These delicious brownie like Orange Crackle biscuits are so fun to make and look fabulous – perfect for a special occasion!
Many of you will have seen my Chocolate Crackle biscuits on the blog, if not check them out HERE. They are absolutely delicious, cakey textured biscuit with a fun crackle texture. So I wanted to recreate them in citrus flavours so I have done so with Orange here and Lemon in my next post.
The texture of these is just like a light brownie, a softer biscuit but light and lovely and of course the flavour is wonderful! There is an easy technique to getting the crackle on the top, this is due to rolling the dough into icing sugar and generously coating it before placing the balls on the baking tray. You then leave them like this and pop them in the oven, as they cook they spread and the icing sugar crackles!
I wanted to get across the flavour of orange as much as I could without changing the recipe too much. So I have done this with both the zest and the juice of a fresh orange. And of course the zest gives it an extra pop of texture.
I have also added a tiny drop of food colouring – without it the biscuits are still delicious, all it does is change the colour of them to a brighter orange. You can absolutely leave this step out. All I did was add a tiny drop off red colouring and a drop of yellow onto the end of a knife and add to the batter – you really do not need much at all. This brings about a lovely orange colour that ensures everyone knows what flavour these are! Also provides a nice contrast with the white icing sugar.
I am keen to try this technique with some different flavours to see if it will still work, watch this space!
But first onto the recipe, be sure to let me know if you try them

Orange Crackle Biscuits
Delicious light brownie like biscuits with a lovely citrus flavour and a fun crackle pattern
Ingredients
- 55 grams Butter, softened
- 1/2 Cup White Sugar, 100 grams
- 1 Cup White Flour, 130 grams
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 Egg, large
- 1 heaped Tablespoon Orange Zest
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Orange Juice
- (Optional) Tiny Drop Orange Food colouring - or red & yellow
- 1/4 Cup Icing Sugar, 34 grams
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl add the softened butter and sugar and mix well together in a food mixer, approximately 4 minutes, until light in colour and fluffy.
- While this is beating in a small bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well and set aside.
- Zest an orange and juice it and set aside.
- Once the butter and sugar has fully incorporated add the egg, orange zest, orange juice and food colouring if you are using it - you only need a tiny drop to create the colour necessary or leave out this step
- Mix together well, then add the dry ingredients and blend until just combined
- Pop the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to cool
- Prepare two baking trays with baking paper
- Preheat the oven to 175C Bake (345F)
- Add the icing sugar to a small bowl and set up with your baking tray beside you
- Scoop tablespoon sized amounts of the mixture and with damp hands roll into small balls, add to the icing sugar, coat thoroughly and place onto a tray 5 cm apart.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, working quickly so the dough does not soften too much. If it is a hot day you can always re-cool the balls before baking by popping them in the fridge or freezer
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, the biscuits will be very soft but starting to cook around the edges, and not at all brown
- Remove the trays from the oven and allow to almost completely cool before carefully transferring them to a cooling rack.
- Store in an airtight container
Also be sure to check out the Chocolate Crackle Biscuits Recipe – oh so delicious!
Thank you so much for stopping by to check out this recipe. Please also follow me on Facebook or Instagram and you can be one of the first to receive my new recipes by subscribing via email in the link below.
Happy Baking
Anna
Jane Tronson says
I assume it’s because there’s such a small amount of butter and sugar but I found it really hard to cream it. Also after being in the fridge overnight the mix was still really soft. I just didn’t get a good crackle effect though they looked pretty and tasted good.
justamumnz says
Sorry to hear the recipe didn’t quite work out for you, not sure what might have gone wrong but glad they were tasty.