Orange cookies with icing are an easy drop cookie recipe that uses fresh orange juice and grated orange zest for a tender cookie with a cake like texture.
The simple powdered sugar icing features orange juice and zest as well and will harden so you can stack them on cookie trays.
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Orange cookies are popular at Christmas time as well as on wedding cookie tables. If you're looking for something a bit different to add to your cookie trays, the orange cookie is it.
Do you know what goes great with orange? Chocolate! Think about topping these cookies with chocolate buttercream frosting instead of the orange.
If you're fond of cake-like cookies, you'll also like Cannoli Cookies, Orange Cookies with Orange Icing, Mexican Wedding Cookies and Kentucky Butter Cookies.
Speaking of chocolate chips, if you're a fan of orange and chocolate together, you could add a half cup of miniature semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips to the dough before baking.
Ingredients
- flour
- baking powder
- kosher salt
- butter
- eggs
- sugar
- orange juice
- orange zest
- powdered sugar
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Get your ingredients ready.
Use a Microplane grater to zest the peel from the oranges.
Juice the oranges after zesting, if using fresh.
You can use any type of orange juice, it doesn't need to be freshly squeezed.
Measure dry ingredients
Start making the dough: creaming together the butter, sugar, egg, zest and orange juice.
Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough for at least two hours before baking.
You don't have to make the icing but I think the cookies are much better with it. Just use a small knife or an offset spatula to slather icing on top of each cookie. The icing will set firm.
Hint: I like to use a Microplane grater to grate the zest (affiliate link). It's the easiest way to remove the zest. You can also use a Microplane to grate chocolate and hard cheeses like parmesan.
Substitutions
- Orange- instead of orange you could use lemon juice and zest or grapefruit
- Butter - you can replace the butter with margarine or shortening but really, only if you must. Butter gives cookies a much better flavor.
Variations
- Chips - you could add a quarter cup of miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips or a chopped white chocolate
- Nuts- you could finely chop a quarter cup of pistachios or pecans to mix in. This is a cake like cookie though so you really will want a fine chop of nuts, not chunky pieces.
Equipment
Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful, from Room Temperature Butter for Baking to Salted or Unsalted Butter for Cookies? to Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?, Cookie Size Chart to What Should a Beginner Bake? to Where Can I Buy Sprinkles?, Why is my sugar cookie dough too sticky? and Cookie Holidays.
Storage
You can freeze orange cookie dough for up to two months or freeze the cookies themselves.
Be sure to use freezer safe containers. I like to use a freezer safe resealable bag, getting as much air out as possible. Then tuck the bag inside another container for best quality.
Let cookies thaw on a countertop.
You can bake frozen cookie dough right from the freezer.
Top tip
Don't over bake these cookies. You will know the cookies are done when they have slightly puffed up and rounded and the edges will look golden.
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Recipe
Orange Cookies with Orange Icing
Orange cookies are tender, cake like cookies infused with orange zest and orange juice topped with an icing studded with orange zest.
Ingredients
- Cookies
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (use Kosher or sea salt)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- â…” cup butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ¼ cup orange juice
- Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons orange juice
- 1 Tablespoon orange zest
Instructions
Measure dry ingredients and pour into a medium bowl.
Grate orange zest and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or a mixing bowl with a hand mixer, beat butter until lighter in color and creamy. Depending on the strength of the mixer you’re using, this may take two to three minutes.
Add granulated sugar and beat for another two minutes.
At this point, your butter sugar mixture should be fluffy and paler in color.
Add egg and beat until combined and you don’t see any egg streaks in the dough, like yellow from the yolk or streaks of egg white.
Be sure to crack the egg into a separate small bowl before adding to the dough. This way if the egg has gone bad, you haven’t ruined your cookie dough and wasted ingredients.
Add orange zest and orange juice. Mix for 30 seconds or until combined.
If you're using a stand mixer, stop every couple of minutes and thoroughly scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure you’re getting all the ingredients combined.
Turn off the mixer and add dry ingredients. Give a stir to get it into the dough so you’re not having a cloud of flour burst out of the bowl when you turn the mixer back on to finish mixing the dough.
Mix until just incorporated. Don’t overmix the dough. You want to mix it just until you no longer see white streaks.
Put the dough in a large resealable bag and refrigerate for at least an hour.
When ready to bake, turn on oven to 350 F.
While oven is heating up, scoop dough using a teaspoon or a cookie scoop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.
The cookie will puff up slightly and will be light golden on the bottom when done.
Remove tray from oven and let orange cookies rest on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.
If you don’t have a wire rack, it’s fine to let them cool on the cookie sheet.
Prepare the icing using an electric mixer on low speed, or in the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix powdered sugar, room temperature butter, orange juice and orange zest until combined.
You may need to add a little more orange juice, If the icing is really thick.
Be sure to let cookies cool for at least 10 minutes before icing them.
Storage:
Cookies will last up to a week at room temperature.
Freeze dough for up to two months in a freezer safe package.
Notes: You can use any type of oranges you’d like for this recipe.
Notes
Be sure to use a zester like a Microplane to remove the outer layer of orange zest from the fruit.
Bake on parchment lined baking sheets.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 32 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 127Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 18mgSodium 104mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 0gSugar 13gProtein 1g
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