I don’t do crafty baking very often, but I had so much fun making and decorating these orange shortbread cookies! This orange shortbread cookie recipe is based on the lemon shortbread cookies that I made last year. That recipe is a fan favorite, so I thought I’d do a more festive version of it for Christmas. This time, I cut the cookies into stars and decorated them with orange zest and these cute Supernatural white sequin sprinkles.
How to Make Orange Shortbread
Want to learn how to make these cookies? Here’s what you need to do: First, cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add in the orange zest, orange juice, and then the flour and salt and mix until everything is well combined. Next, chill the dough. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and transfer it to the fridge to chill for 15 to 30 minutes. After the dough has chilled, roll it out on a lightly floured surface or between two pieces of parchment paper. Be careful not to roll the dough too thin here. Aim for it to be about 1/4-inch thick. Once you’ve rolled out the dough, use cookie cutters to cut out your desired shapes. Re-roll the dough, as needed, to get as many cut-outs as you can! Then, it’s time to bake. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer the cut-outs to the baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, until the cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges. Let them rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.
Recipe Tips
Chill the dough for 15 to 30 minutes. This will make the dough less sticky and easier to roll out. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes after they come out of the oven. If you move them too early, they will crumble. Let the cookies set up for a full 2 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely. Wait for them to cool completely before decorating. It’s tempting to start decorating these right away, but your cookies need to be at room temperature before you decorate them. Otherwise, the glaze will melt! Amp up the orange flavor with a few drops orange oil. This is an optional step. On their own, the orange flavor in these cookies is pretty subtle. If you’d like a brighter orange flavor, add a little orange oil (the baking type, not the essential oil). You can find it in the baking aisle next to the vanilla extract.
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
If you love these orange cookies, try one of these favorite cookie recipes next:
Thumbprint Cookies Chewy Molasses Cookies Vegan Gingerbread Cookies Easy Sugar Cookies Vegan Sugar Cookies No Bake Cookies Best Peanut Butter Cookies Perfect Oatmeal Cookies
For more delicious cookie recipes, check out this post!
