Cinnamon Dusted Orange Icebox Cookies are a great choice for cinnamon lovers and a perfect cookie for late fall, when orange is coming into season, people are craving cinnamon and when the cookies can also be made ahead for holiday cookie tins! Creative Cookie Exchange has you cinnamon lovers completely covered this month, so keep scrolling for more awesome cookies! Affiliate links have been used in this post to link to items I am discussing.
I cannot be alone in plotting and planning my Christmas cookies already, can I? I adore this time of year–I get through the hell that is Halloween (sorry! Not a fan of dressing up, costumes or even trick or treating really), and then I get super excited! And stressed! Why must good things invariably also come with stress? What will I make for Thanksgiving, what will I post for the various holiday themes, when will I find the time to decorate the house, etc etc.
It is frazzling and wonderful all at once.
Which is why I knew I would be choosing some kind of make ahead cookie for this month’s Creative Cookie Exchange. Bake off a few now, enjoy, photograph, and then save the rest of those babies for Holiday tins!
Now Alex–who did end up liking these cookies–thought I was crazy for pairing cinnamon with orange, but I think they play off of one another very nicely. If you want a stronger cinnamon flavor, add a little to the orange icebox cookie dough too, but I was happy with them exactly as they are.
Just as I cannot be the only person plotting Christmas cookies, I cannot possibly be the only person obsessed with collecting the Holiday special issue cookie magazines. It is a terrible weakness, especially because after a while you realize much of it is regurgitated year after year. But anyway, for these cookies, I started with a plain vanilla slice and bake cookie from the 2012 issue of Christmas Cookies (Americas Test Kitchen)
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- 2 1/4 cups AP flour 319 g
- 1/2 t fine sea salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 226 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (149 g) granulated sugar
- zest of 1 orange
- 1/2 cup (57 g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 t vanilla
- 1 t orange extract
- 3 t cinnamon, preferable Vietnamese
- 3/4 cup (84 g) granulated sugar
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Whisk together the flour and salt. Set aside.
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Using a mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Beat in the granulated sugar. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and add the orange zest. Beat again, this time until fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium-high speed.
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Repeat the scraping and add the powdered sugar. Beat again until fluffy, another 3 minutes on medium high speeds.
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Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl in between. Beat in the extracts.
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With the mixer on slow speed, stir in the flour mixture. When it is all incorporated and starting to clump, quickly kneads the dough just a few turns to create one large lump of dough.
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Cut the dough in half, and roll each dough into a log on plastic wrap. You are aiming for about 8 inches long.
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Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours (or wrap in second layer of heavy duty foil and freeze).
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When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 F. If the logs are frozen, remove them for the freezer so they can begin to thaw.
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Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
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Whisk together the sugar and cinnamon in a wide bowl.
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When the oven is ready and when the logs are slice-able, slice off cookies, about 1/4-inch thick, and dip one side into the cinnamon sugar. Place on the prepared cookie sheets and sprinkle with a little more cinnamon sugar if desired.
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Place the cookies 3/4-inch apart on the cookie sheets (they will not spread really).
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Bake for 12-15 minutes. The cookies are done when they brown around the edges.
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Let cool on the cookie sheets for 3-5 minutes, and then move to a cooling rack. The cookies will crisp completely as they cool.
Are we the only ones who start craving cinnamon when the weather gets colder? We can’t be! And we are talking anything sold under the word cinnamon–cassia, “true Cinnamon”, Ceylon Cinnamon, Vietnamese Cinnamon–if it is sold as cinnamon it is what we want! Check out all of our cinnamon cookies below! Hint: A lot of them could be used for your holiday cookie table!
You can also use us as a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! Also, if you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made (special thanks to Renee of Magnolia Days for creating the list this month!):
- Browned Butter Snickerdoodles by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Cinnamon Chocolate Star Cookies by Baking Yummies
- Cinnamon Crunch Cookies by 2 Cookin’ Mamas
- Cinnamon Dusted Orange Icebox Cookies by The Spiced Life
- Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Glaze by Our Good Life
- Cinnamon Pecan Elephant Ears by Noshing With The Nolands
- Cinnamon Roll Cookies by A Baker’s House
- Cinnamon Sugar Cookies by Magnolia Days
- Cinnamon Waffle Cookies by A Shaggy Dough Story
- Cinnamon Walnut Icebox Cookies by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Cream Cheese Cinnamon Roll Cookies by Food Lust People Love
- Polvorones by Oven Delights
- Speculoos (Dutch Windmill Cookies) by Upstate Ramblings
And for the collage lovers….
I am right with you plotting my Christmas cookies and buying every magazine I see. These cinnamon orange flavored cookies would be a big hit.
Oh I like the citrus brightness for the holidays. Great cookies!
I think cinnamon and orange sounds perfectly fine—no arguments from me! Yeah, these are definitely going on the holiday cookie baking list.
The pairing of orange and cinnamon is interesting. Must try myself. And thank you for choosing cinnamon this month. Enjoyed baking the cookies and so many options for the season to come!
Love cinnamon and orange together and with the simplicity of an icebox cookie – these are perfect for the holidays!
I love the orange flavor with the dusting of cinnamon, Laura. Simple and delicious!
It’s more stress than excitement for me. I need to remedy that and make some make-ahead dough!! Great idea. Your cookies sound really tasty!
Love the cinnamon-orange combo in these lovelies! These are right up my alley, and your pix turned out so nice! (And I’m guilty of hanging on to oh-so-many Christmas-issue cookie magazines, too!)
You are not alone! I have been planning Christmas cookies and Thanksgiving dishes (for gluten and gluten-free guests) and it’s fun but definitely stressful too. Your cookies look so good and I love the fact that you can freeze these and make later – wish I’d thought about that idea before. Oranges are right up my alley too living in Florida so this one is going on my got-to-try list.
I’m a sucker for those holiday cookie magazines too. Downfall is they’re so expensive! I love that you amped up the cinnamon flavor by dusting the cookies with cinnamon. So pretty!
This too is my favorite time of year! I just love planning for our annual cookie trays. This recipe would be a lovely and unique addition and I love that it can be made ahead of time!
Gorgeous icebox cookies, I love making them for the holidays!!
I’m totally with you on Christmas cookie planning! Love the orange flavor with these.
Yes, I love that Christmas issue from America’s Test Kitchen too. I have not tried this recipe before and think it would be so perfect to make now and then keep the dough in the freezer. Great for a snow day like today here in CO!
Gorgeous cookies! I love the combination! I agree these make a good tin cookie!
Orange and Cinnamon combo sounds delicious! and the cookies look lovely!
These look delicious! I love the idea of adding a little orange to the cookies to change it up.