Chewy Chocolate Orange Cookies

I am in love with these cookies.

Soft, Chewy, Chocolate Orange Cookies.

Best eaten while still slightly warm from the oven. Plenty good the next day too.

I love the combination of chocolate and orange. I think some of the best cookies I’ve ever made were the orange chocolate shortbread cookies with the little bit of orange marmalade on top. I was very happy to find a new cookie recipe from Serious Eats that gave the same great chocolate orange combo but in a much easier and faster cookie to bake.

Here’s what you need:

Flour, Sugar, Butter, Salt, Baking Powder, Cocoa, Eggs, Orange, and Vanilla

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Like most cookies, this recipe uses softened butter so be sure to set 2 sticks of butter out at room temperature an hour or two in advance of baking these cookies.

In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

and whisk thoroughly to combine and to break up any clumps.

In a separate bowl or the bowl of a mixer, combine 2 sticks of softened, room temperature butter with 2 2/3 cups sugar.

Beat or cream the butter and sugar together at medium speed until light, pale yellow and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix to combine.

Using a microplane or other small grater, remove the zest from one large orange. You’ll want at least 2 teaspoons of zest but use that as a minimum…as long as you have at least 2 teaspoons, I would go ahead and add all the remaining orange zest from the orange.

Add the grated zest and 2 Tablespoons of juice freshly squeezed from the orange to the batter and stir to combine.

With the mixer on the lowest speed, slowly add the cocoa and flour mixture to the bowl. Mix only until the dry ingredients have been combined. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. This is the secret to the cookies staying soft and chewy!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop the chilled dough onto the pans with a tablespoon or small ice cream scoop. Leave an inch around each dough ball for the cookies to expand.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. The cookies will be very soft and fluffy on top but will firm up a bit as they cool.

Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes to keep their shape, then move them to wire racks to continue cooling. Store in an airtight container so they keep their soft, chewy texture.

There’s nothing like a warm, soft cookie to make the day better. Add chocolate and orange, and things start looking up pretty quickly!

Here’s the recipe:

Chewy Chocolate Orange Cookies