You're going to love this recipe for Valentine's Day butter cookies. This is a tender, heart shaped cookie flavored with blood orange zest and orange extract. The icing is made with freshly squeezed blood orange juice and confectioner's sugar which is where these cookies get their gorgeous color. This recipe is easy to make, full of fresh citrus flavor and absolutely beautiful! It's also a special surprise when you bite into one and find some serious citrus flavors. These cookies are adorable in the shape of a heart but can also be cut into any shape that you like. You can even roll the dough into a log, chill, and slice and bake the cookies.
What You'll Love About This Recipe:
- serious citrus flavor - this recipe is packed fresh winter citrus
- cookies keep their shape - you'll have crisp, clean edges and can bake these cookies close together
- that color - the icing is a beautiful pink color thanks to the fresh blood oranges used in the recipe
- kids and grown-ups all love these blood orange butter cookies
- they travel well - mail a batch to one of your favorite sweethearts ♥️
Making the Butter Cookies:
This really is a simple recipe to make. You'll start by creaming room temperature butter with your sugar until light and fluffy. Next, you'll add the citrus zest, orange juice, egg, vanilla and orange extract and mix until well combined. Finally you'll add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough just comes together. Try not to over work the dough here. You will end up with tough cookies.
Rolling the Dough:
I learned this dough rolling trick from Sally at Sally's Baking Addiction. Generously flour your rolling pin and parchment paper or a Silpat or other silicone baking mat. Roll the dough into a sheet about ¼ inch thick. Transfer the rolled dough to a baking sheet and then refrigerate the dough for 30-45 minutes. You can also freeze the dough for 15-20 minutes. Once the dough has chilled, you'll cut the cookies out. I find rolling the dough before chilling to be much easier than trying to roll out cold cookie dough. Once you cut out the cookies, they'll bake at 350° for 11-12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Making the Blood Orange Glaze:
While the cookies are cooling, you'll make the blood orange glaze. You'll juice and strain one blood orange. This will give you about three tablespoons of fresh orange juice. Whisk in the confectioners sugar and mix until there are no more lumps in the glaze. You want the consistency to be on the thicker side so that the glaze holds it's shape when it's on the cookies. Once the cookies have cooled completely, decorate with the glaze. You can use a knife and cover the entire cookie or use a pastry bag and thin piping tip. You can make fun designs with the glaze on the cookies.
I hope that you love this newest cookie recipe! I had so much fun creating it for you. A special thank you to my favorite artistic director Jerry Pisani who helped me think about fun ways to design the glaze on these cookies. You always have the most creative food styling and decorating ideas. ♥️
Other delicious cookie recipes
- Toasted Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Brown Butter Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Icing
Recipe
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Blood Orange Butter Cookies
Ingredients
For the Citrus Butter Cookies
- ¾ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 and ½ tablespoons blood orange zest zest from 1 and ½ oranges
- 1 tablespoon blood orange juice juice from ½ orange
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon orange extract
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
Blood Orange Glaze
- 2 and ½ tablespoons blood orange juice, strained
- 1 and ⅓ cups confectioner's sugar
Instructions
For the Citrus Butter Cookies
- Cream the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer or in a large bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stop mixer and add egg, orange zest, orange juice, vanilla and orange extract. Mix until well combined.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and mix until just combined. Over-mixing here will create tough cookies.
- Turn the dough out onto a silicone mat or piece of parchment paper dusted with flour. Gather the dough into a large ball. Roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thick. Be sure to well flour your rolling pin. Transfer rolled dough to a baking sheet. Chill dough for 30-45 minutes in the refrigerator or 15-20 minutes in the freezer.
- Once the dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350°. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Use cookie cutters (I used hearts) to cut into shapes. Gather and re-roll the remaining cookie dough and continue cutting shapes. Store these cut cookies on a baking sheet in the refrigerator or freezer while the first batch of cookies bakes. Bake cookies in single batches in the middle of your oven for 10-11 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
For the Blood Orange Glaze
- Squeeze and strain the juice from one blood orange. Add juice to a small mixing bowl. Whisk in the confectioner's sugar and mix until smooth and no lumps remain. You want to be sure that your glaze is thick enough that it doesn't run off of your cookies when you decorate. You may need run the glaze through a mesh strainer to be sure there are no lumps in your glaze.Spread or pipe the glaze onto your cookies. Glaze will set up in about an hour.Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Nutrition
KITCHEN TOOLS THAT I USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE:
AFFILIATE DISCRETION:
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Lulu says
Hi! Since the dough gets refrigerated anyway, do you think I could refrigerate a roll of them and cut a few to bake? Thanks!
Amanda Smallwood says
Absolutely! Do you mean you would shape the dough into a roll shape and cut like a slice and bake cookie? That’s a great idea and it would definitely work.