Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies - My Gorgeous Recipes (2024)

Published: Nov 19, 2021 · Modified: Dec 22, 2022 by Daniela Apostol · This post may contain affiliate links · 4 Comments

Cranberry and Orange Shortbread Cookies, the perfect Christmas baking treats to make with your kids. These flavourful shortbread cookies are buttery and soft, nearly melting in your mouth, and the addition of dried cranberries and orange gives them a lovely festive touch.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la! So, Christmas again! Ah, don't you just love this time of the year? With the preparations in full swing and Christmas tree already up, there is no time to rest.

I have in mind a few dishes that l would like to cook for the big day, but today l'll be sharing a lovely recipe for shortbread cookies.

The most popular shortbread recipe at Christmas is the classic Scottish shortbread, which uses only 4 simple ingredients to get super delicious cookies.

I am a big fan of shortbread cookies/biscuits, I often have them with a nice cup of tea. Although lately I haven't said no to coffee either.

Oranges and cranberries together say Christmas, what a lovely fragrance! The combo worked wonderfully well in my Cranberry and Orange Biscotti too.

After all, that's what celebration is all about, sharing the magic with families and friends. And, of course, sharing some cookies too 🙂So, what are your favourite cakes/cookies you bake for Christmas?

Ingredients needed

• plain flour
• caster sugar - or granulated sugar
• butter - salted or unsalted
• oranges - zest and juice
• dried cranberries

Step-by-step photos and instructions

• Sift the flour, add the butter cut into cubes, and rub it in until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add the orange zest, orange juice, plus sugar and dried cranberries, and knead gently to form a dough.
• Shape the dough into a big sausage, cover in clingfilm, and refrigerate for at least one hour. If the dough is not chilled, the cookies will spread too much during baking.

Baking time for shortbread cookies

• Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius (360 Fahrenheit).
• Slice the sausage dough into about half a cm thick rounds, arrange on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper, and bake for about 20 minutes.

The cookies will still be soft at that point, and will have a pale yellow colour. Remove them from the oven, and leave to cool on the tray, they will harden once cooled off.

Expert tips

I can't possibly imagine Christmas without the fresh aroma of cookies in the oven. It's one of those fragrances that stays with you for the rest of your life, and takes you back to your childhood days whenever you fill your kitchen with it. And making these beauties is dead easy. But, there are a few tricks if you want to get perfect shortbread cookies every single time.

• use chilled salted butter
• refrigerate the dough for at least one hour before baking
• pre-heat the oven before popping the cookies in

Most dessert recipes call for soften butter, and ingredients at room temperature. Shortbread cookies are the exception from the rule. We want the butter cold straight from the fridge, so that when it's rubbed with the flour it crumbles nicely.

Salted butter works better, it gives the cookies a good taste and texture, where the unsalted butter tends to taste pretty bland in this recipe.

Can you freeze the cranberry orange shortbread cookies?

If you want to make the dough in advance, you can freeze it once it's shaped into a sausage. If it's too difficult to slice, leave on the kitchen counter for about 30 minutes, then slice with a good bread knife. The cookies can be baked even if they are still slightly frozen.

If you like Christmas goodies, how about my Easy Christmas Treats For Kids? They are so good, and definitely a great treat for grown ups too.

If you’ve liked myCRANBERRY ORANGE SHORTBREAD COOKIESor any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can alsoFOLLOW MEonFACEBOOK, andPINTERESTto see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.