Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies

Buttery, soft shortbread cookies filled with citrus orange and festive dried cranberries and covered in orange glaze. These Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies are the perfect addition to your festive baking this year.

It’s cookies season at the moment and my favourite shortbread recipe has been given a holiday makeover with the addition of some ultimate festive flavours.

Citrus orange and dried cranberries are such popular flavours of this season and embody all aspects of the holidays. Added to both sweet AND savoury foods, these ingredients will instantly add impact to any recipe.

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What are Shortbread Cookies

Originating in Scotland they are buttery, sweet cookies that get their name ‘short’ from the very crumbly nature of them. Due to the high butter content, once cooked at a low temperature, the dough, just like shortcrust pastry, developer a super light, melt in your mouth texture. It’s just perfection!

Tips on making Shortbread Cookies

These are some of the easiest cookies to make but there are a few tips to ensure successful baking of these Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies:

Caster Sugar:

As the granules of caster sugar are super fine, they’ll dissolve into the butter when mixing much quicker than granulated sugar. This leaves you a much smoother dough at the end.

Fridge time:

This recipe calls for two rest times in the fridge. The first once the dough has been formed and wrapped as a disc in cling film prior to rolling and cutting out the shapes. The recipe calls for room temperature butter at the start and hence the dough can be quite soft which can make it hard to roll out evenly and cut the shapes out easily. The 15 minutes allows it to stiffen just enough to over come this.

Once the dough is rolled and stars cut, the cut dough then goes back into the fridge for the minutes minimum … I’d fully recommend at least an hour in the fridge. This allows the butter to solidify again and this in turn allows for the cookies to maintain their shape in the oven when baking and prevent spreading.

Oven Temperature:

Some recipes call for the cookies to be cooked on a low temperature. That won’t work for these shortbread cookies. The butter content is way too high and if baked at a low temp then the cookies will end up spreading all over the place. At the 180C temp they’ll set faster and maintain their shape. With the higher temp they’ll need less time in the oven – I take them until they just start to turn that golden colour…gently kissed! Perfect

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How to make these shortbread cookies

Step 1: Add the butter, sugar, flour, vanilla extract and orange zest into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until combined.

Step 2: Add the cranberries and mix until fine bread crumbs form

Step 3: Turn out onto a floured surface and using your hands push the crumbs until it forms a dough. If you find it is still a little crumbly and the dough won’t hold, then flick some cold water over the dough to add the smallest amount of moisture. Gently knead until it comes together.

Step 4: Form the dough into a disc and wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for 15 minutes

Step 5: Remove the dough from the fridge and on a piece of baking paper roll the dough out. Cut out your cookies and place them on a separate baking tray lined with baking paper. With the excess dough knead to gather and roll out again and cut more cookies. Refrigerate the cookies on a baking tray for one hour.

Step 6: Bake the cookies at 180C/350F for 8 – 10 minutes, until they just start to turn golden. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire wrack

Step 7: Mix the icing sugar and orange juice in a bowl and dip each cookie to coat. Set aside to set and then enjoy!

Cookie Swap

The awesome Cosette from Cosette’s Kitchen has put together a 2019 cookie swap, a union of fabulous bakers and bloggers each sharing their favourite cookie recipes. It’s a brilliant way to find new and inspiring recipes for your next cookie baking session. #virtualcookieparty2019

Cosette’s Kitchen Tahini Pinwheel Cookies

Kathryn Pauline’s Sesame Blossom Cookies

Candice Walker’s Dark Chocolate Gelt with Matcha Mousse

Tawnie Graham’s (Krolls_Korner) White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies 

¡Hola! Jalapeño Peppermint Mocha Milk Fudge 

Rylee Foer (About to Sprout) Spiced Honey Cardamom Cookies with Orange Glaze 

Gina Fontana (Healthy Little Vittles) Cookie Dough Stuffed Dates

Christine Ma (Cherry on My Sundae) Southern Butter Pecan Skillet Cookie

Alexa Blay’s (Key To My Lime) Gluten Free Vegan Sugar Cookies for Cutouts

Tamara Giebel (The Herbalist & The Carnivore) Chocolate Espresso Dipped Hazelnut Lace Cookies

Ashley Cuoco’s (ashcuoco) Stamped Citrus Shortbread

Mike Johnson’s (MikeBakesNYC) Chocolate Peppermint Macarons

Elizabeth Waterson (ConfessionsOfABakingQueen) Viennese Whirls

Erin Kowal’s (Down to a Simmer) Date Drop Cookies

Lily Morello (lilybubbletea) Holiday Fuel Cookies

Kathleen Culver, The Floured Table Triple Ginger Molasses Cookies

Taylor Carson (Crust and Confections PNW) Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

Kimberlee Ho (kickassbaker) White Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwiches

Cindy Feingold (saltandserenity) Chocolate Dipped Mint sandwich Cookies

Tamara, Tina, Tara (ThreeTeasKitchen)  https://threeteaskitchen.com/lawzena/ 

Jean Choi’s (whatgreatgrandmaate) Cranberry Pistachio Paleo Chocolate Cookies

Tristin Rieken’s (onearmedmama) Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

Kathryn (wornslapout) Rocky Road Chocolate Bark 

Taylor (allpurposeflourchild) Mulling Spice and Orange Marmalade Thumbprint Cookies

Dana (olivemeetscoconut) Cranberry Orange Halaweh Cookies

KendellKreations Pecan Butter Balls

Kristine Hinterkopf (TheEarnestBaker) Smoked Sea Salt and Bourbon Cowboy Cookies

Anita (cookonawhim) Cranberry and Rosemary Tassies

Casey Colodny (TheMindfulHapa) Paleo Soft Ginger Cookies 

Kat Higashiyama (Pasta Ragazza) Chocolate and Coffee Biscotti

For more festive bakes check out the following:

Gingerbread Pear Roulade

Dulche De Leche Clementine Cake

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