Orange scones

    or some damn thing. Long ago, for no apparent reason, I took up drinking orange juice mixed with milk. Somebody, probably my sister, told me that this is in fact an orange Julius. (Don't know what the capitalization rules are when you don't buy it from a stand at the mall.) The other day, I got a bug in my ear that it would be fun to make orange julius cookies, substituting almond milk for the kind from a cow. You know? I think they worked out.
    There's not much cookie-like about them; they're most like scones, or maybe cornbread. (Suggestion: put some orange peel in the next time you make cornbread. Ought to be pretty neat!) Even I as the person who made them wasn't exactly bowled over at first, but they're starting to grow on me. Anyway, if you want something more cookieish, you could always put in more honey or raspberry preserves or whatever. I'm finding them particularly delightful smeared with raspberry preserves. They're also neat with peanut butter on them, but maybe a little less so.
    I'll admit it that one reason I love this recipe is that it was goofy fun throwing an orange, a half cup of almond milk and a little orange zest in the blender and hitting the button. This is the kind of stuff I live for. Sad, isn't it?:) (It's obvious that I'm talking about a navel orange, right? Guess not; well I am!)
    Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Throw in a great big enormous mixing bowl: a tablespoon of EV olive oil; two tablespoons of honey (that's right; I'm down from four for once); a large egg, preferably cracked, shellless and scrambled; the orange (preferably peeled) and 1/2 cup of almond milk and zest (I just used a potato peeler on the orange's skin, which didn't produce much but it went a long way) from the blender; 1 tsp of vanilla extract; 2 cups brown rice flour (though I had 1/2 cup or so of chick pea flour left over and while my chick-pea-allergic food tester is out of town I figured I'd use it up, but all told it was still a total of 2 cups of flour) and a cup of slivered almonds.
    Mix up this unholy mess and you'll find yourself with something not entirely unlike bread dough. Since I was expecting a fiasco, I just levered the whole thing onto parchment paper on my pizza pan and threw it into the oven for 10 minutes. I flipped it, more or less, and gave it another 10 minutes, then flipped it again, turned off the oven and put it in for another 10.
    It didn't cohere well enough to make a cake or a loaf of bread or anything (though it may have if I'd put it in a loaf pan) but I think it would have come out prettier or anyway more orderly if I'd had the patience to drop the dough on the paper as cookies. As it was I cut them up into chunks, and they're pretty brilliant. The orange flavor isn't strong, but it's noticeable. I really think the little bit of zest imparted more flavor than the entire orange. Also there's no apparent creaminess, so the orange julius aspect really didn't come through, but on the whole I like them a lot and think you should try them. Maybe as cornbread!