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, and melt-in-your-mouth, soft & puffy middles! These orange cookies are straight-up irresistible.
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Amish Sugar Cookies are simply THE BEST sugar cookies, one of the easiest sugar cookie recipes 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. Iced orange cookies, but PERFECT ones. 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.
These are sweet, rich, and buttery, with slightly crispy edges, but melt-in-your-mouth, soft & puffy middles.
These orange cookies 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 Orange Amish Sugar Cookies version.
Since falling in love with Amish 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!
Updated March 2019:
Here’s all the other ones I have currently.
- Eggnog Amish Sugar Cookies
- Cranberry Orange Amish Sugar Cookies
- Iced Vanilla Amish Sugar Cookies
- Cherry Almond Amish Sugar Cookies
- Pecan Praline Amish Sugar Cookies
- Iced Maple Amish Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Latte Amish Sugar Cookies
- Iced Chai-Spiced Amish Sugar Cookies
- Thin Crispy Amish Sugar Cookies
- Iced Almond Sugar Cookies
- Iced Lemon Amish Sugar Cookies
- Toasted Coconut Amish Sugar Cookies
- Coconut Oil Amish Sugar Cookies
- Peppermint Amish Sugar Cookies
Iced Orange Amish Sugar Cookies
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:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, oil, and sugars until combined.
- Beat in eggs, vanilla, and orange zest.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
- Gradually add flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating until combined. Do not overmix.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets.
- Bake at 375 for 8-11 minutes, or until edges and bottoms are lightly browned.
- Remove to wire racks to cool.
For icing:
- 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!
- Spread over cookies, and allow to set.
Notes
If you love orange cookies, please check out a few other wonderful orange cookies recipes! These Orange Creamsicle Cookies are a loooongtime favorite, and for good reason!
My other favorite sugar cookie recipe – I have an original classic version, and these Orange-Glazed Sugar Cookies. Omg, those are amazing too! Such a luxurious cookie.
SO delicious! I used one teaspoon of vanilla and one of pure orange oil. These cookies were soft in the middle and crisp on the edges. The icing was heavenly! Perfect!
I’m so happy you liked them!! I love the idea of pure orange oil! That’s a great tip. Thank you for your comment! 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
They are delicious!
I’m so glad to hear that!!! Happy Holidays!
Does the icing harden?
It does! It takes a good few hours to thoroughly set, but it does!
Dangerously delicious! Had to take a couple every time we walked into the kitchen. ☺️
I think so too!!! Amish Sugar Cookies are my fave in any flavor, but there’s nothing like a good orange cookie, huh? I’m so glad you liked them!! Thank you for letting me know. 🙂
Indeed one of the perfect work, I have ever came across!!
I live in Taiwan where it is insanely humid. These cookies will never dry out. They won’t last three days either. I used makrut keffir lime and a pomelo since it what I had on hand. Very good with half coconut oil and half butter. Great recipe. Thanks.
Interesting! That makes sense. Thank you for sharing your feedback! Glad they turned out with those substitutions. 🙂
Made these for work and they were a huge hit, especially with the icing. They’re crispy on the edges but soft on the inside and the orange zest is just enough to give them a pop of flavor. Would recommend messing with the cooking times depending on how long you make them and doubling the icing recipe.
Love the flavors, but mine spread horribly every time! I tried various tricks with each new tray (chilling dough, freezing cookie sheet with dough balls before baking, etc) but they spread sooo much! They’re tasty anyway but mine looked nothing like the pictures and ended up very crispy and thin. Maybe it was the coconut oil? Coconut oil is very finicky but I had some leftover and wanted to try it here since you listed it as an option. Next time I’ll definitely try another oil and see how that works instead. But thank you for the idea! The flavors are still great and well-balanced 🙂
Very definitely could be the coconut oil. Was it solid form or liquid? And how much did you sub? I’ms sorry they spread on you, but a substitution can certainly make the difference. Glad you otherwise enjoyed them!
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
I have moved to salted butter, honestly. I know a lot of people like to control the amount of salt with unsalted, but I personally am happy with salted and the flavor it adds.
A delicious cookie with an amazing light and melt in your mouth texture!! Don’t skip the cream of tartar if you can help it, it is for the cookie’s texture. And don’t overmix!! Here are the changes made: I halved the recipe and added salt to both the cookies and the icing. 1/2 tsp to the cookies, and a pinch to the frosting. I candied my own orange peel and and topped the frosted cookies with the diced peel. It adds so much to the cookie, and I believe was also part of the original magazine post. (I had been looking for this exact recipe and was very excited to find it here. I made it years ago and had never forgotten it!) You could easily use any citrus in place of orange. I got 29 cookies using a 1 tablespoon scoop. Thank you for sharing the recipe!!
I have to tell you that this is the best sugar cookie I’ve ever made…
Haha! I am soooo happy to hear that!! I feel the same way…. these are my favorite cookie!
I love these cookies what would I change to make an anisette cookie
My cookies don’t seem to be spreading out at all! Any ideas?
They are thick and puffy! So that is how they should look actually. I hope you end up enjoying them!
These turned out really soft and flavorful for me! I replaced the vanilla extract in the cookies with orange extra for some extra flavor. The icing made these cookies phenomenal!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. These are probably my most favorite cookie, and so versatile. I’m glad you enjoyed them!