Why You’ll Love These
Chocolate orange shortbread cookies melt in your mouth with their classic holiday flavor. If you are a fan of Terry’s Chocolate Orange balls, you will love the cookies! They are easy slice-and-bake shortbread cookies. Want some more Christmas recipes? Try our eggnog cheesecake with gingersnap crust, peanut butter balls, classic shortbread cookies, Italian sesame cookies, and cut out sugar cookies.
Key Ingredients
Shortbread Cookie Dough – Unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Flavorings – Fresh orange zest and pure vanilla extract.Chocolate Coating – Dark chocolate melting wafers.
How to Make Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookies
Whisk the all-purpose flour and salt together in a medium-size bowl, and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the room temperature unsalted butter and confectioners’ sugar together. Add the orange zest and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Press the shortbread dough into a ball, and knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Roll the dough into a log about 12″ long and 2″ in diameter. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. I chill mine overnight. It really helps bring out the orange flavor. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the dough with a serrated knife into 1/4″ pieces and place about 1″ apart on the baking tray. Bake the cookies until firm, about 15-17 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Melt the dark chocolate according to the package instructions. Dip each cookie halfway into the melted chocolate and place it on parchment paper to dry and set. Store in an air-tight container or wrap these when gift-giving Christmas cookies. I dare you to eat just one! We failed this challenge in our house, sad but true. Just look at all that orange zest…absolutely heavenly!
Tips
Measure the flour properly. Aerate, spoon, and swoop level.Use good quality butter for shortbread cookies. After all, butter is the prominent flavor!Don’t skip chilling the dough. The butter needs to be set back up, so the cookies don’t spread while baking.Chocolate wafers or chocolate bars melt better than chocolate chips. If you use chocolate bars, chop them up smaller to melt faster.Don’t burn the chocolate! I melt chocolate at 15-second intervals in the microwave so I can keep an eye on the chocolate. Place the chocolate-dipped cookies on a piece of parchment paper for easy removal after the cookies have dried. I just place them back on the prepared pan I baked them on.
Variations
Swap out lemon zest for the orange zest.We like to use dark chocolate (bittersweet chocolate), but milk chocolate works just as well.Add some chopped dark chocolate chunks to the cookie dough.Instead of dipping the cookies, you can drizzle the melted chocolate over them.You can roll the orange shortbread cookie dough log into turbinado or granulated sugar before slicing and baking. You can make orange sugar by mixing the sugar with about 2-3 teaspoons of orange zest. You may need two oranges for that much zest. Do this when you refrigerate the dough, so it has time for the flavors to meld. When ready to bake, roll the dough log into the orange sugar by pouring the sugar out onto a large piece of wax paper or on a baking sheet.
