Orange Cranberry Cookies (With Sweet Orange Glaze)
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Soft melt-in-your-mouth orange cranberry cookies start with an orange butter cookie full of cranberries then top it all with a sweet orange glaze. These cookies are bursting with flavor, and are such delicious holiday cookies.
Table of Contents
Why We Love Orange Cranberry Cookies
- Sweet And Tart– These cookies literally burst with flavor, and the sweet orange combined with the tart cranberries goes so well together. Cranberry and orange together are one of my favorite holiday flavors.
- Perfect For The Holidays– Try these cookies for all of your holiday platters, cookie exchange trays or even for gifts, they are the perfect addition to your sweet treats. They won’t last long in the cookie jar.
- Can Make Year Round– You don’t have to wait for fresh cranberries to make these delicious cookies, you can use dried cranberries and make these cookies year round.
Try these chewy and buttery cranberry white chocolate chip cookies stuffed full of tart cranberries and creamy white chocolate chips. Or try the gooey cranberry crumble bars which are sweet, buttery and slightly tart all in one delicious bar.
Ingredients For Orange Cranberry Cookies
For The Cookie Dough
- 1 cup butter unsalted, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon orange zest – don’t skip the fresh orange zest, it adds a lot of flavor.
- 3 cups flour – all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dried cranberries plus extra for decorating the tops of the cookies
For The Glaze
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange juice -I used fresh orange juice from an orange to also use the orange zest for the dough.
- 4 teaspoons milk 1 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon, I recommend using 2% milk or above. Skim milk tends to make the glaze too thin.
How To Make Orange Cranberry Cookies
- In a large bowl cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth with an electric mixer.
- Crack the eggs and place eggs in a medium bowl, then beat with a fork. Add egg, vanilla and orange zest to the butter mixture and mix with an electric mixer until combined.
- In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt, then mix well.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients half at a time. Mix until just combined and a dough forms with no loose flour. Mix in the dried cranberries until just combined.
- Chill cookie dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop about two tablespoons of dough into each ball (you can use a medium cookie scoop) and roll lightly with your hands, then place on a prepared baking sheet. Add 4-5 dried cranberries to the top of each cookie.
- Bake the cookie dough for 8-10 minutes until gooey. Remove the cookies to a wire cooling rack.
- Once the cookies are cool to the touch on the cooling rack, slide a piece of parchment paper under the wire rack. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, orange juice and milk. Use a spoon to make drizzles of glaze over the cooled cookies. Let the glaze firm up, then enjoy!
Can I Use Fresh Cranberries?
While I love fresh cranberries, I haven’t tried this recipe with fresh cranberries but it should work. When I was developing these cookies, fresh cranberries were out of season and I couldn’t get my hands on frozen cranberries either. Dried cranberries you can find all year round, and are always in my pantry.
The glaze on these cookies is pretty sweet which should balance the tart cranberries. Cookies made with fresh (or frozen) cranberries will have a bit more tartness to them. The glaze balances the tart flavor just like it does in this glazed cranberry orange bread.
If you choose to use fresh or frozen cranberries I recommend chopping them up first. Frozen cranberries can be added to the batter frozen, but using chopped cranberries will keep you from getting too big of a bite of tart cranberry at once. You can use a food processor to chop frozen cranberries.
I’d toss the cranberries with a tablespoon of sugar, then add them to the cookie dough at the very end right before baking.
If you try this cookie with fresh or frozen cranberries, let me know in the comments how it went!
Can You Freeze This Cookie Dough?
This cookie dough will freeze, but I would suggest freezing it as cookie dough balls. You can bake these cookies from frozen, expect it to take an extra minute or two in the oven. Make the glaze fresh to add to the cookies once they have finished baking.
I don’t recommend freezing these cookies after baking. The glaze tends to not hold up well when you freeze the cookies, and just doesn’t look as pretty when you try to defrost them.
How Long Do These Orange Cranberries Cookies Last?
Cranberry orange cookies topped with sweet glaze taste their best if eaten within four days. Store cookies in an airtight container on the counter.
Other Recipes You Will Love
Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars– Buttery, soft and chewy cookie bars topped with thick creamy frosting and plenty of sprinkles!
Raspberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies– Sweet butter cookies filled and topped with sweet jam for the most delicious bite.
Sweet Stained Glass Cookies– A soft sugar cookie with a sweet and chewy gummy center cut out in holiday shapes. These cookies are delicious and fun!
Orange Cranberry Cookies
Ingredients
For The Cookie Dough
- 1 cup butter unsalted, softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dried cranberries plus extra for decorating thee tops of the cookies
For The Glaze
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange juice Use fresh from an orange to also use the orange zest for the dough.
- 4 teaspoons milk 1 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth with an electric mixer.
- Crack the eggs and place eggs in a medium bowl, then beat with a fork. Add egg, vanilla and orange zest to the butter mixture and mix with an electric mixer until combined.
- In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt, then mix well
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients half at a time. Mix until just combined and a dough forms with no loose flour. Mix in the dried cranberries until just combined.
- Chill cookie dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop about two tablespoons of dough into each ball and roll lightly with your hands, then place on a parchment lined pan. Add 4-5 dried cranberries to the top of each cookie.
- Bake the cookie dough for 8-10 minutes until gooey. Remove the cookies to a wire cooling rack.
- Once the cookies are cool to the touch on the cooling rack, slide a piece of parchment paper under the wire rack. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, orange juice and milk. Use a spoon to make drizzles of glaze over each cookie. Let the glaze firm up, then enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This?
I would love to see it! Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!
Do these freeze well?
You could totally freeze the dough, or freeze the cookies without the glaze after baking. The cookie dough or base cookies will freeze well. I would recommend saving the glaze until after you defrost if you freeze. Hope that helps!
I prepare orange cranberry cookies often. But I prefer to prepare the cookies with ghee as a unsalted butter substitute. Ghee baked cookies are most flavorsome and their shelf-life is better than butter baked cookies.