Orange juice in recipe question

[corazon]

I'm making cookies this afternoon. Usually I add the zest & juice of an orange but our little store didn't have any oranges. I bought oj concentrate and I'm not going to water it down in hopes of a more orangey result. My question is will the oj concetrate make the cookie too sweet? Should I cut back on the sugar? Thanks!

 

[Gretchen]

No, I think it will be fine as is. I would only use about a TBS however.

 

[Katie H]

No, I think it will be fine as is. I would only use about a TBS however.

I use concentrate as a substitute for fresh often. But I agree with Gretchen, for your purpose use sparingly.

 

[VeraBlue]

It will be sweeter but I wouldn't suggest cutting back on sugar. The sugar is a necessary component in the cookie, usually giving colour and pliancy. Remove the sugar and the cookie can be very dry and stiff. I'd reconstitute the juice and use the amount of orange juice the recipe originally called for. I'd skip the part that called for zest.

If you serve your children oranges from time to time, perhaps you'd consider zesting the orange before you peel it for them. Put the zest into a baggie and simply freeze it. You can keep removing the same baggie each time you zest an orange, just adding to the original batch.

 

[corazon]

Well, I ended up using about 5 Tablespoons of the concentrate and while the cookies weren't too sweet, I couldn't taste the orange. The dough sure did taste good though.

It will be sweeter but I wouldn't suggest cutting back on sugar. The sugar is a necessary component in the cookie, usually giving colour and pliancy. Remove the sugar and the cookie can be very dry and stiff.

Those were my thoughts too. I didn't want to mess with cookie chemistry.