Orange Butter Cookies
Updated November 30, 2015
Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ⅔ cups cake flour or more all-purpose flour (cake flour gives a finer texture)
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
2 packed teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
1 large egg plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
FOR THE ICING (SEE NOTE)
1 orange
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons whole milk
2 drops almond or vanilla extract
Pinch fine salt
Nutritional analysis per serving
17 grams carbs; 22 milligrams cholesterol; 108 calories; 1 gram monosaturated fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 4 grams fat; 58 milligrams sodium; 1 gram protein; 9 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Position two oven racks in top and bottom third of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Step 2
In a bowl, whisk flours, baking soda and salt together. In a mixer, cream together the sugar, butter and orange zest at medium speed until light and smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of bowl frequently. Add egg and mix. Add one egg yolk and mix. Add remaining egg yolk and mix. Stir in dry ingredients just until combined.
- Step 3
Scoop tablespoons of dough onto parchment, leaving more than 1 inch between cookies. Press each one down lightly with 2 fingers to flatten to a thickness of ½ inch. Leave any ridges and valleys on top of cookie intact, but smooth the edges.
- Step 4
Bake about 15 minutes, rotating cookie sheets halfway through. Cookies should be pale but baked all the way through. Cool on sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack and cool before storing in airtight containers up to 1 week.
- Step 5
When ready to serve, make icing: Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Peel orange, being careful to remove only outer orange zest, and cut into thin strips. Blanch in boiling water 1 minute; drain. Sift confectioners’ sugar into a bowl. Whisk in 2 tablespoons milk. Whisk in more milk if needed to make mixture thin enough to spread. Add extract, salt and zest, and whisk to combine.
- Step 6
Place cookies on a rack and drizzle icing over each one (make sure there is some orange zest in each spoonful). Icing will settle into cookie crevices; let harden.
Instead of icing, cookies can be sprinkled with coarse crystal sugar before baking.
Private Notes
Comments
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.
Read some other comments and decided to venture into the recipe-adjusting wilds. Changes: I used all AP flour, reduced the flour to 350 grams, used salted butter in addition to the tsp of kosher salt, and doubled the zest in the dough (all other ingredients as written). I rolled into two tubes and then chilled before slicing and baking. Instead of the glaze, I used the two remaining egg whites to make a royal icing with orange zest and a little juice. Very happy with the final cookie result, which I personally like a bit better without the icing! They’re fragrant, tender, and not at all cakey or dense.
We have an orange tree and freshly picked ones make for fantastic cookies. We skip the glaze and dip half of the cookies in melted dark chocolate.
I was worried the mixture wouldn’t bind together properly but I took the advice from the comment section and popped the mixture in the fridge for two days. Then rolled them into balls by hand and they turned out great. Make sure you sieve the icing sugar. I also replaced the milk with orange juice from the oranges.