Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies

These cranberry orange shortbread cookies are deliciously crispy. You need just a few ingredients to make these buttery slice-and-bake cookies.  They are perfect for holiday baking!

I’ve shared cranberry-orange combination before in my crunchy cranberry orange biscotti recipe.   Today I use this combination in my shortbread cookies.  

I love making shortbread cookies.  You can see 4 versions on my site; vanilla shortbread cookies, shortbread almond extract cookies, chocolate orange shortbread cookies and easy cinnamon cookies on my site. 

They are all perfect for holiday baking just like today’s cranberry orange cookies.    

You need only 6 simple ingredients!  I make them as slice-and-bake.  Making the cookie dough and giving the log shape takes less than 10 minutes! 

You can prepare the dough ahead of time (you can freeze for 3 months) and bake once you need it.  It takes only 14 minutes to bake these crips cookies!  

Let’s see all the ingredients!

Ingredients you’ll need

You can find the exact quantities at the bottom of my post, in the recipe card.

• Cranberries– I use dried cranberries.  If they are very dry, I suggest you place them in a small bowl and top with boiled water to soften them.   You should do this first so while you are preparing the dough, they’ll be ready to use.  Once they’re soft, blot them with a paper towel and roughly cut into pieces.
• Orange-I use fresh orange zest.  You need 2 medium-sized oranges.  If you like, you can make an orange glaze using the orange juice and top the cookies.  I’ll mention it in the recipe card below.
• Butter-I use unsalted butter.
• Sugar-I use granulated sugar.
• Flour-I use all purpose flour.
• Almond extract-It goes very well with these cookies but if you don’t like almond extract you can use vanilla extract. I tried these cookies without an extract but something was missing.  So don’t forget to use one of them.  I use just a little so the extract has just a supporting flavor in these cookies instead of being the main flavor as in my almond extract cookies.   

If you love almond extract and want to use it more in your recipes, you should know that it pairs well with peach, pear and strawberries as well. You can check my peach crumble bars, peach bread, pear muffins, strawberry crumble, strawberry crumble cake recipes.   

Step by step instructions

First I zest the orange and roughly cut the cranberries.

Then I place the orange zest and sugar in a bowl of my stand mixer and stir with a paddle attachment.  You can do the mixing step with a whisk too.

Next I add the butter and beat on medium speed in my stand mixer until the mixture is creamy with paddle attachment.  If you are using a hand held mixer, you’ll need to use a medium-large bowl. 

I mix in the almond extract.

Then I add the flour in 2 batches. Once almost combined, I add the cranberries and stir at low speed for just a few seconds.

I make a ball from the dough, divide in half and place each on a plastic wrap. 

Next, I give a rectangular shape to each dough and cover with the plastic wrap. Then I roll them into approximately 6,5 inches (16 cm) long logs. 

I prefer keeping them in the freezer for 40 minutes so they’ll firm quickly.  But you can keep them  4 to 5 hours in the fridge if you are not in a hurry.

I slice the cookies into ¼ inch (1cm) thick with a sharp knife and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Then I bake cookies for 14 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown.  They firm up as they cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

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