Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies, topped with a creamy orange frosting, are a soft, delicious, and wonderfully decadent treat you will enjoy!
About 15 years ago, I received this recipe for orange chocolate chip cookies from a friend. She knew that I hosted a cookie exchange at Christmas time every year, and wanted to share this one with me to try. She wrote “I think you should bake these in the near future to see if they are something you would want for your exchange. I have a sister-in-law that thinks Christmas isn’t the same unless she has some of these.” Well, I don’t know where my friend got her original recipe for these cookies, but it’s a KEEPER!
I have to tell you, these easy-to-make cookies taste WONDERFUL, and I am so glad my friend Annette sent me her recipe. Pillowy soft, filled with chocolate chips, flavored with orange juice and zest, and topped with a creamy orange icing, these cookies are absolutely delicious! Today I want to share the simple recipe with you. Here’s how to make them:
Scroll down for a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Make The Cookie Dough
Before beginning, remember to preheat your oven to 350°F. The dough for the cookies is really easy to make, and it comes together quickly, so make sure the oven is preheated, so it’s ready to go once the cookie dough is done.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream shortening, granulated sugar and cream cheese together until well combined. Note:* I almost always use butter for my baking, but this recipe calls for vegetable shortening, so as not to “mess it up”, that is what I use).
Add two eggs, fresh orange juice, and orange zest to the batter. Continue to beat the ingredients together until the batter is fluffy, and fully combined.
Now add the flour, salt, and chocolate chips. STIR these ingredients into the batter. That’s it! This is the batter for your orange chocolate chip cookies! Now let’s bake them.
Bake The Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
Scoop or drop the batter by spoonfuls onto very lightly sprayed or greased cookie sheets, keeping about 2 inches between cookies. I usually get between 24-26 cookies out of the dough.
Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, or only until the cookies are just barely golden brown around the bottom edges. You do NOT want the cookies to brown like a traditional chocolate chip cookie!
Once they’re done (see how they are barely brown around the edges?), remove the baking sheets from the oven, and let the cookies cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Make The Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
While the orange chocolate chip cookies cool, you can make the orange cream cheese frosting. The frosting makes these delicious cookies perfect, so don’t leave this out!
In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together cream cheese, fresh orange juice, and orange zest (zest is the finely grated peel of the orange, and has lots of citrus flavor in it). Once they are creamed together, add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until fully incorporated. You will end up with a fairly thick frosting for the cookies.
Frost The Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
Once the cookies have COMPLETELY cooled, spread each one with the yummy orange frosting. There is enough frosting to generously cover the entire top of each cookie (I had 26 cookies). Let the cookies rest, which will firm up the frosting, before serving. In the second photo below, you can see that the bottoms of the cookies are barely browned. That is what they should look like.
Once the frosting has firmed up, the cookies are ready to enjoy! I’m confident you will like these soft, orange chocolate chip cookies. They are sooo good! The orange flavor, combined with chocolate chips is a favorite combination of mine, and I hope you like it, too.
Even though the cookies were so good that I could have eaten them ALL, I enjoyed taking small plates of these delicious cookies to several neighbors, so they could enjoy them, too!
I truly hope you have the opportunity to make these yummy cookies for yourself or for those you love. The recipe is so simple to prepare, and the results are wonderful! Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.
Looking For More COOKIE Recipes?
You can find all of my cookie recipes in the Recipe Index, located at the top of the page. I have quite a few, delicious cookie recipes to explore, including:
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Flourless, 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Giant Sugar Cookies
Interested In More Recipes?
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Original recipe source: Annette Goetz
Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies, topped with a creamy orange frosting, are a soft, delicious, and wonderfully decadent treat you will enjoy!
- 3 ounces light cream cheese
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 2 large eggs
- 3 Tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1 Tablespoon orange zest
- 2¼ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips I used mini-sized
- 3 ounces light cream cheese
- 1 Tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 1 Tablespoon orange zest
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix/cream shortening, granulated sugar and 3 ounces cream cheese until well combined. Add eggs, orange juice, and orange zest to batter. Continue to beat ingredients until batter is fluffy, and fully combined.
STIR flour, salt, and chocolate chips into the batter. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between cookies (approx. 24-26 cookies).
Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, or only until the cookies are barely golden brown around the bottom edges. You do NOT want cookies to brown like traditional chocolate chip cookies! When done, let cookies cool 2-3 minutes on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Use an electric or stand mixer to beat together cream cheese, orange juice and zest. When fully mixed, add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Frosting will be slightly thick.
Spread each cookie with frosting. There's enough to generously cover the entire top of each cookie. Let cookies rest to let frosting firm up, before serving. Enjoy!
Here’s one more to pin on your Pinterest boards!
I’m late to the party here, but I tried them and they taste fine but they didn’t spread at all. Like I used a scoop on the first batch and they still looked scooped. So I double spooned it for the second batch and same thing… Any ideas why mine aren’t melting down right? Oven temp is right, two thermometers in there after the first one did what it did. (Oh, they’re cooked through and taste fine, like I said, they just look… odd. I’ve got to have done something wrong. Didn’t chill the dough.
FANTASTIC COOKIE, full of flavor and chocolate chips.
I’m excited to try your recipes!
Hope you enjoy the cookies, Mary. They are delicious!