Cranberry Orange Cookies Soft And Easy Wellplated Com

Grandma Dorothy has made several appearances on my blog. One Christmas, I shared these Candy Cane Snowball Cookies, which are based on her Swedish tea cakes. Before she lost her battle with Parkinson’s disease, my grandma painstakingly recorded her most treasured recipes in a home-printed cookbook she called Lovin’ from the Oven. Included in that cookbook is the base recipe that I used for these orange drop cookies. These melt-in-your-mouth, traditional orange cookies are pillowy soft and float away on your tongue. In addition to their delightful texture and holiday-inspired flavor, these cookies contain a sneaky, healthy ingredient. My grandma’s original recipe is actually called “Carrot Cookies,” because the cookie dough contains mashed carrots. BIG IMPORTANT NOTE: These orange cookies do NOT taste like veggies.

The carrots don’t flavor the cookies; rather, they make the cookie dough sweet and incredibly tender. I kept Grandma’s carrots then took the liberty of adding lots of orange zest and cranberries. (I love this flavor combination so much, I even made a Cranberry Orange Muffins recipe.)

Every bite is sweet, citrusy, and reminds me of the love my grandma put into everything she made. I hope that your family loves them too.

How to Make Cranberry Orange Cookies

These easy orange cookies truly melt in your mouth (similar to cranberry orange shortbread cookies), and that dreamy, too-perfect-to-be-true orange frosting takes them over the edge. During the holidays, there’s nothing I love more than fresh cranberry cookies from the oven!

The Ingredients

Carrots. The carrots do not impact the flavor of cookies, but they do help create a deliciously sweet and moist orange cookie. Plus, the carrots bring vitamins and potassium to the cookies, making them a healthy cranberry orange cookies addition. Butter + Vegetable Shortening. My grandma’s original recipe calls for 100% vegetable shortening. I opted to replace half of the shortening with butter, because I prefer butter’s flavor).

Sugar. Helps make these cookies perfectly sweet and moist. Orange Zest. For delicious, citrusy flavor that pairs famously with the cranberries. Vanilla. Accentuates the other flavors in the cookies and provides essential coziness. Flour. I used whole wheat pastry flour in place of half of the all-purpose flour to give the cookies a slight nutritional boost. You can’t taste the whole wheat AT ALL, and my thinking is that if we can squeeze in a bit of extra healthy at the holidays with zero negative impact on flavor, why not?Cranberries. The cranberries make the cookies feel extra festive for the holidays and taste lovely paired with the orange.Orange Frosting. The orange frosting is smooth, buttery, and, as I can personally attest, tastes as delicious licked right from your fingers as it does atop the buttery orange cookies themselves.

The Directions

Storage Tips

To Store. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.To Freeze. Place cookies in an airtight freezer-safe storage container in the freezer for up to 3 months. If freezing the cookies, I recommend waiting to frost them if possible (or freezing the frosting separately), but iced orange cookies can also be frozen (they just aren’t as easy to stack).

Recommended Tools to Make this Recipe

Baking Sheet. Perfect for making this orange cranberry cookies recipe.Citrus Zester. Since you can use orange zest for these cookies, having a tool like this one is essential. Parchment Paper. Makes cleanup so much easier. A silicone baking mat will also work well.