These cranberry orange icebox cookies deliver big flavor from surprisingly simple ingredients. Enjoy a buttery shortbread-like cookie flecked with chewy dried cranberries and fragrant orange zest. For a sparkly edge and sweet crunch, roll the logs of dough in coarse sugar before slicing and baking. And drizzle on an easy 2-ingredient orange glaze for a flavorful finishing touch.
These bejeweled-looking cranberry orange cookies are surprisingly simple to make. You need very basic baking ingredients, and the dough comes together in just 1 bowl. (Is that music to your ears!?)
The juice and zest of a fresh orange gives these buttery shortbread-like cookies a bright and cheery flavor, complemented by the sweet-tart dried cranberries. I love this flavor combo, as evidenced by recipes like cranberry orange scones and orange cranberry bread.
And you’ll love the convenience of these icebox cookies! Make the dough ahead of time, pop it in the refrigerator, then just slice and bake when you’re ready. With so many Christmas cookies to make, I know we all appreciate a great make-ahead recipe.
Why You’ll Love These Cranberry Orange Icebox Cookies
- Simple, basic ingredients
- Easy-to-follow 1-bowl recipe
- Buttery shortbread flavored with fresh orange and studded with chewy dried cranberries
- Soft and thick in the centers, crispy around the edges
- Cranberry + orange combo is flavorful and colorful—so festive!
- A great make-ahead cookie recipe
- No rolling individual dough balls—just slice and bake
- Easy 2-ingredient icing
They’re called icebox cookies for a reason: chilling the cookie dough logs is essential. Like pinwheel cookies (another slice-and-bake style cookie), the cookie dough is very buttery and, without time in the refrigerator, will bake into greasy puddles. Let’s save the puddles for chocolate lava cakes.
It may seem like an exercise in delayed gratification, but I prefer to think of it as a great make-ahead recipe! The cookie dough logs can hang out in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or you can freeze them for even longer. Simply thaw in the refrigerator for an hour or two before slicing and baking. Having some cookie dough in the freezer is such a time-saver during the busy holiday season!
Simple Ingredients
The base dough for these slice-and-bake cookies is just like reader-favorite dark chocolate orange slice-and-bake cookies. Which, honestly, is sort of like my shortbread cookie dough and classic roll-out dough for sugar cookies combined. Butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, salt… Cookie Crew, assemble!
The only other ingredients you need are a navel orange (zest and juice), dried cranberries, some coarse sugar for rolling, and confectioners’ sugar for the icing.
How to Make Cranberry Orange Icebox Cookies
This is all very easy! I love the slice-and-bake style (aka icebox) method and you can find more variations on my website and in my cookbook, including coconut-y Santa’s whiskers cookies, colorful sprinkle slice-and-bakes, and toasted hazelnut slice-and-bake cookies.
Make the cookie dough all in 1 bowl, and then divide in half. It’s quite creamy, so have a little extra flour on hand.
Shape each portion into a log (just roll it), and then wrap up tightly and chill for 3 hours. After that, roll the dough logs in coarse sugar. I always use these sparkling sugar sprinkles or something like Sugar in the Raw. It provides a little extra sparkle and crunch, but it’s an optional step.
Slice the dough logs. They’re about 7 or 8 inches, so each cookie is a bit more than 1/2 inch thick.
Arrange on your lined baking sheet and bake.
2-Ingredient Icing
Once your cookies have fully cooled, make the easy icing by whisking together sifted confectioners’ sugar and a little orange juice. Honestly, this might be even easier than the topping for Andes mint chocolate cookies! For extra control over the drizzling, I pour the icing into a squeeze bottle, but you certainly don’t have to do this. (The same squeeze bottles I use for decorating Christmas sugar cookies with easy cookie icing!)
Or you can simply dip a fork in the icing and drizzle it over the cooled cookies.
Can I use white or dark chocolate instead? YES! See recipe Note for details.
The icing sets after 30–60 minutes, so you can easily store, stack, and transport the cookies. They may seem really simple, but these cranberry-speckled cookies were the first to go from a cookie tray I put together the other week… which also included crowd-favorites peanut butter blossoms and chocolate crinkle cookies. That says something!!!!
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
- Almond Butter Sparkle Cookies
- Cinnamon Palmiers
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Peppermint White Chocolate Cookies
- Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies
and here are my top 10 cookie baking tools if you’re looking for recommendations!
Cranberry Orange Icebox Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (includes dough chilling)
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Enjoy a buttery shortbread-like cookie flecked with chewy dried cranberries and fragrant orange zest. Drizzle on an easy 2-ingredient orange glaze for a flavorful finishing touch. Make sure you have a citrus juicer and zester.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2/3 cup (133g) granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons (265g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) orange juice
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 3/4 cup (100g) very finely chopped dried cranberries (such as Craisins)
- optional: coarse sugar for rolling, such as this sparkling sugar
Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) orange juice
- optional: more orange zest
Instructions
- In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract on high speed. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed, and continue to beat until fully combined. Add the flour and salt and beat on low speed until combined. Finally, beat in the orange juice, orange zest, and dried cranberries until just combined. The cookie dough will be thick and slightly sticky.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and, with floured hands, divide or cut in half. Roll/shape each half into a 7- or 8-inch log, about 2.5 inches in diameter. The measurements don’t have to be exact. Tightly wrap the dough logs in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 5 days. Chilling is mandatory for this cookie dough. I prefer to chill mine overnight; the orange flavor really comes through the longer this dough sits!
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Optional rolling in sugar: Pour enough coarse sugar on an 8-inch or larger plate to cover it. Roll the logs in the sugar. You may need to really press the dough logs down into the sugar if it’s not really sticking. (I find coating the dough logs in sugar after chilling much easier, as the dough is too sticky to neatly roll in sugar right after mixing.)
- Slice each dough log into 12 equally thick cookies and arrange cookies on prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for 13–15 minutes or until very lightly brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Icing: Whisk the confectioners’ sugar and orange juice together. Drizzle over cooled cookies. Feel free to top each with more orange zest while icing is still wet. The icing sets after 30–60 minutes, so you can easily store, stack, and transport the cookies.
- Cookies will stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Baked cookies, with or without icing, freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, if desired, before serving. You can make/assemble the cookie dough logs and chill in the refrigerator for up to 5 days (see step 2). Cookie dough logs freeze well too, up to 3 months. Allow the logs to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then continue with step 3.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Stand Mixer or Handheld) | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets | Coarse Sugar
- Can I dip in white or dark chocolate instead? Yes! Cranberries, orange, and white or dark chocolate are a great trio of flavors! Feel free to skip the icing and dip the cookies in (or drizzle the cookies with) melted white or dark chocolate, just like these sprinkle slice-and-bake cookies or these dark chocolate orange slice-and-bake cookies.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: cranberry orange icebox cookies
Would adding chopped pecans work with this recipe?
Hi WLT, we can’t see why not. Be sure to finely chop them so that you can still easily slice the cookies without running into too many large pieces of pecans. We’d start by replacing some of the dried cranberries for chopped pecans so that the total amount of add-ins is about the same. Let us know how it goes!
Delicious! I did add 1/2 finely chopped pecans because this was a gift to my nut-loving 91-year-old father. Otherwise, I followed the instructions exactly – tasty, beautiful and definitely gift-worthy. The drizzle with orange zest is a must.
This is now my absolute favorite Christmas cookie! I’ve baked cookies for decades. This one is so delicious, it’s Christmas in every bite. I dipped part of each cookie in melted white chocolate and sprinkled with sparkly sugar. They also freeze beautifully.
We’re so happy to hear that you love these cookies, Patti!
Hi can I make them into small balls of cookies(drop cookies) instead of into a log and then slicing them?
Hi Joey, these cookies would not translate well as drop cookies. We’d recommend using this white chocolate chip cranberry cookie recipe instead (feel free to leave out the white chips and add a bit of orange zest to the dough).
I have made these for Chirstmas and you are right, these were the first to go.
So yummy!!!:))))
★★★★★
These were a huge hit this Christmas. I agree with the commenter that said take time to add the icing. It’s worth time waiting for it to dry so you can stack them!
★★★★★
Delectable. Easy. Convienent. Pretty. Perfect with a cup of tea.
★★★★★
I made 7- of your other cookies and they were loved by all, but these were my favorite. I have to admit they turned out more like a rectangle than a circle. I need to work on that! Making them again soon. Good luck with your new cookbook! Happy new year!
★★★★★
I doubled the recipe and made the dough on a Thursday night and then baked them on Sunday… the flavors were SO good. I gave them to colleagues at work and received so many compliments. I’m going to make another batch just for me 🙂
A good tip for forming the logs – do a roughly shaped log on parchment paper, then roll it up in the paper before rolling it on a sushi mat to get a more even distribution.
I made these cookies today and they are a hit. My question is that I refrigerated the rolled cookie logs over night, and sliced and baked them this morning. The recipe says to bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until the edges get slightly brown. My cookies took about 21 minutes and there is nothing wrong with my oven. I’m wondering if baking the cookies from such a cold temperature caused the delay ?
★★★★★
Hi Regina! Cold dough can take a bit longer to bake. Your specific pan, oven, non stick surface, thickness of cookies, etc. can all affect how long your cookies take to bake. So glad they’re a hit!
I had the same experience, needing a longer cooking time.
I have a question before I make these cookies. Could I use icing sugar instead of sugar? I am asking because that is what I use for shortbread that I make. Please let me know asap? Thank you
Hi Patricia, we recommend sticking with regular granulated sugar in this recipe.
I made these for a cookie bake /swap; I prepared the dough the night before so at the party all I hade to do was slice and bake. They are delicious! I’m sorry I had to share them. The only hard part was chopping the cranberries. I will definitely be making them again.
★★★★★
I found a food chopper at Walmart that worked fantastic for the Cranberries! It’s one of those with the pull cord, and it made short work of my chopping chore. It was less than $8.
I made these last night! The flavor and texture of these cookies are lovely, and I’d say the sugar coating and glaze are both a must! I adore the sparkly, sugar-crusted, coating, and the orange tartness in the glaze is the cherry on the cake! I sprinkled a tiny bit more big sugar on the wet glaze along with the zest – so pretty! Tip: don’t allow the logs of dough to become too solid/firm before rolling in the ‘big sugar’ as it’s hard to get it to stick well. I quoted mine as much as I could – then, after slicing, and allowing the hard- chill to come off the edges a bit, I rolled each slice in the sugar again to coat it well. Also, the glaze is so amazing on these cookies…. If you’re making these for a party or to give away, really give yourself the time to make these cookies and to let the glaze dry rather than opting out of the glaze to ‘make them faster’. It’s all worth it!
These were spectacular! I forgot to roll in sugar and would have loved the crunch, but also didn’t miss it. Seriously everyone who tried these in my cookie treat boxes was like: what were those orange cookies?! Yum!
★★★★★