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.
These are sexy cookies (although I didn’t know cookies could be so sexy!). I think I could just sit around and eat the icing, but after making homemade marmalade for a Daring Bakers Challenge, I can just imagine the cookies made with that. OMG! You are sooo lucky to have your amazing citrus trees and garden. It doesn’t get any fresher or better than picking them in your own backyard!
Oooh…. I am definitely going to have to make these – have a jar of Seville marmalade in the fridge and oranges on my tree so I am good to go. I love the Seville marmalade ( it’s a bit of an acquired taste I think) – but I grew up eating it. Hmmm… this recipe is giving me some ideas…. good thing I have teenagers to eat all my experiments! LOL!!!
That does sound absolutely delicious. Right now at 35 degrees in the evenings, desserts need to be summery and refreshing and this fits the bill to a “T”. Beautiful!
Love your “damn good” citrusy cookies. The marmalade/buttery cookies do sound like a great vehicle for the orange zest icing. xo
Just like anything home grown – agree on the oranges- here in the PNW
I don’t have those” slug-the-one-next-to-you-OMFG-these-are-amazing oranges”.
But I have tasted some in Florida once. Beautiful fabulous sounding cookies!
I would say this is a brilliant way to start a Monday! Love the orange zest…
These are going to be dangerous, but in a good way:) Love the frosting!
I officially have died and gone to heaven looking at these cookies! YUM, no double YUM! Have a great Monday!
I am in love with these photos. The lighting and the warm colors make me think of (gasp!) autumn, which just makes me crave cookies like this. Can you send me some please?
Orange Marmalade is one of my favorites. I can imagine how good it tastes as a cookie! My kids are always up for cookies, especially the kind with frosting so we’ll have to give these a try soon.
I collect iced cookie recipes in all flavors so this caught my eye. Now I want to try the Seville Orange Marmalade–new to me.
So beautiful! My grandma made orange cookies as I was growing up so this just takes me back to my childhood.
Hellz yeah! This cookie looks crazy-good! All cookies should be iced ๐
Neiman Marcus also has that infamous $250 chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is so awesome. They must know how to do cookies and do them well. Love the photos.
I could tell at first glance that these cookies were all about the icing. I’d love to try it on a cake, too. Yum!
The phrase “seductively irresistible” has convinced me to set off on a quest to find the best oranges to try these cookies. My in-laws are coming to visit from S. California in a couple of weeks and I think a couple of oranges from their tree would do the trick.