A deliciously refreshing Christmas Cookie recipe. Really these could be made all year long! Try these delicious Orange Cookies this holiday season!
It is that time of year. The time of year when you deck the halls with ribbons, evergreens, and tinsel. The time of year when the kids squeal when they see Santa at the mall and circle every toy in the catalog with a big red marker. It is the time of year when my kitchen reeks of the smell of baked goods rising in the oven.
I love to bake cookies. Dozens and dozens of cookies. Don’t worry I don’t eat them all myself, but I love to give them as gifts! This is one of our family favorites that make a ton of cookies, but everyone is absolutely delicious! You can see more delicious Cookie Recipes right here!
I have recently switched it up and made them gluten free and dairy free with excellent results. There are substitutions in the recipe below.
Orange Cookies
Print Rate Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1 Cup Butter - softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 oranges - grated and juiced
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tsp vinegar
Icing
- 16 oz powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp butter
- juice and rind of 1 orange
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grate orange rinds to get zest. You will want the zest of all 3 oranges. After you have grated cut open and juice the oranges.
- Cream together butter and sugar; add eggs, juice and grated rind of oranges. Mix thoroughly.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In a small bowl, mix together milk and vinegar or use buttermilk.
- Alternate adding milk and dry ingredients to creamed mixture, mixing well after each addition.
- Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 15 minute or until light brown. Ice cookies while warmIcing
- Whisk together to make icing for orange cookies. Drizzle over cookies, or dip cookies into icing while still warm.
Gluten Free
- Substitute a gluten free flour mix. You can also half the recipe if you would like.
Dairy Free
- Use dairy free milk and margarine of your choice.
Yay! I love to bake, too, and am looking forward to including cookies as gifts for friends and family – especially those who live far away! I’ve already got your Samaroons on my list to bake, and these orange cookies sound amazing! Maybe a weekend project for me 😀
Do you think I could substitute orange extract for the fresh orange? If so, what quantity would you recommend?
Thanks.
Melanie,
I have no idea, I have only ever used fresh oranges for this one. 😉
These were a hit at our house, although a bit too time consuming for my taste because I am all about keeping it fast and simple. Probably all the grating and juicing, but I’m sure that was a key to them being excellent because you can’t beat fresh, organic ingredients. God bless!
These look delicious! I’m going to try making them with a slight variation – I’m adding chocolate chips! I hope they turn out well. 😀
Are we missing salt in the dry ingredient? Also, I looked up measuring how much juice and zest in 3 oranges. I used Satsumi (smaller size) about 6 of them and it said measuring juice for 3 large oranges about 6 oz. and 6-9 T zest. Does that sound about right?
You can add 1/4 tsp of salt and it won’t hurt anything. I don’t think I have ever added salt and these turn out great. As far as the orange juice and zest. 6 oz seems about right for the juice and I would say probably about 3-4 tbsp of zest should be enough. Hope that helps!
Can you freeze these cookies ?
Yes you can! They freeze beautifully.
I have made these for years!! And my mom made them for many years before I did. They are WONDERFUL; absolutely my favorite cookie! Soooo much better than any store-bought orange cookie. I always make 1 1/2 batches of the icing. Gotta have plenty of icing!