Marbled Orange Chocolate Chunk Cookies

A super long time ago, I tried to make a marbled cookie.  It was a horrendous flop.  Of epic proportions.  The problem?  Getting both the chocolate and the vanilla dough to be the same consistency so that they spread the same amount in the oven.  Quite vexing.  Until the other day when I envisioned this cookie and had an epiphany.  Maybe I should use the same dough for the chocolate and the vanilla, just add cocoa powder to the chocolate dough.  Please don't laugh at my incompetence if this was obvious to you forever ago.  At least I figured it out, and the result is amazing!  This is not a difficult cookie to make, nor is it significantly more time consuming than a regular drop cookie.  Just scoop the dough like normal and roll the chocolate and vanilla together before baking.  Simple, gorgeous, and delicious.

Marbled Orange Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
grated zest of 2 oranges
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour (for the vanilla dough)
1/4 cup cocoa powder (for the chocolate dough)
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  

Cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and orange zest.  Beat in the vanilla and eggs.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and beat until combined.  Divide the dough in half and place one half in a separate bowl.  Stir in the 1/4 cup flour to one bowl, and the 1/4 cup cocoa powder to the other bowl.  Stir in  1/2 cup chocolate chunks and 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips to each bowl.

Scoop each type of dough into 1 tablespoon balls and place on a piece of wax paper until all of each dough has been scooped into balls.  Spray your hands with cooking spray, then take a ball of vanilla dough and a ball of chocolate dough and gently press together.  Roll until a ball forms, then place on the prepared baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining dough balls.  If you prefer, you can combine and roll the dough into balls as scoop each one, but I found that it was easier and less messy to scoop all of the dough into balls, then marble them all afterwards.  

Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, or until just set on the top.  Remove cookies from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy