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orange sugar cookies on white cake stand.

Orange Sugar Cookies

Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: orange sugar cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Chill: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Servings: 30
Calories: 148kcal
Delicious Orange Sugar Cookies are flavored with fresh orange zest and topped with a delicious orange glaze! Cut out into your favorite shapes for a delicious, sweet treat! Great year round!
Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the cookies

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
  • 1 tablespoon fresh orange zest finely chopped

For the glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh orange zest

Instructions

Make the cookies

  • In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes.
  • Add the egg, vanilla extract, almond extract and orange zest and beat another minute or so.
  • Add the flour mixture slowly. (Be careful not to add too much at a time or you will have a snowstorm of flour.)
  • Blend until all of the flour is incorporated and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
  • Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a piece of parchment paper.
  • Using your hands, knead the dough a few times.
  • Place the dough in a large plastic (ziplock type) bag and refrigerate for about 2 hours. If you want to speed up the chilling process, place the bag of dough in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes. Just don’t forget it in the freezer, or it will become too firm to work with (and then you’ll have to wait for it to thaw).
  • When it’s almost time to remove the dough from the refrigerator (or freezer), preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
  • Roll out dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Cut out desired shapes, and place on a baking sheet. Place the entire baking sheet of cookies in the freezer for about 5 minutes (this helps prevent the cookies from losing their shape when baking).
  • Once chilled, bake cookies at 350* for 8-10 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.
  • Allow cookies to cool, and prepare orange glaze.

Make the glaze

  • In a medium sized bowl, melt butter in microwave (less than 30 seconds). Add all other glaze ingredients, and stir well with a whisk. If the glaze is too thick, add a tiny bit more orange juice, if the glaze is too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.
  • Drizzle glaze over cookies, as deisred. You can put the glaze into a small ziplock-type baggie, snip off the end, and use that to drizzle on the glaze.

Nutrition

Calories: 148kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 23mg | Sodium: 18mg | Potassium: 19mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 211IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg