Cranberry Orange Cookies

 

I made these cookies this weekend and they were a real popular treat for my family! They were gone in 24 hours. This is a soft cookie with a cream cheese icing that highlights the flavors of cranberry, orange, cream cheese, and butter. The recipe made 24 cookies.

Cranberry Orange Cookies

Yield: 24 cookies

 Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon plus or the zest of 1 orange

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup of dried cranberries, rehydrated

Orange glaze:

2 tablespoons of cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plus orange juice (juice of 1 orange)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Measure out your dried cranberries in a small bowl and boil some water. Pour enough boiled water over them to cover them and let them set at least 30 minutes. This will rehydrate your cranberries and make them more palatable.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl add sugar, orange zest and rub the orange zest into the sugar with a spatula until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Beat the orange zest and sugar until light and fluffy, a couple of minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Add the flour mixture, mix until incorporated. Fold in the cranberries by hand. 

I used a medium cookie scoop and scooped out the cookies as balls and placed them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake them for 13-15 minutes. Let the cookies cool some before moving them to a cooling rack. They are a soft cookie, sort of cake like.

To make the glaze, mix the sifted powdered sugar, (I sift because I always get lumps in my powdered sugar) orange juice, softened cream cheese, and vanilla together with a hand held mixer till smooth. You want to get a really soft consistency although it doesn't really drizzle. I put it in an icing bag or a zip loc bag with the end cut off to pipe on the cookies. The icing stays soft and you can't stack the cookies on each other. You have to store them flat. If you want an icing that will harden you will want royal icing. The original recipe (see link below) had that type of icing. Just make it with orange juice instead of lemon.

Store in an airtight container. I did not refrigerate these cookies and they were fine for 24 hours on the counter. If you want them to last longer or you think they won't be eaten right away I would refrigerate them. They will last in refrigerator for up to a week.

Recipe adapted from: What Megan's Making

And of course, have them with tea! I love baking in the autumn! 

In Victory,

Sherry