Regency Seed Cakes

Candy Cane Murder

DO NOT preheat oven—this dough needs to chill.

* You will also need: ½ cup white *(granulated)* sugar in a small bowl for later, when you bake the cookies.

### Directions

* DO NOT preheat oven—this dough needs to chill.

**Hannah's 1st Note:** *You can mix up these cookies by hand, but it's a lot easier with an electric mixer.*

* Melt the butter in a pan on the stove, or in the microwave in a small bowl or measuring cup for 1 minute 15 seconds on HIGH. Let it cool while you mix up the following ingredients:
* In a large bowl combine the eggs with the white sugar. Beat them until they’re well blended.
* Add the poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda. and salt. Mix them in thoroughly.
* Add the orange extract and then the orange zest, if you decided to use it. *(Orange zest is finely grated orange peel—just the orange part and not the white. The white is bitter and leaves a bad aftertaste.)* If you can‘t find orange extract in your store, you can use vanilla instead. Mix well.
* Cup your hands around the bowl with the melted butter. If it’s not too warm to hold comfortably, start your mixer and pour it slowly into your mixing bowl. *(That's so it doesn’t slash over the sides!)* If it’s still too hot to add and you think it might cook the eggs in your bowl, let it cool a little longer before mixing it in.
* Add two cups of the flour now. Mix it in.
* Add the orange juice to your bowl. Mix it in and then add the rest of the flour. *(You should have three cups left to add.)* Mix thoroughly. This dough will be quite stiff.
* Give the bowl a final stir by hand and cover it with plastic wrap. Stash it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Overnight is fine too!
* When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375°F, rack in the middle position.
* Prepare your baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper and spraying the paper with Pam, or another nonstick cooking spray.

**Hannah's 2nd Note:** *If it's snowing outside and you're all out of parchment paper and your car won't start for the trip to the store to get more, don't worry about it. Just spray your cookie sheets with Pam or whichever nonstick cooking spray you have on hand. If you do this, you'll have to let the cookies cool on the sheets for at least 5 minutes before you transfer them to wire racks, but that's okay. It's a lot better than trudging a mile through the snow to get to the store when you don't have to.*

* Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator and make dough balls, about an inch in diameter, with your hands. Drop them in the small bowl with the sugar and roll them around to coat them. Then place them on the cookie sheets, 12 to a standard-size sheet. Press them down slightly when you place them on the sheets so they won’t roll off on the way to the oven.
* Bake the cookies at 375°F for 7 to 10 minutes. *(Mine took about 9 minutes.)* Let them cool on the pan for a minute and then pull off the parchment paper and transfer the paper and cookies to a wire rack.

**Hannah's 3rd Note:** *If you didn't use parchment paper, follow the cooling directions in my 2nd note.*

* If the dough begins to get sticky and you start to have trouble rolling it with your hands, return it to the refrigerator while the cookies are baking and take it out again when you need to make more dough balls.

**Yield:** approximately 8 dozen tasty cookies.

## Conversion Charts

See Baking Conversion Chart for non-USA baking conversions.