These orange basil cookies will be a winner every time. They are the high ranking food in my house right now.
While the cookies are a lovely addition to a tea tray or brunch spread, if left too convenient to a student bogged down with studies, then they will be gobbled down as a meal replacement. I noticed Tall Dark and Handsome had not come out for a meal in quite a while. When I questioned his eating habits for the past two days, he said he was full of cookies. I found the mostly empty cookie box open on the bookshelf next to him. Upon inspection, they were becoming stale like biscotti. Of course they had not been covered. TDH expressed that he didn’t know which he liked better, the fresh soft warm cookies or the now crunchy cookies that went into coffee. Wow, cookies that could do no wrong.
I remembered a request for an orange basil cookie, but never made it because I wasn’t satisfied with the ingredients that went into most of the orange basil recipes that I had.
While flipping through a couple of my favorite herb cook books, I found a number of recipes that made Lemon-herb cookies. Well. Duh! I could just substitute orange for the lemon!
So here we are, the most popular cookie that I have made yet.
Orange Basil Cookies 
- 2c flour
- 1/2t baking soda
- 1/4t salt
- 3/4c butter
- 1 egg
- 3/4c sugar + 1/4c
- 1T orange zest
- 1T orange juice
- 2T dried basil or 1/3c fresh
Zest and juice one medium sized orange. Set aside.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Cream the butter and 3/4c sugar. Add egg, orange zest, oj, and basil. Mix well. Beat in the dry ingredients.
Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
Roll dough into 1” balls and then roll in remaining 1/4c sugar. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet. If baked from dough balls, the cookies will puff slightly in the middle and be softer. If you gently press to flatten the cookies a bit, they will spread further and cool to more of a crisp cookie.
Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 12 minutes until the edges are golden.
Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 4 doz
Enjoy!
Nancy Warner 
looks good. i’ve never had a herb cookie before…
Fantastic. I’ve never had a herb cookie either. These look and sound absolutely incredible.
As with the other two, I’ve also never had an herb cookie before. Looks like I need to remedy that fast!
seriously, you must try them. TDH isn’t always a fan of herby sweets but he LOVED these. I would even use mint or tarragon with the orange, too! or lemon basil with lemon zest, mMmmm
Reblogged this on The Reluctant Weight Watchers Foodie and commented:
And here we have another tasty re-blog! The Potlicker is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs with her inventive recipes and delicious pictures. Here’s a recipe for Orange Basil Cookies. They sound quite interesting…. just interesting enough for me to give them a try sometime! I do love me some oranges 🙂