
Orange Cookies: In my early days of baking I was not a fan of orange flavor in baked treats. For some reason, it didn’t appeal me at all. I don’t know when and how the transformation happened and I fell in love with anything orange flavor, be it cakes, cookies, muffins, anything, and everything!

I especially love the orange flavored easy eggless vanilla cupcakes I bake quite often. Orange cookies I have never tried so when I saw a recipe for the same I was very eager to try it.

It is a very
simple recipe for orange sugar cookie made from scratch using orange zest. I did want to incorporate some fresh orange juice too in the cookie but the recipe didn’t have room for it.
Nevertheless, the cookies did have a very good citrus flavor and the scent just from the orange zest alone.
I’m thinking that you can make these orange cookies more fancy with some fresh orange juice and icing sugar glaze. Hopefully can get to it one of these days. But let me assure you that these orange sugar cookies tasted great even without any of those frills! The kitchen was filled with a pleasant orange scent which really lifted my mood.
Check out here for more baking recipes with orange. I don’t know about you but I can’t get enough of it!

Simple Orange Cookies Recipe |
Prep Time | Cook Time | Makes |
---|---|---|
20 Mins | 11 Mins | 40 Cookies |
Author | Category | Method |
Madhuram | Cookies | Baking |


- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 teaspoons grated orange peel
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven at 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C for 15 minutes.
- Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add in the orange peel and vanilla extract; beat well.
- In another bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Mix in the flour mix into the creamed butter mixture and stir it until well combined. Sometimes the cookie dough might have a sticky consistency. In such cases chill the dough in the refrigerator for an hour or so before baking otherwise you will have thin crepe-like cookies.
- Scoop out tablespoonful of dough for each cookie, slightly flatten it and place it on the baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges are browned lightly.
- Remove it from the oven and let the cooks remain in the pan for another 2-3 minutes and then transfer the orange cookies from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely before storing it in a air tight container.
- These orange cookies were crisp around the edges and mildly chewy in the middle when it was fresh. After a day it started getting softer.
- How a cookie spreads while baking is something one cannot tell always. It depends upon the quality of ingredients used, the consistency of the dough, etc. So the best way to determine this is to test bake 3-4 cookies at first.
- Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonful and leave it for 2 cookies and for the other 2 cookies lightly flatten it. Bake it. Seeing how it spreads determine if you are going to flatten the dough before baking or not.



These cookies are friggin’ amazing!!! I added half a cup of chocolate chips and that orange/chocolate blend is decadent! I think cranberries would be awesome too!
Wow! Chocolate chips in orange cookies! Now you have got me drooling, Cecile!
[…] You could also use an orange infused cookie dough. […]
I don’t have the dried orange rind.I was wondering if perhaps I could use orange juice?
This recipe doesn’t require any liquid ingredients at all. Adding juice will mess up with the texture of the cookie dough. Try using orange extract if you have any. Orange zest is grating the outer skin of fresh oranges, not dried orange rind.
hi, i made chocolate oranges cookies. i adjusted the sugar to 3/4 cup only since my dad is diabetic then added 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa. after 12mins in the oven the cookies turned out crunchy and yummy! thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂
Wow! Chocolate oragne cookies! That sounds fabulous. I want to try it now. Thanks for sharing your idea.
Hi! I only have this margarine type spread not actual butter ( my husband brought home ) now with Corona I don’t want to make a trip. Do you think cookies will be okay instead of unsalted butter? Thank you
It should be fine, Gloria. The texture might be a little different. Margarine might have more water content than butter so you might have to adjust the consistency of the batter with a bit additional flour. Just my guess.
They came out delicious, and by rolling into tablespoon size balls and not flattening they came out looking just like yours 🙂
That’s great, Diane. Thank you for the feedback.
I made these with gluten free self raising flour. Which is usually great for cookies. Not this time. Turned out nothing like the picture. And despite measuring out tablespoons of the dough, I only got 30. Won’t make again.
Substituting gluten-free flour for all-purpose flour doesn’t work out perfect always. It’s more for a trial and error experiment kind of thing.
I made chocolate oranges cookies with this recipe thanks for submitting this amazing cookie recipe I added cocoa into this mixture and it was so delicious
Wow! That’s a lovely flavor combo, Andrew.
Can I use coconut oil instead of the butter?
And can I substitute part of the flour with oat flour or do you think it will not bake/taste as good?
I’m guess coconut oil should work fine. Regarding substituting the flour with oat flour yes there will be a noticeable difference in taste and texture. I once baked gluten-free oat flour and brown rice flour chocolate chip cookies and we all loved it. I guess it’s a personal preference. You wouldn’t know unless you try it for yourself.
Hi,
I have made orange cookies today following your reciepe.
I have given my twist.in stead of 2 cup refined flour i have segregated it 1 cup refined flour n 1 cup wheat flour.
In addition to it i have added 1/4cup fresh orange juice n 1/2 cup oats to increase health quotient.
Thanks.
You’re very welcome Rupal.
These orange cookies are everything I love about a good cookie 🙂