Blood Orange Butter Cookies
A tender Valentine's Day butter cookie with crispy edges, hints of citrus and a gorgeous pink glaze made from freshly squeezed blood orange juice. Perfect for Valentine's Day or any day that you are craving serious citrus flavors with your butter and sugar.
Servings: 30 cookies
Calories: 120kcal
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
Calories: 120kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 19mg | Sodium: 82mg | Potassium: 20mg | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 150IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.8mg