These chocolate orange cookies are a thick bakery style cookie with a hint of orange mixed through the dough and milk chocolate in every bite. They're a combination that blends bright citrus and sweet chocolate in the best way.
Chocolate orange cookies are a festive cookie filled with melty chunks of chocolate, bright orange zest and topped with a Terry's orange slice. They're my version of the milk chocolate orange cookie I fell in love with at Ben's Cookies in London.
For more fun cookie recipes, try my: Hello Dolly Cookies or my Puppy Chow Cookies.
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Chocolate & Orange: bright cookie flavor with chocolate in every bite.
- Thick Bakery Style: I wanted these to be thick like the one's from Ben's Cookies.
- Easy to Make: These cookies look so pretty, but are very simple to make.
Ingredient Notes
Full ingredient measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card below.
- Orange: You will need all the zest from a medium orange, but you don't need to juice. You can save that to cut and enjoy.
- Sugars: You will use both brown and granulated sugar in these cookies.
- Butter: I always use salted butter in my recipes, but unsalted works great too.
- Flour: You can use all-purpose flour or a gluten free 1:1 ratio flour.
- Chocolate: I love chopping up a trader joes milk chocolate bar for these so you get extra melty chocolate in every bite.
- Terry's Orange: These taste great and give an extra element to the top of the cookies, but you can definitely skip if you want.
Step by Step Instructions
- Step 1: Place sugars in a medium mixing bowl and add orange zest. Rub with your fingers until the zest has become flavorful and mixed into the sugars.
- Step 2: Dice your cold butter into chunks, add it to the bowl, and beat with the sugars until combined. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix again. Your dough will look wet.
- Step 3: Slowly mix in baking soda, salt, baking powder and flour until combined.
- Step 4: Fold in chocolate chunks.
- Step 5: Scoop the dough using a ¼ cup cookie scoop. Shape the dough balls so they are taller and thinner. This will help them stay thick when baking. Cover and chill for 2-24 hours.
- Step 6: Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. You're looking for a light golden brown along the top. Remove from the oven and place a terrys orange slice into the top of each cookie and sprinkle with flaked salt. Allow to cool completely before handling.
Expert Baking Tips
- Rubbing the orange zest is what helps create the orange flavor in these cookies, so don't skip this step.
- I love the look of the terry's chocolate orange slice on top of the cookie, but these taste great either way.
- I have given both cups and grams as measurements. Grams will be more precise, especially when measuring flour. If you don't have a kitchen scale, no problem! Just lightly spoon flour into your measuring cup to insure its not packed in there. Light and fluffy is the key.
FAQ
If your cookies spread thin it is most likely because you didn't add enough flour.
Yes, this is a soft dough so chilling is needed to help them from spreading.
Yes, you can sub in a 1:1 ratio gluten free flour. Cup4cup and King Arthurs Measure 4 Measure are my favorites.
Storing & Freezing
These chocolate orange cookies will remain fresh if stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also prep the cookie dough in advance and store it in the fridge for about a week.
You can freeze your cookies in an airtight container for 2-3 months with them remaining fresh. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls if you would like to bake them one at a time. If baking the cookies from frozen I would bake them at 350 instead of 375.
Other Popular Recipes to Try
For more yummy treats follow me on instagram @thesaltedsweets. And be sure to tag me and comment if you make them and love them as much as I do!
Chocolate Orange Cookies
Ingredients
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (165 g) brown sugar
- 1 medium orange zest
- ½ cup (113.5 g) salted butter cold
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) salt
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking powder
- 2¼ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (185 g) milk chocolate bar chopped
- terry chocolate orange for topping
- flaked salt for topping
Instructions
- Place sugars in a medium mixing bowl and add orange zest. Rub with your fingers until the zest has become flavorful and mixed into the sugars.
- Dice your cold butter into chunks, add it to the bowl, and beat with the sugars until combined. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix again.
- Slowly mix in baking soda, salt, baking powder and flour until combined.
- Fold in chocolate chunks.
- Scoop the dough using a ¼ cup cookie scoop. Shape the dough balls so they are taller and thinner. This will help them stay thick when baking. Cover and chill for 2-24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. You're looking for a light golden brown along the top. Remove from the oven and place a terrys orange slice into the top of each cookie and sprinkle with flaked salt. Allow to cool completely before handling.
Sandy
Love the chocolate orange combination in these cookies. So delicious and festive too!
HEATHER
Delicious and soft! A great variation on the classic chocolate chip. Recipe was easy to follow
Brooke Homec
Thank you Heather! Glad you enjoyed them!
Abby
These were awesome! They really have a wow factor in presentation and taste. I used softened butter and didn’t chill the dough to save time, and they still turned out great.
Chris M.
I quadrupled this recipe because every salted sweet recipe I’ve ever made has been wonderful. These cookies are amazing!!! Taking half to share at Bake Club tomorrow and freezing the other half for Christmas. Yum!!! I love the orange and chocolate combination. I couldn’t find Bakers chocolate in milk chocolate so I just used milk choc chips and chopped them. It’s taking a lot of self control to not eat more than the one I split to sample with my hubs. I did get 70 cookies out the quadrupled recipe. Delicious!!!
Lynzee
Absolutely genius chocolate orange recipe. I don't think I have respected chocolate orange until these cookies came into my life.
Robin Clark
This recipe makes a beautiful and unique cookie. I loves the orange ball slices as a child and these bring back great memories. The are so delicious yet easy to make. The hint of rubbing the zest into the sugar made all the difference! Thank you!
Emily
These were delicious and got rave reviews from all who tried them! I found them a little dense- wondering if there might be adjustments I could make to make them lighter and fluffier. Also- do you have any tips for keeping the chocolate orange slice intact? Some of them melted very quickly after being pressed into the cookie so they didn’t look great but still tasted amazing
Tiffany
Made these for Christmas. They were so fun! Pretty easy and turned out really cute. The flavor combo was dynamite!
Sherri
These were so delicious. I order the flaked salt for the first time and love that little bit in addition to the orange. I think I added a bit too much baking powder and/or baking soda because these were really huge, I might make them a bit smaller next time too. The orange zest really has a lovely flavour and I didn't even add the orange slice this time (I usually end up eating them all by the time I wanted to bake these.) Thank you for the lovely recipes always!