Welcome to Cookie Week! Every year in December, I spend a week baking and sweet making which isn’t exactly my specialty. We’ll work through it together! If you want to check out previous cookie weeks, zip over to the cookie archives!

I was so positive that the macaroons I made earlier were going to be my favorite cookie of the week. Not too sweet and great flavors. But no… these White Chocolate Orange Cookies jumped to the front of the line for me. I love everything about them. They start with a reduced beer syrup (win), use lots of orange zest and spice (win win), and are packed with white chocolate chips (win win win).

Plus, they are probably the easiest cookie I made this week!

There’s approximately zero reasons why you shouldn’t make them.

Belgian White Ale Orange Cookies

5 from 2 votes
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 16 large cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
White chocolate orange cookies with a rich Belgian white ale syrup. An easy and delicious drop cookie recipe that’s perfect for the holidays!

Ingredients 

  • 2 12-ounce white ales
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 orange, zest only
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Pour beer and honey into a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat. Let the syrup reduce until you have about 1/3 cup of liquid. Stir regularly to make sure it doesn’t scorch. After it reduces, let the syrup cool.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together butter with sugars. Then add in egg and extract and stir to combine.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, coriander, baking soda, and orange zest. Mix half the dry ingredients into the creamed butter, followed by the reduced syrup, and then the rest of the dry ingredients.
  • Add in white chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
  • Spoon out dough on baking sheets in heaping tablespoon-sized cookies. You should get 16-20 cookies.
  • Bake cookies at 350 degrees F. for 18-20 minutes, rotating halfway through.
  • Let cookies cool briefly before serving.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 232kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 35mg | Sodium: 87mg | Potassium: 81mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 303IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 37mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crunchtimekitchen

Beer and Honey

You have to be careful what beer you use for this recipe. You don’t want anything hoppy at all. A wheat beer would work well, but the best option is a Belgian white ale. My favorite one lately is Avery’s White Rascal. You might not be able to find it everywhere, but if you can, it’s worth a shot.

Add the beer and the honey and cook it down until it’s a thick syrup. It should reduce to about 1/3 cup of liquid.

ale syrup for White Chocolate Orange Cookies
Beer and honey!

Making the Dough for White Chocolate Orange Cookies

Meanwhile, you can get your dry ingredients together.

Key spice: CORIANDER.

It completely ties together the flavors in the beer with the orange. Do not skip it.

Coriander spice.
Coriander is the key.

When you zest the orange try to just get the very outer part of the orange. If you get a lot of the white pith, then it will be bitter instead of citrusy.

Whisk together the flour, spices, baking soda, and zest.

Orange zest.
Zesty!

When your syrup has reduced and cooled, you can whip up the dough.

Cream together the butter and sugars and then add in the egg and vanilla.

Stir in half of the dry ingredients, followed by the syrup, followed by the rest of the dry stuff. Mix in the chocolate chips last and try not to over mix the dough.

dough for White Chocolate Orange Cookies
All mixed.

Baking

I like to make big cookies when I make drop cookies. You could probably get two dozen smaller cookies out of this batch but I like to make 16 larger cookies.

The benefits of making them larger is that the cookies cook a bit uneven so you get a crispy outer edge but the interior part is still soft.

Go big on the cookies.

Ready to bake.
Big cookies.

These will need to bake for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees F. To make sure they cook evenly, rotate the cookies halfway through.

Still soft in the middle.
Still soft in the middle.

These White Chocolate Orange Cookies are great warm, cold, or really any way you can get them.

I ate two right away and then had another two or three throughout the next 24 hours.

I couldn’t stop!

White Chocolate Orange Cookies are a great way to end cookie week!

White Chocolate Orange Cookies - Packed with chocolate chips and orange zest and seasoned with a reduced white ale honey. Be sure to check out the secret spice that takes these cookies over the edge!

If you had a favorite cookie from the week, leave a comment! I’d love to see what people liked and which cookie you might try out!