chocolate

chocolate orange bundt cake #bundtbakers

Have I ever mentioned the fact that I LOVE chocolate?

Well, it’s true.
I do.

I know that it’s probably hard to believe, but you’re going to have to get used to the idea.

When I found out that Tanya of Dessert Stalking had chosen chocolate as the theme for this month’s #bundtbakers, I was over the moon. Thank you Tanya!!! I’ve made a lot of bundts in this group, but this whole time I’ve only made one other chocolate cake. It’s a cryin shame is what it is, and I promise that I’m appropriately ashamed.

I usually prefer dark chocolate over milk or white, but to be honest I’ll take any and all of the above given the opportunity. I’m the kind of person who keeps a dark chocolate bar (or two) hidden in a drawer in my night stand just in case of emergencies. I only need a few squares at a time when I need my fix, but when I need it, I really need it.

I know I inherited that trait from my mom, who’s secret chocolate stash is kept in the drawers of her vanity. When I first found out about it I couldn’t believe that she would dare to withhold chocolate from me and have the audacity to keep some for herself. These days, I get it.

When I was trying to decide on a chocolate bundt to make this month I was totally overwhelmed by the possibilities. There are just too many delicious things you can do with chocolate and I couldn’t even begin to narrow it down.

Every time I’d think of something, my mind kept wanting to wander back to a chocolate orange bundt that I made when I was just getting this blog off it’s feet. That cake was so moist and tender and brightly flavored and super duper chocolatey that it might just be one of my favorite bundts I’ve ever made.

Now, I don’t want to get into the habit of repeating recipes around here, but I knew this cake deserved to be revisited. I originally made it way back in the beginning, back before I’d found out about and joined up with the #bundtbakers gang, back when I was still using an iphone to take my photos, and most importantly, back when I didn’t really have many readers other than my mother. Not only is this recipe new to the bundt bakers, but I also think it deserves to be highlighted with better photos and to be seen and shared with as many people as possible, which simply wasn’t the case the first time around.

I’ve done this with a small handful of my other favorite recipes from the first few months of Brooklyn Homemaker, and I saw no reason not to revisit this one too. So, chocolate orange bundt cake it was.

I made a few minor adjustments to the original recipe from back in 2013, but for the most part little has changed. This cake is rich and dark and sublimely chocolatey with an assertive cocoa flavor backed up with soft and melty morsels of finely chopped dark chocolate. The orange zest and juice in the recipe, along with the orange glaze poured over the top, elevate this cake and give it a boost of sweet fruity brightness that can be unusual with chocolate cakes. The crumb is soft and tender, and the cake is so moist that it stays perfectly delicious for several days if covered well. I took half of the cake to work with me and my coworkers devoured it and raved about how wonderful it was. One of them loved it so much that she took a slice home to her roommate, and has been asking me ever since when I’d be posting the recipe so she could try it herself.

If you’re into chocolate, this is a cake you really gotta try. If you’re not, you need your head examined.

Another thing you gotta do if you’re into chocolate is make sure to scroll down past the recipe to check out all the other mouth-watering, craving-satisfying, unbelievable chocolatey creations the other bundt bakers came up with this month. I myself can barely handle all this chocolate in one place.

Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

Servings: 12ish
Print

adapted from Joy the Baker

For the Cake:
1 1/4 cups orange juice
zest of 3 large oranges
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup peanut oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup finely chopped dark chocolate or mini chocolate chips

For the Glaze:
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
zest of one orange

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
Generously butter and flour a 10 to 12 cup Bundt pan and set aside.

Whisk orange juice and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix together the sugar and orange zest until the zest is well distributed and has turned the sugar orange. Add the salt, eggs and egg yolk and mix on low for about 1 minute. Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute.

Add the flour and baking soda and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. Mix in chopped chocolate on low. The batter will be very loose. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 55-65, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 20 minutes before inverting onto a rack to cool completely.

make the glaze:
Whisk confectioner’s sugar, orange juice and zest until free of lumps. I like to do this in a glass measuring cup with a spout so you can pour the glaze easily.

Place a sheet pan under the rack with the completely cooled cake. Pour the glaze over the Bundt cake, covering it completely. If you have leftover glaze pour it from the pan back into the measuring cup and go back in for another coat. Transfer to a cake plate or platter by gently sliding the cake off the rack, use a thin spatula to help lift it if necessary. Leave at room temperature until ready to serve. The glaze will harden and form a sort of candy shell and keep the cake nice and moist.

It’s probably a good thing that I’m not able to taste all of these cakes because I’d probably eat until I burst given the chance. All this chocolate sure has me drooling guys!!!

Apricot Almond Bundt Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache by Cassandra at Cassie’s Kitchen
Blackforest Bundt Cake by Anshie at SpiceRoots
Chocolate and Almonds Bundt Cake by Kathya at Basic N Delicious
Chocolate and Lavender Bundt Cake by Aisha at La Cocina de Aisha
Chocolate Buttermilk Bundt Cake by Beatriz & Mara at I love Bundt Cakes
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Bundt Cake by Julie at Eat, Drink, and Be Mighty
Chocolate Crumb Bundt by Catherine at Living the Gourmet
Chocolate Custard Floating Island Bundt Cake by Jelena at A Kingdom For a Cake
Chocolate Honeycomb Bundt by Sue at Just Sew Sue
Chocolate Irish Cream Bundt by Anne at From My Sweet Heart
Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake by Tux at Brooklyn Homemaker
Chocolate Pound Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days
Chocolate Rose Bundt Cake by Lara at Tartacadabra
Chocolate Strawberry Pound Cake by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
Cider White Chocolate Bundt Cake with White Chocolate Glaze by Patricia at Patty’s Cake
Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Bundt Cake by Linda at Brunch with Joy
Devil’s Food Chocolate Bundt Cake by Tanya at DessertStalking Blog
Double Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake by Carola at En La Cocina de Caro
False Chocolate Bundt Cake by Anna at Media RaciÛn Doble, Por Favor
Guava and Chocolate Bundt by Kelly at Passion Kneaded
How the Grinch Stole Valentine’s Day by Lauren at Sew You Think You Can Cook
Kickin Chocolate Bundt Cake by Kaylin at Keep it Simple, Sweetie
Lemon Glazed White Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake Mini Bundts by Laura at The Spiced Life
Mars Bar Bundt by Tara at Noshing With The Nolands
Marshmallows Chocolate Bundt Cake by Shilpi at SimplyVeggies
Quadruple Chocolate Bundt by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
Red Velvet Bundt with White Chocolate Roses by Laura at Baking in Pyjamas
Sacher Bundt Cake by Esti at Mummy & Cute
Spicy Chocolate Mini Bundt Cake by Rocio at Kids & Chic
Triple Chocolate Buttermilk Bundt Cake by Teri at The Freshman Cook
Tunnel of Fudge Bundt Cake by Rebekah at Making Miracles
White Chocolate & Raspberries Bundt Cake by Samantha at Un Mordisco Un Pecado

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Interested in learning more about us? #BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the BundtBaker home page here.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com. If you are just a lover of Bundt baking, you can find all of our recipe links by clicking our badge above or on our group Pinterest board.

pistachio and dark chocolate chunk cookies with brown butter and fleur de sel

I realize that a lot of you are probably all cookie’d out right about now, but I just had to squeeze one more cookie recipe in before the end of the year.

I’d say that I’m sorry, but no one should every apologize for making cookies.

I gathered the makings of this recipe with the intention of making them on Christmas day, but it didn’t really work out that way.

The days leading up to Christmas tend to be pretty stressful in my world, so when it comes to the actual holiday itself I try to take it pretty easy. Russell and I spent the day at home with the dogs, opening presents, calling friends and family, watching Murder, She Wrote, and eating everything in sight. Since it’s just the two of us, I thought that making some cookies would be a fun activity we could do together during the day. I didn’t want to do anything too fussy or involved like cutouts, but thought a fancied up chocolate chip cookie could be the perfect holiday treat.

The ham I was making for dinner, along with some roasted broccoli and sweet potato gratin, had other plans though. I was not thinking ahead at all and didn’t take the fact that the ham would be cooking at a low temperature for several hours into consideration.

We weren’t yet ready for cookie time when the ham went into the oven, and when it came out we feasted and immediately fell deep into a food coma, so our cookie plans were (temporarily) abandoned.

Later that evening we aaaaaalmost rallied and went for it, but opted instead for another glass of wine and mouthful of chocolate from our stockings.

In the end it may have been a good thing that we didn’t make these on Christmas day. For one thing, we had plenty of chocolate in our stockings. For another, making them a few days later also meant that I was able to photograph the process and share them with you. These babies are so delicious and perfect that I’m actually pretty thrilled to get to share them.

This post was brought to you by a salty little Christmas ham and a holiday food coma.

Browning the butter for this recipe requires some extra time since it needs to firm back up after it’s melted and browned, but I promise you it’s worth it. Browning butter deepens and intensifies everything that’s already great about butter, and then adds a toasty nuttiness. Taking the time to toast the pistachios before adding them to the cookies also helps to intensify the nutty goodness. It’s all about building layers of flavor here.

When it comes to chocolate chip cookies, I’m definitely of the “go big or go home” school of thought. I usually like to use a #24 portion scoop, which works out to 1.5 oz (or 3 tablespoons) of dough. I love portion scoops for drop cookies because it makes it really quick and easy to get all of your cookies the same size and shape. If you don’t have a portion scoop, you can certainly measure out 3 tablespoons of dough to see how it should look and then try to make the rest of your cookies match that size.

You can easily use a smaller portion scoop, or make smaller cookies if you want, you’ll just need to adjust your baking time accordingly to avoid over-baking.

I know there are a jillion chocolate chip cookies out there on the internets, but I beg you to give these a try. You can thank me later.

I brought some to work with me and two of my coworkers separately came to tell me that these cookies have the perfect texture for chocolate chip cookies. They’re soft and chewy in the center, with perfect crispy crusty golden edges.
The brown butter and toasted pistachios are the perfect rich nutty compliment to the sweet and bitter dark chocolate, and the briny minerally crunchy fleur de sel is the perfect finish to every bite. They’re buttery, chocolatey, sweet, salty, and completely wonderful. I could go on, but you’re just going to have to make them and see for yourself.

Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Brown Butter and Fleur de Sel

Servings: about 2 1/2 dozen cookies, depending on size
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adapted from Martha Stewart

18 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks + 2 tablespoons)
1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 10 to 12 ounces) roughly chopped good dark chocolate, or good quality dark chocolate chips or chunks
1 tablespoon (ish) fleur de sel or other crunchy finishing salt

In a small heavy-bottom saucepan, brown the butter over medium high heat until golden to deep brown, should take about 10 or 15 minutes. Watch carefully once it starts to brown to avoid burning. Pour out into a heat-proof dish, trying to leave the burnt solids behind, and refrigerate until soft but beginning to firm. If it solidifies, you can remove and leave out until soft.
If you want to skip this step, you can simply use 2 sticks of softened unsalted butter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange pistachios on a baking sheet in a single layer, and toast for about 5 or 6 minutes, or until they smell toasty and nutty. Cool and roughly chop.

Whisk together the flour and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside. Combine the cooled brown butter with both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate and toasted pistachio.

Scoop dough out using a portion scoop and place about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. I used a #24 scoop, which works out to about 3 tablespoons of dough per cookie. If you make smaller cookies you’ll need to reduce the baking time by a few minutes, but you’ll have more cookies in the end. Sprinkle each cookie with a small pinch of fleur de sel.

Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, around 11 to 13 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

best chocolate bundt cake with peppermint dark chocolate ganache #bundtbakers

It seems that no one single flavor is more universally popular during the holidays than peppermint!

Appropriately enough, the theme for this month’s #bundtbakers event was mint! Fresh mint, mint extract, mint oil, mint candies, mint chocolates, candy canes, you name it. It’s all fair game this month. I want to say a great big thank you to our host this month, Laura Tabacca of The Spiced Life, and encourage you to scroll down past the recipe to check out all the other amazing minty bundts this month!

When I was growing up I was a HUGE mint fan, and always got a pack of Andes mints and peppermint Altoids in my stocking for Christmas. I also loved baking with mint and drove my mother crazy putting peppermint extract in everything.

I remember when I was just learning to bake, my sister and I made a peppermint cake that stuck to the pan when we tried to invert it. Instead of accepting defeat, we just scraped the cake out of the pan into a tupperware container. We then took the tupperware full of minty cake crumbs to my grandmother’s house and proudly presented them as “dessert”. We were young and I keep telling myself that we didn’t know any better.

Now that I’m older my taste for mint has waned a bit. I still like mint candies, and I only chew mint flavored gum (I don’t know why, but I HATE fruit flavored gum), but these days I almost never bake with mint.

Since I bake with mint so rarely, I felt a lot of (self-imposed) pressure when coming up with my bundt this month. I went through a ton of ideas, bouncing some off friends at work and actually laying awake at night thinking about what I might do. Finally I decided to keep it classic and simple, and went for a really solid chocolate bundt cake topped with peppermint dark chocolate ganache.

There’s no mint in the cake itself because I thought it would be the perfect subtle touch if it were just in the ganache. Once the cake is topped with crushed peppermint candies there is plenty of minty goodness happening here, trust me.

I used peppermint oil in the ganache rather than extract. The oil has a much fresher, greener, herbal mint flavor than extract, which has more of a peppermint candy flavor. I did this, again, in the name of subtlety and elegance, and I was really happy with the way it came out. I will warn you though that, if you’re used to working with the extract, the oil is MUCH stronger and more concentrated, and should be used very sparingly. When I first made my ganache I actually used WAAAAY too much (1/2 teaspoon) and it tasted like chocolate toothpaste. I adjusted the recipe and decided just a few drops was plenty to give the ganache all the mint flavor it needed. If you really like mint you may want to use a few more drops, but don’t go crazy or you’ll regret it.

If you can’t find peppermint oil, or don’t want to buy one more thing for the pantry, peppermint extract would be totally delicious too. Since it’s not as strongly concentrated, you’ll probably want to use a bit more, but I suggest you start with about a 1/4 a teaspoon first and see if you need to add more.

After all that planning and brainstorming, I’m so happy that I went with these classic flavors.

I cannot say enough about this chocolate bundt cake recipe. It’s adapted from my favorite chocolate bundt cake ever, and it’s my go-to recipe whenever I want chocolate to be the star of the show. It’s unbelievably moist and tender and richly, deeply, darkly chocolatey. The original recipe calls for brewed coffee, but I didn’t want the coffee flavor to compete with the mint so I just used water this time. It’s highly adaptable, and I’ve even had great success substituting an equal amount of orange juice for the coffee (or water), in my chocolate orange bundt cake.

The peppermint dark chocolate ganache on top takes everything to a whole other level of holiday perfection. It’s the perfect touch of mint to make this cake scream “HAPPY HOLIDAYS!” To break up all the dark brown chocolate and add a pop of festive holiday color, I sprinkled crushed peppermint candies over the ganache before it set. Not only does it look pretty, but it adds even more of that sweet peppermint flavor!

Best Chocolate Bundt Cake with Peppermint Dark Chocolate Ganache

Servings: 12
Print

adapted from Joy the Baker

For the Cake:
1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup peanut oil or any neutral vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

For the Peppermint Dark Chocolate Ganache:
4 oz best quality dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
a few small drops of peppermint oil
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies or candy canes, if desired.

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
Liberally butter and flour a 10 to 12 cup Bundt pan and set aside.

Whisk water and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low for just one minute. Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute.
Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes more. Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. The batter will seem quite loose and liquid. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 55-65, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack.

To make the ganache, heat the heavy cream in a heavy pot, just until it begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for a minute or so, then whisk to combine. Add a few small drops of peppermint oil, and taste to see if you’d like to add more. DO NOT add more than 1/4 teaspoon. Peppermint oil is STRONG.
If using peppermint extract, start with 1/4 teaspoon, taste, and adjust if necessary.

Drizzle ganache over the cake while it’s still warm and liquid. Sprinkle crushed peppermint candies over the top if desired. Let the ganache set for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Don’t make this too far in advance of serving, or the candies may begin to melt. If you want to make in advance, I’d just bake the cake ahead, cover tightly with wrap, and wait to top with ganache and candies until you’re almost ready to serve.

All these amazing minty bundts sound so festive and delicious! Check ’em out y’all!

Interested in learning more about us? #BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the BundtBaker home page here.

spicy gingerbread linzer cookies with orange white chocolate ganache

Don’t blink folks, it’s almost Christmas!

Every year it feels like it just sneaks up on me. No sooner have I taken a breath after the Thanksgiving dishes are washed than Christmas is a week away and I still haven’t done any shopping. I am terrible about waiting until the last minute to buy gifts. Always have been.

Luckily cookies make a great gift!

Growing up my family always had trays of cookies around in the days leading up to Christmas, and having a variety of treats around always made things feel that much more festive and celebratory.

One way to get that big variety of cookies for the holidays, without having to spend days in the kitchen, is to throw a cookie swap. A traditional cookie swap is basically a party where everyone makes one big batch of one type of cookie, and then everyone gets together and exchanges them. To make it really fun you can serve snacks and cocktails and have a packing station with cute paper boxes and cookie tins and tags and ribbons and twine. All the cookies are divided evenly and then everyone goes home with a handful of each type.

I’ve always wanted to host a cookie swap but have never felt like enough of my friends would want to participate to make it worth my while.

Thanks to the magic of internet though, I got to get in on the fun after all. This year I participated in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, organized by Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen.

The idea is simple. You register as a participating blogger, make a small donation, and you’re assigned three bloggers to send cookies to. Then three other bloggers are assigned to send cookies to you. It’s like secret santa through the mail, but with dozens of cookies! Last year over 600 bloggers participated and over $14,000 was raised for Cookies for Kid’s Cancer!

I wanted to make a recipe that felt really special to me, and had flavors that I’ve always associated with the holidays. I’ve always had a love of dark molassessy spice cookies at Christmas, and linzer cookies have always felt really fancy, so I decided to combine the two ideas into one perfect holiday cookie.

The gingerbread recipe I used has been my favorite for years, and makes a really delicious cookie all on it’s own. If you want to make gingerbread cut outs, this is a great recipe to try. The cookies are thick and chewy and dark and bursting with plenty of spice. There’s warm spices like cinnamon and cloves, but there’s also a nice hint of actual heat from ground black pepper and ginger.

To take things to a whole other level of fancy, I sandwiched the cookies with an orange white chocolate ganache filling. It’s just the right amount of creamy sweetness and bright citrus zest to perfectly compliment the chewy spiciness of the gingerbread. When choosing white chocolate it’s really important to read the ingredients and make sure it actually contains cocoa butter. Most white baking chocolate and white chocolate chips actually don’t, but are instead white chocolate flavored sweetened palm. My advice is to look for plain white chocolate bars in the candy aisle instead.

My cookies went to Club Narwhal, Love and Joy, and Pale Yellow. I hope they enjoyed them as much as I did, and as much as I enjoyed making them. There’s something about making cookies this time of year that is so much more fun than usual!

I received chocolate brown butter cookies from The Sassy Life, almond lace sandwich cookies from Love and Olive Oil, and peppermint sugar cookies from Greens & Chocolate. Everything was amazing, and Russell and I have been munching away merrily every since! What’s left of the cookies even made a guest appearance in my Mexican hot dark chocolate post!

Thank you so much to everyone who sent me cookies, and to everyone who participated this year! This was so much fun, and now I have a bunch of new favorite cookies for the holidays!

Spicy Gingerbread Linzer Cookies with Orange White Chocolate Ganache

Servings: makes about 2 1/2 dozen 2.5 inch cookies
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Spicy Gingerbread Cookies:
Barely adapted from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
3/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons milk

white chocolate ganache filling (recipe below)
powdered sugar for dusting

Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade attachment. Pulse until well combined, about 10 seconds. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture and pulse repeatedly until mixture is sandy and resembles fine meal, about 30 seconds. With food processor running, add molasses and milk and process until dough is evenly moistened and forms soft mass, about 10 seconds.
If you want to double the recipe, you’ll need to make it in multiple batches.
Divide dough in half and roll into ¼ inch thickness between two large sheets of parchment paper. Place in refrigerator at least two hours (or overnight) or place on a flat surface in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes, until firm. The colder the dough is the easier it is to work with, so I recommend freezing.
Preheat the oven to 350F and adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Once cold and firm, peel the top sheet of parchment from the dough, flip the dough over onto the parchment, and peel off the other piece. You can cut into any shape you like, but if you want to make linzer cookies make sure you have one cutter that is 1/2 the size of the other (or smaller) to make your “window” in the top cookie. Cut out half the cookies in a solid “base” shape, and cut the remaining half of the cookies so that the smaller cutter forms a “window” hole in the center of the top cookie.
Place on prepared baking sheets spacing cookies 1 inch apart. Bake until centers are just set and dough barely retains imprint when touched very gently with fingertip, anywhere from 8 to 11 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. To bake evenly, rotate the baking sheets halfway through. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 5 to 10 minutes or until cool and firm enough to remove from the parchment without breaking. Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Gather scraps into a ball and repeat rolling, cooling, cutting, and baking with remaining dough until all is used.

Orange White Chocolate Ganache Filling:

7 oz good quality white chocolate (from bars, not chips)
1/4 cup heavy cream
finely grated zest of one large orange
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In the the bowl of a double boiler over a very gentle simmer, break up the white chocolate into small pieces and combine with the heavy cream, orange zest, and salt. Stir with a silicone spatula until the chocolate is completely melted with no solid chunks remaining. Take your time, and be sure that the water in the lower pan never goes above a gentle simmer.
Once the chocolate is melted, remove from heat, add the butter and gently stir until completely melted and combined.
Set aside to cool until firm but spreadable. This will take about an hour or two. I’d recommend that you don’t try to refrigerate it because if it gets too cold it’ll be too firm and you’ll need to melt it again to soften it.

With a small offset icing spatula, or a butter knife, spread a small amount (probably about 2 teaspoons) of the ganache filling on to each base cookie. Top each of the filling-covered base cookies with a top cookie and line the filled cookie sandwiches up in a single layer on a clean surface. Dust all the cookies with a light coating of powdered sugar.

If packing for transport or shipping, I’d recommend refrigerating for at least an hour to fully set the ganache.