Soft baked Orange Zest Sugar Cookies are the perfect melt in your mouth orange cookies. This baked sugar cookie recipe delivers buttery sugar cookies with soft centers, crisp edges and bursts with bright orange flavor thanks to orange juice and fresh orange zest. The perfect citrus cookie!

Orange Zest Sugar Cookies

Name: Orange Zest Sugar Cookies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 18 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cup white sugar; 2/3 cup butter (cold); 2/3 cup shortening (room temp); 2 large eggs (room temperature); 1 tablespoon orange extract; Zest of two oranges; Juice of 1/4 of an orange; 2 3/4 cup cake flour; 1 cup all purpose flour; 1 tablespoon cornstarch; 2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; Extra sugar for rolling .. natural sugar or colored sugar works really well.. about 1/3 cup

For the majority of my existence, I have not had an overwhelming love of the flavor orange and writing a recipe for Orange Zest Sugar Cookies was the furthest thing from my mind.

It’s nothing personal, when it comes to orange cookies, I have just always been a take ’em or leave ’em girl.

My husband is a different story… he loves all things flavored orange! Orange muffins, orange cakes, even orange BBQ sauce.. you name it!

Then, somewhere along the line, I became a full-blown orange cookie addict with a side of orange frosting, please!

Now these Orange Zest Sugar Cookies are the one orange cookie recipe that gets made more than any other in this house.. and that’s OK!

Best Orange Zest Sugar Cookies

So why are this orange cookie recipe going to be your new go-to sugar cookie? Let me tell you …

These orange cookies deliver soft centers and crispy edges.. that’s the perfect sugar cookie right there!!
Every bite is bursting with tons of orange flavor thanks to fresh orange juice and orange zest.
Recipes for soft baked sugar cookies are searched 250,000 times a month on Google… that should tell you that the perfect sugar cookie recipe is worth more than your house!
There’s no crazy ingredients in this orange zest cookie recipe so it’s easy for everyone to try.. even if it’s your first time baking.

To make these Orange Zest Sugar Cookies, you will need:

Sugar – sweetness, moisture, chewiness, and spread
Butter – adds richness and flavor
Shortening – helps cookies hold their shape during baking and helps them be softer and lighter.
Eggs – Eggs add structure, leavening, color, and flavor and don’t forget to bring them to room temperature before using
Fresh Oranges (Juice and Zest) – Orange zest and fresh orange juice both add a ton of citrusy, tangy flavor
All purpose flour – holds the cookie together, providing it with its structure
Cake flour – cookie consistency post-baking is delicate, softer, fluffier, and, well, more cake-like
Baking powder -baking powder helps the cookies spread up and out.
Salt – helps bring out flavors.
Orange extract (optional) – Add for even more intense orange citrus flavor.

How to Bake Orange Sugar Cookies

To make these Orange Zest Sugar Cookies, start by creaming together the sugar, butter and shortening until light and fluffy.

Stir in your eggs one at a time and then your orange extract, orange zest and orange juice.

In a separate bowl, combine both of your flours, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.

Slowly add in the dry ingredients in small increments to your butter mixture until all of your dry ingredients are incorporated.

Chill dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour or you can place in the freezer for 20 – 30 minutes.

Once your cookie dough has chilled, start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet with non-stick spray or cover in parchment paper.

Add 1/3 cup of sugar to a separate small bowl for rolling. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, scoop your dough and then roll into 1 inch balls and then roll the balls through the extra sugar.

Place cookies on the cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes.. no more, no less! They will seem under-cooked but trust me, they will firm up as they cool.

Remove from oven and let sit for 1 minute before moving the cookies to a cooling rack. Once cooled, store cookies in an airtight container.

pro tips for perfect citrus cookies

This is an amazing soft baked sugar cookie recipe on its own and the cookies come out chewy and soft and absolutely perfect in every way. If you do want to add a different flavor, the possibilities are endless. Almond, lemon, vanilla, peppermint… go crazy!!
This is a sugar cookie recipe that requires a bit of pre-planning. The cookie dough needs to chill. Chilling is a mandatory step. Don’t skip this step or you will have flat cookies and you will be sad.
I add a bit of orange extract in addition to fresh orange juice and orange zest because I really want to bring out that orange flavor. Feel free to omit the extract if you don’t have it on hand.
Use a kitchen scoop if you have one to measure out your cookies. Your cookies will all be the same size and it saves the hassle of guess work.
Certain flavors intensify as time goes by and orange flavor is one of them. The orange flavor will not seem strong right out of the oven so let them cool first before eating. You will find the flavor much stronger as they cool and especially the next day.

How to zest an orange

This orange juice cookie recipe calls for you to zest an orange. How do you do that? Easy! When a recipe calls for orange zest, it means finely minced or grated orange peel.

The orange peel is the orange ‘skin’ on an orange and it sits on top of the white pith layer.

You can zest an orange with a knife, a micro-plane or even the small openings on a standard standing cheese grater.

To zest with the micro-plane (shown below), just rub the orange in one direction against the little blades. Turn the orange as you go so you remove only the orange part.

The white layer is bitter so stroke only 2 or 3 times in one spot of the orange before rotating the orange to a new area that hasn’t yet been zested.

why chill cookie dough?

If you want fluffy soft sugar cookies, you will chill this cookie dough. Chilling cookie dough before baking your orange sugar cookies solidifies the fat in the cookie batter.

As the sugar cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat.

And the longer the fat remains solid, the less your cookies will spread.

If you cook your Orange Zest Sugar Cookies without chilling the dough, you will end up with flatter cookies and who wants that?

difference cake flour vs all purpose flour

Cake flour is a smaller, finer consistency than all purpose flour which produces a finer texture when it comes to cakes and cookies.

Mixing the two flours together in this sugar cookie recipe is going to give you a lighter sugar cookie than if you used just all purpose flour.

That being said, if you do not have cake flour and want to just use all purpose flour, your cookies will still be delicious

more easy cookie recipes

Enjoy!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?

I would love for you to leave a rating and a comment below! Let me know, how’d you do?! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐