Italian Clementine Cookies

January 24, 2023

It is officially citrus season and most grocery stores have those little mesh bags of beautiful clementines just waiting to come home with you. These sweet little gems are usually seedless, easy to peel and incredibly juicy. We eat them with breakfast, as snacks throughout the day and they are the perfect way to satisfy that sweet craving that I always seem to get right before bed.

Their natural sweetness makes them a wonderful addition to many desserts and these cookies are delightful thanks to the clementines bright, cheerful flavor. With a super light. delicate texture and all those beautiful flavors, you are going to fall in love with my Italian clementine cookies.

Let’s get started…

Let’s start with the clementines. I usually need about 3 average size clementines to make a batch of these cookies. Begin by thoroughly washing them to remove any pesticides or wax from the peel. We will be adding zest into the dough and you don’t want to bring any of that negativity into your cookies…

I recommend zesting the clementines before you juice them, because zesting the whole fruit is a lot easier than attempting to zest one that has already been sliced in half. Once you have a heaping tablespoon of zest, slice them in half and gather 1/3 of a cup of fresh clementine juice. You will need about half of this juice for the dough and the other half for the glaze.

Now that the clementines have been taken care of, let’s start the cookie dough. Using an electric hand mixer, begin by creaming together 8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese with 4 tablespoons of room temperature butter.

Add a large egg, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon of citrus extract. If you don’t have citrus extract, it’s ok. You will get plenty of flavor from the clementine’s zest and juice. I like to add the extract to really kick the citrus flavors up a notch, but this is an optional ingredient.

Now add 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, a tablespoon of clementine zest and 3 tablespoons of clementine juice and mix until everything is creamy and fully combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk 1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour with a teaspoon of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Once combined, add this to the clementine mixture and mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined.

Look at this beautiful cookie dough? It is so light and creamy and that pale peachy color with the little bits of clementine zest throughout makes me happy.

Although, I am not usually a fan of cookie recipes that require chilling, these cookies are worth the patience. I promise.

You have two options here. You can cover the bowl of dough and chill it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours OR you can use a greased cookie dough scoop to drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto a non-stick or parchment lined baking sheet and let them hang out in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking. The freezer method is my preferred way to go, because it is quicker and the cookies are already portioned out and ready to bake as soon as they have firmed up.

Once the cookie dough is firmly chilled, drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart on a non-stick or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake on the center rack of a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes.

Note: Place the unbaked cookie dough back into the refrigerator or freezer while the first batch is baking, so the dough doesn’t soften. This dough should be firmly chilled when it goes into the oven in order for these cookies to achieve their beautifully light texture.

The cookies should be puffed up and ever so slightly a pale golden brown on the edges. The tops of the cookies should look dry. If you see wet dough in the middle, leave them in for another 60 seconds.

Once you pull them out of the oven, let them cool on the baking sheet until they feel ready to transfer to a cool rack. They are quite delicate, so treat them gently…

While the cookies are cooling, let’s make a delightful clementine glaze to dress them up with.

Simply add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract to a cup of confectioners sugar and whisk in about 2 tablespoons of clementine juice to create a drizzle-able consistency. If the glaze is too loose or it just drips right off of your cookies, whisk in a little more confectioners sugar.

As soon as the cookies have cooled, drizzle them with the clementine glaze or dunk the tops of each cookie into the glaze. Return the glazed cookies to the cooling rack to allow the glaze to set.

There is something very special about these Italian clementine cookies. They are incredibly light and delicate like little pillows of citrusy goodness. They are perfectly sweet with bold, cheerful clementine flavors. The cream cheese adds both a creamy, airy feel and a subtle tanginess thats balances the other flavors in a fabulous way.

I hope you make these cookies for yourself, because I just know that you will fall in love with them…

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