Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies are buttery bites full of orange flavor and pieces of dried cranberries. This easy to make cookie recipe is perfect for the holidays and great for cookie trays!
For these cookies, you will need flour, powdered sugar, butter, orange extract, orange zest, salt, and dried cranberries
Let's start the Christmas Cookie Baking Season off with these Buttery Cookies!
It has been a while since I've posted a new cookie recipe here! With Christmas on the horizon, I have had cookies on the brain and do have a few new recipes to share this season.
I have a chewy 
While I do love chewy or soft cookies, I also love a real buttery, crispy shortbread. I also love the combination of cranberry and orange. Grumpy not so much. I wish I could leave them as he does. Unfortunately, I love them too much to leave them alone! I ended up bagging these cookies up and giving them away because I knew I would not keep them out of my fingers going to my mouth!
I love to make these type of cookies ahead of time because they are great cookies to store in your freezer without affecting the quality of the cookie. They are also super simple to make!
The only difficulty I had with these was the dried cranberries did want to get in the way of my cookie cutter and wouldn't completely go through. I found I had to press firmly to cut through the cranberries and I still ended up with some zagged little edges because of it.
What I loved best about these Orange Cranberry Shortbread Cookies!
The zagged little edges are super crispy and the cranberry part crisped more so because they were sticking out of the edge. That gave these cookies a nice little touch in my opinion. I'm all about texture appeal and that type of texture is something I do like.
Tips for Delicious, Buttery Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
- Make sure your butter is at room temperature before creaming together with sugar. I like to set my butter out at least 30 minutes before mixing.
- Use a sturdy cookie cutter with sharp edges, or just cut your cookies with a sharp knife into squares.
- Watch cookies carefully while baking and check every 5 minutes. They will brown quickly.
Don't forget to Pin and Share Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies!
📖 Recipe
Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
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Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- ¾ cup coarsley chopped cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper
- In mixing bowl, using hand mixer, combine butter, orange extract, and powdered sugar until creamy.
- In separate mixing bowl, combine flour, orange zest, and salt.
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, mixing with hand mixer until well combined.
- Turn dough out onto lightly floured board.
- Roll with rolling pin until about ¼ inch thick.
- Using desired cookie cutter, cut cookies and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Cool completely on baking racks.
- Transfer to air tight storage container.
Lisa Deleo says
Hi I love this recipe and I am looking forward to making them but my question is…. I have left over orange cranberry relish that I froze from thanksgiving. Can I use it in this recipe and if yes do you suggest I cut back on some of the sugar since the relish already is sweetened with sugar . Thank You
Shelby Law Ruttan says
Hi Lisa, I believe using cranberry relish in the recipe would change the texture of the cookie and likely fail as this is a shortbread cookie. I think you should stick to the dried cranberries for this one in particular. There are other recipes on my site that are made with cranberry sauce. Feel free to do a search, they should come right up. Thanks! Shelby
Tandy Willingham says
I was copying this recipe down & noticed instructions do not say when to add cranberries. As an experienced baker I can figure it out but a novice might be confused. These sound amazing!
Suhaila says
They look yummy I wish there was a video of the process
Shelby Law Ruttan says
Hi Suhaila, thank you! Maybe this is a video I can do soon.
Gwen Law says
The cookies look delicious. We like a crispy buttery cookie and I will be making this recipe!
Shelby says
🙂 Yay, my mom is going to make my recipe 🙂