Melt In Your Mouth Italian Iced Orange Cookies
Delicious Italian iced orange cookies that melt in your mouth with every bite. These beautiful, soft orange cookies are perfectly sweet and have hints of fresh orange juice and zest in every bite.
Servings 14 cookies
Calories 148cal
Ingredients
- Wet Ingredients:
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange zest (from 1 to 2 oranges)
- 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (67g) fresh squeezed orange juice
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
- Dry Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- For the icing:
- 3/4 cup (90g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To the bowl of an electric mixer, add the sugar and orange zest. Use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar for 15 seconds to release the orange essence and flavor into the sugar. This will make for a more flavorful cookie.
- Add the butter to the bowl, and cream together the butter with the sugar on medium speed until well combined, 1 minute. Turn mixer to medium-low speed and add in egg (make sure it’s at room temp -- you can do this by running the egg under warm water for 1 min); beating until well combined, smooth and creamy into the butter and sugar, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Next add in the orange juice and almond extract and mix until well combined, 30 more seconds.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix together on medium speed until combined, 1 minute.
- Grab about two tablespoons full of dough and roll into a ball. (If you can't roll them into a ball, I suggest chilling the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.) Place dough balls onto prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes until just barely golden brown on the edges. Remove and allow to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Once cookies have cooled, make the icing: add the powdered sugar, orange zest, and 1 tablespoon of orange juice to a bowl. Whisk together until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add another teaspoon of orange juice at a time and stir to combine. The icing should be fairly thick. (A drop of almond extract is also delicious in the icing, but please only do one drop if you'd like.) Dip the top of the cookies in the icing then place back on the wire rack to allow icing to harden. Garnish with a little extra orange zest to make them pretty. Makes about 14 to 16 cookies.
Notes
To make cookies gluten free: I suggest using an all purpose gluten free flour such as King Arthur Flou's 1:1 gluten free baking flour.
Get all of our tips & tricks for freezing these cookies here!
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 148cal | Carbohydrates: 21.7g | Protein: 1.9g | Fat: 6.4g | Saturated Fat: 3.9g | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 11.9g