-Crusted Meltaways

These meltaways pull off a clever party trick. You bake a tender chocolate-chip shortbread cookie, then dip the cooled cookies in fresh orange juice and roll them in sugar. As they dry, the juice and sugar set into a thin crackly shell that perfumes the whole cookie with citrus.

The dough itself stays close to classic shortbread territory. No eggs, just butter or margarine creamed with sugar, a splash of water and vanilla, and flour folded in alongside chocolate chips and finely chopped nuts. The lack of leavening is deliberate. These should melt on the tongue, not puff and crack.

The orange-and-zest soak is where personality lives. Steeping the orange zest in juice while you bake lets the oils bloom into the liquid. Strain it before dipping or you’ll get bitter pith specks on the finished cookies.

Let the dipped cookies dry on a rack for at least 30 minutes. The sugar pulls moisture from the juice and sets up into that signature shell. Skip the drying time and you get sticky, sandy cookies instead of crisp ones.

Pro Tips

• Bake until just firm to the touch and barely golden on the bottom. Overbaked meltaways turn dry and dusty.
• Use a microplane for the zest and only take the orange-colored layer. White pith is bitter.
• Dip quickly. A 1-second roll in juice is plenty. Soaking turns them into mush.
• Store in a single layer in an airtight container. Stacking damp cookies welds the sugar shells together.

Variations

• Swap orange for lemon zest and juice for a brighter, more tart meltaway.
• Use white chocolate chips and pecans instead of semi-sweet and walnuts for a sweeter cookie.
• Add ¼ teaspoon almond extract to the dough and use sliced almonds for a marzipan-style version.