Orange Marmalade Cookies with Orange Zest Icing
These orange marmalade cookies are simple and great to share. They’re soft and super unique. If you love cake-like cookies that are soft and tender in the middle, then you’ll love these orange marmalade cookies!
Orange Marmalade Cookies
Rarely does a new cookie recipe make it into our abode’s “must make” repertoire.[donotprint] With our household favorites being so loved (like the chocolate chunk, snickerdoodle w/ Viet cinnamon, and oatmeal rum raisin recipes), a new find has to be pretty damn good to pass up baking an old favorite. These orange marmalade cookies with orange zest icing are pretty damn good.
The showstopping goodness of these cookies come from the icing. The cookie itself, despite being quite luscious, is merely a vehicle in which to consume the slightly tangy, citrusy sweet orange icing. Of course it helps that we have slug-the-one-next-to-you-OMFG-these-are-amazing oranges growing in our garden with which to make the orange icing.
fresh orange zest makes the icing fragrant and fabulous
For this recipe we highly recommending finding the best oranges you can. One incredible orange and one prime lemon for the icing will transform this cookie from “delectable” to “seductively irresistible”.
We’ve played around with different orange marmalades for the cookie recipe. A simple orange marmalade is very nice and gives the cookies a typical cake sweetness, but to add a little creative contrast, consider seeking out a Seville orange marmalade. Seville oranges are a type of bitter orange which have a particularly strong orange taste combined with their bitter or tart bite. They are a marmalade classic and give the cookies’ taste an additional dimension.
be generous with the fresh orange zest
Icing Recipe with Orange Zest
For the icing, how fine you grate the zest will determine the final mouthfeel. For the photos we zested some larger strips because it is such an highlight of the cookie, plus it looks kinda sexy. But for the zest in the frosting, we used the microplane to get super fine zestlings (doubt that’s a real word but it sounds good.) Some people like the thicker zest strips while others not so much.
Unfortunately this one of those cookie doughs which gets adversely affected by freezing. Nearly all of our favorites we can make a batch, roll them into logs, freeze them, then bake just what we need. However this dough tends to bake heavier and drier if used from frozen dough rather than a fresh batch. Too bad, but a least the icing keeps well over a week or so. Make a little extra and add to your favorite muffins, scones, or quick breads!
-Todd
Orange Marmalade Cookies w/ fresh Orange Icing
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 1/2 cup (114 g) Butter (1 stick) , room temp.
- 1 cup (200 g) Sugar
- 2 lrg Eggs
- 1 cup (300 g) Seville Orange Marmalade (regular Orange Marmalade will work too-Seville Oranges will give a slight bitterness to cookie to offset icing sweetness)
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 g) Kosher Salt
Orange Icing
- finely grated zest from 1 Orange
- finely grated zest from 1/2 a Lemon
- 3 Tablespoons (45 ml) fresh squeezed Orange Juice , plus more if needed
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
- 1 pinch Kosher Salt
- 3 cups (360 g) Confectioners' Sugar
Instructions
- Combine the 1/2 cup (114g) butter and 1 cup (200g) sugar in a mixer bowl and beat with paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Mix in the 2 eggs until incorporated into the butter/sugar mix. Mix in the 1 cup (300g) orange marmalade.
- Sift together the 3 cups (375g) flour, 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon (2.5g) salt. Gently incorporate into wet mix until just combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled (@ 1-2 hrs.)
- Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Line 3 baking sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Using 2 teaspoons, drop walnut sized cookie dough balls onto prepared sheet pans, spaced about 3" apart.
- Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 20 min. or until cookies are light brown.
- Remove from oven, transfer to wire rack and allow to cool completely. After cookies are completely cool, make the icing.
- Combine citrus zests, 3 Tablespoons orange juice, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, and pinch of salt in a bowl. Whisk in 3 cups (360g) confectioners' sugar until well combined, smooth and slightly spreadable. If icing is still too thick, add a few drops of orange juice until it's spreadable.
- Drizzle or spread the icing over the cookies. The icing will spead over the cookies so don't add too much at once.
- Allow icing to set (about 30 min) over the cookies and enjoy.
I’ve done these a couple of times now. They are among the best cookies I ever baked. Sweet but not kiddie-sweet, with a fresh orange flavor and aroma, and a delicate bite. I recommend using an all-sugar marmalade rather than one that includes corn syrup – it works better with the recipe. My Bonne Mamman cookies stayed plumper and more moist than the ones I made with Smuckers.
Very helpful. Thank you!
Right, I think the dough was pretty chilled after being refrigerated. But does this mean it’s ok to skip the refrigeration step? Or do I need to chill and then let them warm up before baking?
PS. I just had some more and they are just so good and I love that they’re a little unusual.
Good question. I think both ways will help with it spreading. Usually chilling the dough is to help keep the cookies from spreading too much, but in your case they weren’t spreading enough. I would try both ways and see if there is a texture difference. There may be another reason to chilling the dough, but I don’t know for sure. If I get the chance, I’ll experiment with both ways and let you know. If you try, I’d love to hear your results.
Good luck.
Todd
Hi! I made these and they were lovely. I’ll add them to my recipe repertoire! Quick question- is the oven really supposed to just be at 300 degrees F? Mine tasted good but they never spread out like yours did- just wanted to double check the temp. Thanks!
Hi Lizzie,
It is supposed to be 300. I know that is not as hot as usual for cookies, but it works for this recipe. The lower temp helps them spread a bit more before setting. If yours didn’t spread, maybe the dough was a bit too cool. I should have added to have the butter for the dough to be soft at room temp. A warmer dough should spread more than a colder one. See if that helps. If not let us know & we can brainstorm to help figure it out. Good luck.
Todd
I made these last night with homemade Seville Orange Marmalade and absolutely loved them. I actually ran the Marmalade through the food processor first as mine was super chunky. I couldn’t help but think they would be over the top amazing with a chocolate glaze, Orangette cookies. I’m thinking I will give it a try the next time I make them (tomorrow). Thanks for the great recipe.
These look great. I don’t use orange marmalade in many things outside of sweet and sour sauce…I guess I should branch out! I actually have all of the ingredients in my pantry to make these, so maybe I will give it a try this afternoon! My mouth is watering already….yum yum.
Hey Todd,
Thanks for the post! We don’t have an orange tree (yet), but we do have two mandarins. They’re full with little fruits right now, so I’m gonna bookmark this recipe to try (subbing mandarins) in November when they’re ready for the taking. Hope they turn out as nice as the oranges did!
[K]
Hi Kim,
I think this would be even better with the mandarins. We have some still on the tree which we are saving for cocktails, otherwise we were going to make this recipe with the Algerian tangerines instead. Plus we figured it would be easier for most people to get oranges this time of year, vs. getting tangerines.
Love this recipe and will make it this weekend. As I was reading your description out loud to my husband he got almost giddy hearing “oatmeal rum raisin”!! Will this recipe be posted soon??
Thanks so much!
It wasn’t until I was writing this post that it dawned on me we have never written up our oatmeal rum raisin cookies. Looks like we will have to write about it soon!
I made these last night and again this afternoon. Really liked them the first time, but wasn’t crazy about the icing–too “powdered sugary” for me. So today I added a bit of almond extract to the icing–a different flavor, but very good!
I think we were lucky to have such flavorful oranges to zest from. The almond extract sounds like a great addition!
These are absolutely delicious! I halved the recipe because we can’t eat 36 cookies in a few days, and they were a big hit! Thanks 🙂
dessert for two- glad you like them!
I love orange and I love cookies so I will definitely make this recipe. Thank you!
Orange is just not a flavor I associate with cookies… great idea that I can’t wait to try!!! Gorgeous photos,as always!!
I’m with you. I rarely add a new cookie recipe, but this is one I think I’ve looking for all my life. I may even have to drizzle a bit of dark chocolate over it for a real stunner. Every week I say “this is the last dessert that I’m making until Christmas.” haha
hi there,
i must admit i’m not an icing person (yes, there are such people in this world) and tend to skip icing on most things. but these little delectables look so pretty and sound pretty damn good! good oranges are hard to come by over here, but i’d still be keen to try these… maybe even with yuzu when they show up later in the year? thanks for sharing!
I was just wishing our yuzu had put out fruit this year for that exact reason. Would make an incredible icing. If you do it make sure you let us know how it came out. Will keep an eye on the Japanese markets here to see when they get their yuzus in!
these look delicate and beautiful!
OMG these sound outta this world good! I love oranges and lemons so I definitely will have to experiment. I wonder if you could make a lemon version easily with lemon curd….YUM!
Lemon sounds fantastic. Curious how it will work with lemon curd. We sold a cookie with lemon icing which was to die for where I used to manage. Lemon makes some of the best icing!