The other day my husband brought home some Orange Cream Henry Weinhard Soda. Henry Weinhard Root Beer is my favorite, but I've never had the Orange Cream Soda because I'm not a fan of Orange Soda. I tried it this time and it was absolutely delicious. It was not anything like Orange Soda and it was like eating candy. After that experience, I wondered if I could make an Orange Cream Sugar Cookie. Although this sugar cookie recipe is deliciously orange burst flavor, I'm afraid it is not as orange cream flavor as I would like. No matter what I tried, the orange flavor would always over power the vanilla. These cookies are still very good and many people we shared them with at the 4th of July wanted another cookie. I really liked them and will definitely be making them again.
The flavoring for the cookie dough and royal icing recipe I used was the LorAnn Oils Super Strength Flavoring. They come in teeny tiny little bottles. I got a whole bunch of flavors at once from Amazon and it came with a little dram dropper. From the measurement I took, 12 drops from the dropper was 1/8 tsp. So a tiny bit of flavoring goes a very far way. You can use different brands of flavoring, but may need to experiment on quantity. If you can't find the Orange Cream flavoring, you can use an Orange Extract.
Prepare your dough as the recipe says. I always roll my dough out between two pieces of parchment paper.
Sometimes the top parchment paper gets a little stuck. You can add flour, but I usually just pull it off the dough every once in a while so it rolls out well.
I rolled my dough out to 1/4" thickness. You can see all the chopped up white chips and orange peel zest.
Cutting out dough with white chips and orange zest does not give the cleanest cut and sometimes will mess up the shape of your cookie. My cookies ended up okay, but the white chocolate chips would get pushed inward or outward and puff up parts of my cookie so it wasn't very flat.
You can see in the picture the orange zest sticking out of my dough. I used my turkey lancer (you can use a toothpick or scribe tool) to gently pull them out and it wasn't a problem.
Bake all your cookies and use whatever Royal Icing Recipe you like the best with the added Orange Cream flavoring. Even though the Orange Cream flavoring has color in it, it did not change the color of my icing. It still stayed white. I prefer the recipes that use Light Corn Syrup in them. I feel like they turn up shinier, sweeter (which I love), have less air bubbles, and aren't as gritty as meringue powder. The negative to using Light Corn Syrup is that you can't get as stiff an icing as meringue powder or egg white icings. You can still get something thicker than an outline consistency, but if you are looking to get it whipped up as stiff as the other recipes, I've never successfully been able to do it.
I tasted the icing and it tasted very strong of and I thought I wasn't going to like it. But the next day, when the icing was completely dry, the cookies tasted great and the flavoring was well balanced. So keep in mind the flavoring will settle down over time.
Once I make my icing, I separate it into different bowls for all the colors that I need. I don't put an even amount in each bowl, but separate based on how much I need for each color and cover the bowl with saran wrap so it doesn't crust over.
I use to use squeeze bottles to decorate my cookies, but I find them too difficult to squeeze and my hand hurts after making cookies. Not to mention how annoying they are to clean out. So I use disposable pastry bags.
I used a coupler with a tip attached and put my bag in a tall cup with a wet paper towel on the bottom. It was very easy to fill.
Finally I decorated my cookies, which is the fun part.
Here's a picture walk through of how I decorated my cookies.
Orange Cream Popsicle:
I used 10 second flood consistency royal icing for the whole cookie except the face.
Let everything dry for a couple of hours and add a face with outline consistency Royal Icing.
Next is the Orange Slice:
I used 10 second flood consistency icing for my whole cookie.
While the orange flood color is still wet, add the white flood color.
Use a toothpick, and drag from the outside of the cookie to the center to make your "orange slices".
I know my cookies aren't perfect looking because I'm not a talented cookie decorator, but they were fun to make and sure tasted great.
Cookie Dough
(makes about 3.5 dozen medium size cookies rolled to 1/4" thickness)
- 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 C sugar
- 2 eggs
- 16 drops from dram dropper LorAnn Oils Super Strength Orange Cream Flavoring (Or other brand flavoring or plain Orange Flavoring, quantity will need to be adjusted depending on strength)
- 2 Tbsp orange juice concentrate
- 3 C flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp orange zest
- 1/2 C white chocolate chips, finely chopped (if you can find mini white chocolate chips, those will work too)
Royal Icing
(covers about 5 dozen medium size cookies, can be cut in half)
- 2 lbs powdered sugar
- 5 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup
- 16 drops LorAnn Oils Super Strength Orange Cream Flavoring (Or other brand flavoring, quantity will need to be adjusted depending on strength)
- 1-8 Tbsp water (depending on desired consistency)
- Food Coloring Gel needed for cookies you are decorating
Cookie Dough Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, or mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add orange cream flavoring, orange juice concentrate and eggs. Mix until combined.
- Add flour and salt and mix until well combined.
- Add orange zest and chopped white chocolate chips. Mix until combined.
- Let chill in fridge for at least an hour.
- Drop dough onto parchment paper. Cover dough with another piece of parchment paper.
- Roll dough out to 1/4" thickness.
- With any cookie cutter you like, cut out cookies. Carefully remove excess dough. Clean up orange zest on edge of cookies.
- Place cookies onto cookie sheet.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for 7-11 minutes until edges just barely start to brown.
- Remove from oven and let cookies cool completely on racks.
Royal Icing Instructions
- Add powdered sugar, corn syrup, and orange cream flavoring to mixing bowl. Add 1 Tbsp water and begin to mix on slow speed.
- Mix for one minute and keep adding 1 Tbsp water, mixing between each Tbsp until you get your desired consistency. Increase mixing speed as soon as powdered sugar is wet. Mix until everything is well combined. (Note: 8 Tbsp of water will bring icing to approximately a 8-10 second fill consistency. Add water little by little if you need thicker consistency.)
Ice your cookies. Wait for them to dry and enjoy a delicious orange cookie!!
