Recipe: Orange Milano Cookies (copycat)

Orange Milano Cookies (copycat)
rec.food.baking/Adrian Mariano (1998)

Here is my recipe for Orange Milano Cookies:

1 1/3 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange oil (rind of a small orange)
1/2 tsp lemon oil (rind of a small lemon)

Chocolate Filling

3 oz semisweet chocolate
1 Tbsp shortening

Preheat oven to 375. Beat together butter and sugar. Add egg and continue beating until thoroughly blended and smooth. Add vanilla and citrus oils and beat a few seconds longer. Gradually mix in dry ingredients until thoroughly incorporated.

Spoon dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch plain or star tip. Pipe dough onto baking sheets to form thin 2 inch long strips about 3 inches apart. Using a knife, gently smooth down any points left at the ends of the strips.

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are golden brown around the edges. Cool completely.

Melt together chocolate and shortening. Allow to cool until the chocolate is thick but still spreadable. Spread a thin layer of chocolate on the underside of one cookie. Press another cookie against the chocolate to form a sandwich.

Note: the amount that these cookies spread is HIGHLY dependent on the amount and nature of your flour. If you measure by volume, you should sift the flour before measuring. You may have to experiment to find the right amount of your flour to get the spread you want. When I make them, they come out 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches wide. When I found this recipe in a cookbook, I was initially confounded by problems with the size of the cookies. They would come out 3/4 inch wide because I had too much flour.