Orange Cranberry Cookies – Sugar Spun Run

My tender and chewy orange cranberry cookies are infused with actual orange zest and juice (no extracts or flavors!). They’re punctuated with pops of contemporary cranberries and are so festive. No chilling required!

Two orange cranberry cookies stacked on top of each other with more cookies in the background.

A Festive Taste Mixture

Following intently on the heels of my cranberry orange muffins, in the present day I’ve one other enjoyable & festive cranberry-infused recipe to share. Whereas the cookies themselves are fairly straightforward to make, the recipe itself was a bit tough to grasp.

To get an genuine orange taste with none extracts, I integrated orange juice and orange zest into the batter. These added superb taste; nonetheless, they have been very moist and created cakey cookies–one thing that wanted to be fastened as I’m workforce tender and chewy cookie.

To treatment this, I knew I needed to minimize the liquid elsewhere. On this case, that meant omitting the egg whites and utilizing simply 2 egg yolks as an alternative (a tip I picked up from my lemon poppy seed cookies).

The top outcome? Mushy, chewy, and brightly flavored orange cookies punctuated with pops of tart cranberries. We’ll roll them in a bit of orange sugar earlier than baking, too, which provides the ultimate additional punch of orange taste to steadiness that sturdy, tart taste of the cranberries. These are significantly SO good, brightly flavored and completely festive, and I can’t wait so that you can strive them!

What You Want

Earlier than we start, let’s briefly go over the substances you might want to make this cookie recipe a hit:

  • Recent Oranges. What number of oranges you want will depend upon their dimension. I can typically get away with one giant one, however I’d advocate grabbing two simply to be secure!
  • Cranberries. Be sure that to scrub, dry, and examine your cranberries earlier than including them to the cookie dough. I speak about making these cookies with dried cranberries within the FAQ part under.
  • Unsalted butter. We’ll begin with softened butter and cream it with our sugars and orange zest. This step attracts out the oils within the orange zest and infuses that taste all through the dough. If you happen to solely have salted butter, you’ll be able to cut back the salt within the recipe to ¼ teaspoon.
  • Egg yolks. As I discussed above, we are going to solely want egg yolks on this recipe. You possibly can discard your egg whites or use them to make coconut macaroons (my recipe makes use of precisely two egg whites!), meringue cookies, or French macarons.
  • Cornstarch. A tablespoon of cornstarch right here ensures our orange cranberry cookies will keep tender and chewy, however NOT cakey.

Identical to with my cranberry orange muffins, we’re deliberately leaving out the vanilla extract on this recipe, as I discovered it conceals the orange taste an excessive amount of. 

SAM’S TIP: Spruce up your orange cranberry cookies with white chocolate! You possibly can both add white chocolate chips to the batter or drizzle the tops with melted white chocolate after they cool.

That is simply an summary of the substances I used and why. For the total recipe please scroll right down to the underside of the submit!

The way to Make Orange Cranberry Cookies

  1. Beat the butter, sugar, and orange zest in a big bowl till easy and fluffy.
  2. Add the egg yolks and orange juice, then combine till absolutely integrated.
  3. Whisk collectively the dry substances in a separate bowl, then steadily add them to the moist substances.
  4. Fold within the cranberries till evenly distributed all through the dough.
Overhead view of hands rubbing orange zest and sugar together to make orange sugar.
  1. Make the orange sugar – rub the orange zest and granulated sugar collectively along with your fingers, ensuring to totally infuse the sugar with orange zest.
  2. Scoop and roll 1 ½ tablespoon balls of dough between your palms earlier than rolling the orange sugar topping. Place 2″ aside on parchment lined baking sheets.
  3. Bake for 11-13 minutes at 350F (175C) and let cool for 5-10 minutes earlier than shifting to a cooling rack to chill utterly.

SAM’S TIP: For tender and chewy outcomes, take the cookies out of the oven when the perimeters are simply beginning to flip a light-weight golden brown. We’ll allow them to prepare dinner a bit of longer on their baking sheets outdoors the oven, then take away them to a cooling rack.

Continuously Requested Questions

Can I make orange cranberry cookies with dried cranberries?

I haven’t tried this myself with this recipe. Whereas I believe you may, it will change the feel of the cookie because the contemporary cranberries really add some moisture to the dough. I do fear the cookie dough shall be a bit drier than it’s when made as written (or too candy, as sugar is usually added to dried cranberries), however be happy to experiment. You can additionally contemplate plumping the cranberries with boiling water or liquor earlier than including them to the dough.

Might I add an icing or glaze?

Certain! My vanilla glaze would work nicely right here. You can even substitute the vanilla extract and milk with orange juice to make an orange glaze.

Can I take advantage of orange extract?

I supposed you may add some, however I don’t discover it vital right here with the orange zest and juice. I don’t advocate substituting the orange zest and juice with orange extract, although–this dough was particularly designed to accommodate these substances and won’t prove correctly in any other case.

Love cranberry cookies? Attempt my white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies!

Get pleasure from!

Let’s bake collectively! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the most recent recipes and observe alongside on YouTube the place I share a whole lot of free recipe tutorials! 💜

Orange Cranberry Cookies

My tender and chewy orange cranberry cookies are infused with actual orange zest and juice (no extracts or flavors!). They’re punctuated with pops of contemporary cranberries and are so festive. No chilling required!

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Course: cookie, Cookies, Dessert, Dessert

Delicacies: American

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Prepare dinner Time: 13 minutes

Whole Time: 38 minutes

Servings: 33 cookies

Energy: 142kcal

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Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Put aside.

  • In a big mixing bowl, mix butter, sugar, and orange zest and beat till gentle and fluffy.

    1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, 1 ⅓ cups (267 g) granulated sugar, 1 Tablespoon orange zest

  • Add egg yolks and orange juice and blend till nicely mixed.

    2 giant egg yolk, 3 Tablespoons orange juice

  • In a separate, medium sized mixing bowl, whisk collectively flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

    3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon (1 teaspoon) baking soda, ¾ teaspoon (1 teaspoon) salt

  • Step by step add dry combination to moist, stirring till utterly mixed. Gently fold in cranberries, folding dough with a spatula till evenly distributed.

    2 cups (200 g) contemporary cranberries

  • Make the sugar topping by combining sugar and orange zest in a small dish and utilizing your fingers to rub the sugar and zest collectively till all of the sugar has been infused with orange.

    ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons orange zest

  • Scoop dough by stage 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized scoop and roll gently between your palms to make a easy ball. Roll cookie dough by way of orange-sugar topping, totally coating all sides. Place on baking sheet, spacing cookies no less than 2” aside.

  • Bake in heart rack of 350F (175C) oven for 11-13 minutes, till edges of cookies start to show gentle golden.

  • Take away from oven and permit to chill for 5-10 minutes on baking sheet earlier than eradicating to cooling rack to chill utterly.

Notes

Storing

Retailer in an hermetic container at room temperature for as much as 4 days.

Diet

Serving: 1cookie | Energy: 142kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 1g | Fats: 6g | Saturated Fats: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fats: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fats: 2g | Trans Fats: 0.2g | Ldl cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 81mg | Potassium: 24mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 196IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg

Dietary data relies on third-party calculations and ought to be thought of an estimate solely. Precise dietary content material will fluctuate based mostly upon manufacturers used, measuring strategies, cooking technique, portion sizes, and extra.