Orange Zucchini Cookies

I drove to Grinnell Saturday. Roger was in the garden — the garden that is his whole world now, the 84-year-old man who tends six tomato plants and twelve sunflowers with the same care he once gave four hundred acres. He's slower but he's still Roger. He still watches the crop reports. He still calls Jack on Wednesdays.

Thursday was tater tot hotdish, because Thursday is always tater tot hotdish and the schedule doesn't change for anything — not pandemics, not loss, not the passage of years. The tater tots go in at 375 and come out golden and the family eats them and the eating is the Thursday and the Thursday is the structure and the structure holds. But I also made beef stew with wine earlier this week, because the kitchen doesn't only look backward. The kitchen grows.

The garden winding down. Corn stalks brown and leaning. Last peppers picked before frost. Jack's garlic going in — the patience crop, planted now for next July. Nine months underground. The faith that the future needs what the present plants.

The garden was winding down when I got home, and I had zucchini on the counter that needed to be used before it gave up entirely — the same way Roger’s tomatoes needed tending before the frost, and the same way Jack’s garlic needed to go into the ground before the window closed. I didn’t want to let it sit. The kitchen doesn’t only look backward, and these Orange Zucchini Cookies felt like exactly the right way to carry something forward from the season — soft, a little bright, made from what the garden leaves behind.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely shredded zucchini, excess moisture squeezed out
2 tsp fresh orange zest
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 cup powdered sugar (for glaze)
2–3 tbsp orange juice (for glaze)
1/2 tsp orange zest (for glaze)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Prepare zucchini. Finely shred zucchini and wrap in a clean kitchen towel, squeezing firmly to remove as much moisture as possible. You should have about 1 cup after squeezing.
Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat softened butter with granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, vanilla, orange zest, and orange juice until well combined.
Fold in zucchini. Stir the shredded zucchini into the butter mixture until evenly distributed.
Combine. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet mixture and stir just until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
Scoop and bake. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are just set and the tops look barely dry. Do not overbake — these are meant to be soft.
Cool. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
Make the glaze. Whisk together powdered sugar, 2 tbsp orange juice, and orange zest until smooth. Add the remaining juice a little at a time until the glaze is thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over cooled cookies and let set for 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Orange Zucchini Cookies — What the Garden Leaves Behind