Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies

These Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies are bursting with orange zest right in the cookie, but also covered in a thick layer of fresh orange icing! Sweet, rich, and buttery, with slightly crispy edges, but melt-in-your-mouth, soft & puffy middles!

The BEST sugar cookies, one of the easiest sugar cookies to make, and one batch makes A LOT of cookies.

I first made Amish Sugar Cookies around the holidays when the recipe jumped out at me in a magazine, and as you guys are very aware, I can’t stop making them. I knew from the first batch that Amish Sugar Cookies are special.

The latest in my ‘Amish Sugar Cookies‘ series, if you will, is these Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies. So yeah, just regular Amish Sugar Cookies + a few oranges. Voila. A new flavor of cookie. Zest and fresh orange juice from two oranges – that’s all you need.

But orange cookies are fantastic. Don’t you agree? A really good orange cookie recipe is a must-have.

Classic Amish Sugar Cookies are blessedly simple. The ingredients are ALL basic pantry staples. That’s something I just love about baking, and I never cease to marvel at: so many amazing and incredible recipes are completely basic ingredients, but the whole is greater than the sum of their parts.

Somehow simple things like butter, sugar, flour, and eggs, in different proportions, come together to make very different things, all wonderful. It’s kinda cool.

These Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies are just a drop sugar cookie, so they’re a TON less work than a cookie that you’d need to roll into balls, or a cut-out cookie. But you get all the great qualities of those types of cookies. These are sweet, rich, and buttery, with slightly crispy edges, but melt-in-your-mouth, soft & puffy middles.

They’re bursting with orange zest right in the cookie, but also covered in a thick layer of fresh orange icing. Lots of zest there too. Love, love, love.

This is one of the best features of Amish Sugar Cookies. They’re super adaptable and versatile. Amish Sugar Cookies are delightful as-is, but easy to dress up with spices, extracts, glazes, or icings, like with this Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies version.

Since falling in love with Amish Sugar Cookies, I’ve now made these Coconut Oil Amish Sugar Cookies, Iced Lemon Amish Sugar Cookies, Iced Almond Cookies, and Toasted Coconut Amish Sugar Cookies. Don’t ask me to pick a fave.

Updated August 2018: Thin Crispy Amish Sugar Cookies too!

One batch of Amish Sugar Cookies makes quite a lot of cookies, so you could even split the batch in half or in thirds, and make several different kinds!

5 from 2 votes

Print

Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies

These Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies are bursting with orange zest right in the cookie, but also covered in a thick layer of fresh orange icing! Sweet, rich, and buttery, with slightly crispy edges, but melt-in-your-mouth, soft & puffy middles!

Course Cookies

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 48

Author Sarah

Ingredients

For cookies:

• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 cup vegetable, canola, or liquid coconut oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• zest of 1 large orange
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar

For icing:

• zest of 1 large orange
• juice of 1 large orange
• 4 tbsp. butter melted
• 4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

For cookies:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, oil, and sugars until combined.

2. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and orange zest.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

4. Gradually add flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating until combined. Do not overmix.

5. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

6. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets.

7. Bake at 375 for 8-11 minutes, or until edges and bottoms are lightly browned.

8. Remove to wire racks to cool.
   

For icing:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together all icing ingredients until smooth. Add additional powdered sugar, if needed, to achieve desired consistency. Icing should be thick, but spreadable, and not run off the cookie!

2. Spread over cookies, and allow to set.

Recipe Notes

These are good for up to a week, but best within the first 3 days. After 3 days, they get crumbly and a bit on the drier side - still a delicious cookie though. 

These freeze really well - even iced. But make sure to allow iced cookies to set before freezing, and separate layers of cookies with wax paper or parchment paper!

I've made many variations of these Amish Sugar Cookies, including these Iced Lemon Amish Sugar Cookies, Iced Almond Cookies, Cranberry Orange Amish Sugar Cookies, Coconut Oil Amish Sugar Cookies, Toasted Coconut Amish Sugar Cookies, and Thin & Crispy Amish Sugar Cookies!