Orange Butter Cookies Recipe (2024)

An easy substitution for cake flour in this recipe is to replace 3 tbsp of all-purpose flour with 3 tbsp of cornstarch.

They taste great but a couple of suggestions. Don't go beyond 3 min for creaming the butter, if they are over-creamed they will turn out extremely flat. Also strongly suggest refrigerating the dough before turning out.

We thought that the cookie didn't have enough orange flavor, so instead made the icing with orange juice replacing the milk. Used in a squeeze bottle as a drizzle. Looks pretty and tastes good.

I added about 3/4 tablespoon of cardamom to the cookie icing and it was FANTASTIC

used 3 tablespoons of milk and it was too much. The icing was too thin. It seemed like 2 tbsp wouldn't be enough so instead of just adding a drop or 2 more, I dded a whole tablespoon.
Also, I think the cookies had a good flavor, but they were dense.

I had the same experience as Nancy and agree with her recommendation. Don't rush mixing the milk into the icing, it takes a minute for the sugar to absorb the milk.

I decided that drizzling a lacy chocolate drizzle was just the addition that an orange cookie needed. Dark chocolate melted in the microwave on 50% power did the trick.

It calls for zesting an entire orange, and then cutting the shavings into small strips. Agreed that it was a little confusing.

I doubled the zest in the cookie and it has great flavor. The cookie is very short and has a crunch. I also just used the “grandma dorie” icing from the nyt lemon ricotta cookie recipe, subbed fresh orange juice for lemon. They came out perfect.

These were good, however I think the lemon ricotta cookies were better http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014420-grandma-dories-italian-ricott.... You can make them subsituting orange for lemon. Also, I made them by the teapsoon rather than tablespoon size. Keep the batter cool.

Don’t waste your time. I just slaved away for two hours making these and had such high hopes and they’re totally flavorless and underwhelming. I could have made tastier cookies with premade pillsbury dough from the grocery store and saved myself a lot of time and mess. I went over and over the recipe wondering if I made a mistake, but I don’t think I did. I even added extra orange zest because I always like more of that flavor whenever I bake with citrus. I also added cardamom and still blah.

BELIEVE THE BAKING TIME--I didn't trust the 15 minutes, and left it in extra. They turned out bearable, but dry. Even if they LOOK super under-baked . . . take 'em out. I also added about 2 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice. If I could do it again, I would at least double the orange zest, because I love flavor.

Additional note - when I first made these cookies I baked half the dough and refrigerated the rest. The second batch of cookies were even better - more bite to them and more flavor. So now when I make these cookies I refrigerate the dough - even just a couple of hours before making the first batch really makes a difference.

This cookie is a favorite of everyone who tastes them!!!

I made them with corn starch instead of cake flour and the icing with orange juice because the cookie needed a little more citrus flavor. Next time I’ll add more orange to the cookie to punch it up. A hit with the entire family and I’ll be adding them to the annual holiday cookie baking list.

Doubled the zest and added a half-teaspoon of Penzey’s orange extract and still the orange flavor is underwhelming. Also, worse, the cookies are flat! I assumed I erred in the “butter handling” as the editor’s note cautions. But how? The butter was cold and I creamed for no more than three minutes. Frustrating. (I even bought Plugra for this — was that the problem??)

Convection bake runs hot by 5 degrees. Use 350 convection bake

I make these every year for Christmas and they are SO good. Shortbread adjacent. Don’t overtake them. I microplane the orange zest rather than do all the potchke blanching business!

I made these cookies for the first time along with several other tried and true recipes for Christmas gifts. We were blown away. Easily the best cookies in the bunch and maybe the best cookies I’ve ever made! My family is cookied-out from all the baking lately and asked me to make another batch of these so we’re not giving them all away. I followed the suggestion of using orange juice instead of milk in the glaze. I just fresh-squeezed the orange I used for the zest on top. Home run!

It is better to make the finger indentations AFTER baking. I did my first batch as written, and they puffed up smooth during baking. They also got a little overly browned and dry. The second batch went in as dough balls, simply because I forgot to press them. I pressed them while still warm. The texture was much better in that second batch, and they actually had ridges to hold the icing. The icing is delicious! Like some other reviewers, I replaced the milk with orange juice.

I'm shocked by the negative comments on this recipe. These are delightful, sunny little bites. I did take care to keep the butter and dough well chilled, and maybe that's why they turned out? I have even added the frosting yet and think they're just wonderful.

These are delicious, but I had to make a few adjustments: totally cold butter was difficult to cream; needed to add some buttermilk as the dough was too dry; also added some vanilla and nutmeg to the dough. I agree with other commenters that the icing could also have more orange flavor. In terms of the recipe, it should clarify that you need 2 oranges; also it doesn't explain how you should know when the cookies are done in the oven. ("baked all the way through" = ?)

Please help! My dough is very crumbly, is it supposed to be that way? Or have a messed up along the way?

I suggest they add expert notes to the introduction as to how us home bakers can “handle butter with better care”. All it does now is say we do things poorly which is downright unhelpful

One reviewer added 3/4 T cardamom to icing

To make your life easier and more enjoyable, buy the citrus oil trio from the Boyajian website. If you want to add fresh citrus flavor and use less grated zest, add the oil ONLY ONE DROP AT A TIME! to your recipe. (Use an eyedropper) The oil is very, very comcentrated, but saves time, effort and ingredients, and tastes just as good as fresh zest. Remember, one drop or less at a time. A tip: dampen the tip of your finger with the lemon oil and rub it inside the rim of your martini glass.

A suggestion for Shoshana, instead of adding a drop or tw of orange extract, try a drop or two of orange OIL.it bas a lot more flavor than extract. I prefer the.Boyajian oils. They have excellent flavor. I have switched from using citrus extracts to oils. So much more flavor! You may need to adjust the amount of oil down to keep from overshooting the mark.

I like to refrigerate my dough. When I am ready to bake it - I scoop out small balls of dough, roll the dough around in a dish full of turbinado sugar, and flatten them with fork tubes in a cross cross pattern. The turbinado adds a nice caramelized texture and crunch to the cookie. The fork tine pattern allows more icing to adhere to the cookie without sliding off.

Good citrus flavors that came through nicely, but I also made some modifications. I added crystallized orange peel into the cookie to make it look more attractive and add a pop of flavor. I chilled the batter overnight and the cookies came out well after baking. However, they were quite dry, and the icing helped with that a bit. Instead of milk, I used orange juice, which I think is better. Then I sprinkled the chopped crystallized orange peel on top.