Chocolate Orange Cookies

Let's admit this. We all love cookies, especially during holidays. They make the best treat when paired with a cup of coffee. If you love baking cookies this season, you might want to see our chocolate cake mix cookies too. 

But what makes these fudgy orange chocolate biscuits so good? Well, first of all, this recipe uses only melted dark chocolate instead of cocoa powder. This adds moisture and elevates the texture to give a softer, richer mouthfeel.

Secondly, these are soft, chocolatey and enriched with orange flavor. We love orange zest both in the cookie dough and on our chocolate cookies. The flavors of orange and chocolate make a perfect match.

If you love the orange and chocolate combo, we are sure you will love these cookies too!

Jump to:

• About The Ingredients
• How To Make
• About The Baking Duration
• How To Store
• Why Did My Cookies Turn Out Hard?
• Why You Should Make This Recipe
• More Cookie Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

About The Ingredients

Dark chocolate: Use a high quality dark chocolate (50% or higher). We find that dark chocolate works better in cookies. Semi-sweet chocolate is okay too but the color would be much lighter and the cookies would come out much sweeter. If you use milk chocolate, we recommend adding unsweetened cocoa powder as well. Decrease the amount of cocoa powder by ¼ cup and substitute cocoa powder for that. 

Sugar: We use regular granulated sugar. But you can use brown sugar or a combination of two if you want.

Flour: We use all purpose flour (plain flour). 

Orange zest: We use it in the cookie dough, on the unbaked cookie dough balls and even on the cookies after they are baked. There is no orange juice in these chocolate cookies. Orange zest is more flavorsome, so we don't need the juice. You can use the juice to make screwdriver drink if you want.

Vanilla extract: We use just a bit of it as we don't want it to override the flavor of the orange in the cookies. Alternatively, you can use ¼ teaspoon of orange extract if you want.

Alternative Mix-Ins: If you want to feel more chocolate in these cookies, you can fold in some dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks in the cookie dough. You can even use some roughly chopped chocolate orange (like Terry's chocolate orange), which would be perfect flavor match.

How To Make

• First, melt the butter in a medium heavy bottom saucepan. Remove from heat and add in the chopped chocolate. Let it melt while constantly stirring until the chocolate is completely smooth. If somehow the chocolate doesn't easily melt, put the saucepan back on the lowest heat. Melt the chocolate stirring constantly. Or use a double broiler for the best result.
• Next, combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until the egg mixture becomes a pale yellow.
• Slowly pour the melted chocolate and butter mixture into the egg mixture while continuously whisking. You should add the chocolate in a thin slow stream. Once all the chocolate has been incorporated, give the mixture another couple of whisks.
• Next, add in flour, baking powder and 1 teaspoon orange zest. Using a spatula, incorporate the dry ingredients until you cannot see any flour. Be careful not to overmix as you will end up with stiff, dense cookies. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. It is important in this recipe so don’t skip it.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line a couple of baking sheets with non-stick baking or parchment paper.
• Once the cookie dough has chilled, scoop cookies on it using a tablespoon or ice cream scoop. These will help you get evenly-sized cookies. Leave about 2 inches between each cookie.
• Right before baking your cookies, add half of the remaining orange zest over each cookie – we like to add a lot to get that extra zesty flavor. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will still be very soft when they’re removed from the oven, but don’t over bake them! 
• Immediately transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool down. They will be really soft, so use a spatula or a large knife when transferring them. 
• While the cookies are still warm, add a sprinkle of sea salt and some extra orange zest. And your perfect homemade orange chocolate cookies are ready! 

About The Baking Duration

After some years of cookie baking experience, we can say that the key to soft and fudgy cookies is the baking duration. Don’t bake these cookies more than 8-10 minutes. They will still look uncooked in the middle when you remove them from oven, but they will continue to cook when they are cooling on a wire rack. Don’t leave them on the baking sheet! You need to transfer these onto a cooling wire rack right after you remove them from oven.

How To Store

Keep these chocolate and orange cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 4 days. 

If you want to freeze for later, we recommend freezing the unbaked cookie dough balls. Place them on a baking paper lined baking tray, let them sit in the freezer until set. Then transfer them into a Ziplock bag and store for 2 months. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and then bake.

Why Did My Cookies Turn Out Hard?

There are a couple of reasons why your chocolate cookies might have turned out hard. The most probable reason would be that they were baked too long.

These cookies will still be soft when they come out of the oven after 10 minutes, but that is how they are supposed to be. The most important thing when the cookies bake is for the eggs to be cooked - 10 minutes is sufficient. Anything more and you are simply drying out the moisture, which will result in hard cookies.

Why You Should Make This Recipe

Here’s what makes this cookie recipe great; it combines the orange and chocolate flavors really well. If you are a fan of Terry's chocolate orange, you know what we mean. These are like the cookie version of the same taste. 

You get very soft fudgy chocolate cookies that melt in your mouth. 

What we love about the this cookie recipe is that you don’t need to soften butter. It might not be a big deal to soften it for you, but we often forget to remove the butter from the fridge beforehand and have to wait till it reaches room temperature. 

Also, it’s great that you don’t need to melt the chocolate over double boiler. Just melt butter in a saucepan, remove it from the heat and then add in chocolate. Mix well until smooth.

These chocolate orange cookies are super easy to make and make perfect Christmas gifts.

More Cookie Recipes

• Red Velvet Christmas Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies
• Melting Moments Cookies

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