Lemon Cookies flavored with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest are soft, sweet, and PERFECT for tea time with friends!
Cookie season never ends in the kitchen, and today we’re busy baking up our favorite Cookie Recipes, like the sultry Dark Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, the easy Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, and the fun Black and White Cookies.
Lemon lovers unite! Lemon Cookies are one of the best cookies to make because they’re a little bit chewy, and little bit sweet, and full of those bold lemon flavors you’d expect from the fresh lemon juice and zest. Some people also refer to these cookies as Lemon Crinkle Cookies, but with as many lemon cookie varieties as there are, these are the most lemon-y ones which makes them a classic.
Of all the lemon cookie recipes, this one is the perfect treat. You can make these all year round because while cookies are amazing during the holidays, lemon is also one of best flavors to bring out in the springtime and summer. Given the weather in the winter season, these cookies will bring a spark of joy to everyone!
These cookies drop, so we’re only looking to scoop about a tablespoon of dough to roll in the sugar. You can find tablespoon-sized ice cream scoops with a release button that make this part a lot faster and easier.
You can also make this ahead of time and chill or freeze the cookies until you’re ready to serve, making them perfect to pull out when you’re entertaining on busy days! You’re just going to love the fresh lemon zest, just like in our Lemon Curd recipe.
How to Make Lemon Cookies
These soft lemon cookies have amazing lemon flavor from real lemons. The process is easy, but you don’t want to forget to take the time to let the dough cool. Check it out!
- Step One: The cookie batter is first mixed together according to the recipe. You can use a medium bowl or mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix the wet ingredients together first, and then the dry ingredients into the wet. Don’t forget the grated lemon zest for flavor and color!
- Step Two: Before you scoop out the cookies onto your prepared baking sheet or silicone baking mat, they need to be refrigerated first for at least two hours. Better if it’s overnight.
- Step Three: Once the dough has been chilled completely, use a cookie scoop or tablespoon scoop out tablespoon size amounts. Then roll them in the powdered sugar. Alternatively, instead of rolling them in sugar, you can also top these cookies with a simple glaze or lemon glaze. Or, dust them with powdered sugar after they’ve cooled down. Align them on cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Step Four: Now you bake them. These lemon cookies bake really fast, so watch them closely! They will still be really soft when you remove them from the oven. The cookies will firm up as they cool off. You can lightly tap them to see if they’ve firmed up or if they need more time.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Lemon cookies are considered a drop cookie, which means that they have a lot of sugar in the dough, causing them to drop down and flatten really fast. This happens even more-so when the butter in the cookies is warm and already melty.
It is really important to refrigerate the dough for this cookie recipe, because you’re giving the butter and sugar a chance to get really cold. Then when they hit the heat of the oven, it will take longer for the cookie to drop than it does for the dough to cook through, leaving you with the chewy soft amazing texture that we’re looking for here.
Refrigerate this dough for a minimum of two hours, but preferably overnight, to make sure it’s as cold as possible. If you go straight from mixing to the oven, you’re running the risk of flat crunchy cookies.
This cookie recipe will keep on the counter in an airtight container for 8-10 days. We recommend layering the cookies with parchment paper to stop them from sticking together. Or, the more likely case is these yummy cookies will only last about an hour before they’re gone!
You can freeze lemon cookies for a few weeks when sealed tightly and layered with parchment or wax paper. Defrost at room temperature for a few hours before serving.
You can also freeze the dough. Either roll it in plastic wrap tightly and seal the whole thing in a plastic bag, or scoop it into tablespoon sized balls, freeze the balls initially on a baking sheet, then transfer to an airtight container. You can go right from the freezer to the oven when you’re ready to bake.
If you’d like to get an extra yellow tint to your cooking, add 4-5 drops drops of yellow food coloring to the dough while mixing. We’re not using any food coloring in our recipe nor in the photos you see here. It’s all from the fresh lemon zest!
If you’re really going for an intense lemon flavor, 2 or 3 drops of lemon oil while mixing will really bring it up a notch and make them even more delicious. We recommend not adding too much extra flavor as they are already flavorful and too much might make them bitter in taste.
Sometimes, citrus added with dairy can curdle. Try mixing the vanilla and the lemon together first before adding it with the other ingredients.
You can use either straight out of the refrigerator or at room temperature butter because the dough will get put back into the refrigerator to really get cold. It will be easier to mix if it is at room temperature though.
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Key Ingredients in Lemon Cookies
This is a simple cookie recipe and all the ingredients can easily be found at your local grocery store. Make sure you’ve got some baking sheets too! Using a wire rack will help the cookies cool as well.
- Lemon: We recommend using fresh lemon juice instead of bottled. The fresh juice just tastes better and doesn’t have any added ingredients that can mute the flavor of the cookie. You can use a lemon zester to get the skin off of the lemon, or just use a small cheese grater and it does the job just as well. Don’t forget to wash the lemons first!
- Cookie Dough: The dough is a standard flour mixture composed of dry ingredients mixed with wet ingredients. We’re using regular granulated sugar and bleached white all purpose flour for this recipe. Be sure to use unsalted butter for best taste. White sugar works good too.
Can I make Lemon Cookies ahead of time?
Yes! These chewy lemon cookies can easily be made ahead of time! Bake them according to the recipe and once they have cooled, place them in a bag in the freezer or fridge. They’ll last at least a week in the fridge and up to six months in the freezer. Simply let them thaw to room temperature before serving. Enjoy!
How to Make Lemon Cookies with Cake Mix
- Start with either lemon cake mix or white cake mix.
- Combine cake mix in a mixing bowl with 2 eggs and ½ cup of vegetable oil.
- If you’re using lemon mix, add zest only, or it will be too lemony. For white, add both lemon zest and lemon juice.
- Scoop onto a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for a total time of 8-10 minutes, or until they are cooked through.
- Dust with confectioner’s sugar or top with glaze or frosting once the cookies have completely cooled.
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How to Store Lemon Cookies
- Serve: Serve these cookies when they’ve cooled down from baking. Keep them covered during the summer season and refrigerate them within 2 hours.
- Store: These yummy cookies will store in the fridge for about 2 weeks in an air tight container.
- Freeze: You can easily place these cookies in an air tight container and freeze them for up to 6 months. They’ll be easier to thaw if wrapped individually with saran rap, or layered between parchment paper.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar in your stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes then add in the lemon zest, vanilla, egg and lemon juice and combine fully.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together then add it to the stand mixer on medium speed and mix until just combined.
- Wrap the dough in saran wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours (preferably overnight), then when you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Using a tablespoon scoop, drop tablespoon amounts into powdered sugar and roll until well covered then place onto a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, do not brown the cookies, they’ll be soft when they come out and harden as they cool.
Notes
Nutrition
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Photos used in a previous version of this post.
This is such a great recipe!! Loved how they turned out. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Sabrina, for this recipe! I made these for a friend’s birthday and she loved them! Perfect !
Thank you!!
Good flavor, very light, but a little crumbly. They stuck to my non-stock cookie sheets. I like them a light brown on the edges and crispy. Cooked 20 min. Best lemon cookie recipe so far although they did’t appear crinkled. I would appreciate feed back.
I realize this comment is very old, so I am so sorry for the delay in replying.
Did you have any issues with the mixing? I have had that turnout when I mixed mine a bit too much. Also cooking that long can dry them a bit more which could cause sticking. I would use a parchment paper lining and it would alleviate a lot of the issues.
My daughter is on a strict Low Fodmap diet, and she could eat (and enjoy) these cookies. I followed the recipe exactly, even using the yellow food coloring (I needed 4-5 drops). I prepared the dough, chilled it a little bit, then used a small ice cream scoop to measure and put the drop cookies on a non-stick cookie sheet. I froze all the cookies and put them into a large plastic bag with the powdered sugar. After shaking the bag to distribute the sugar, I put the bag full of cookies back into the freezer. When I took them out to bake, still frozen, they didn’t spread at all. I was careful to underbake them just slightly. They were absolutely melt-in-the-mouth delicious! Thank you, Sabrina! I’m looking forward !to trying more of your recipes.
Thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know, Violet.
Although the amount of lemon juice and zest may seem like a lot, the lemon flavour really decreases when you bake them so don’t be afraid to add more! I also added yellow food colouring as I wanted them to be yellow for a friends birthday present and they turned out just like the pics! I would also recommend really coating the dough in icing sugar to get the crinkle affect. Thanks for the recipe, my friend and I loved them!
Hi I was wondering if you use bleached or I unbleached all purpose flour?
I used bleached all purpose flour. Enjoy!
Do I need to adjust to high altitude for this recipe? I Live over 6000 ft and tried your
Applesauce Banana Bread which took over 2 hours to bake. Drop cookies are even harder to bake since the sugar, flour and liquid need to be just right for them to spread and crinkle. Any suggestions for me before I forge forward? P.S. I would love High Altitude changes in All Baking Cookbooks….it would be so gratefully appreciated from all of us who spend hours kneading & and waiting for rise times for all their efforts to fail.
I made these cookies on the weekend and brought them into work. Literal rave reviews across the board! These cookies were SUCH a hit. Absolutely going to make them again! Thank you!!!
Yay!! Thanks for coming back to let me know, Katie.
Hi I made this and when I added in the eggs vanilla and lemon it started to get curdled. Any advice? Is that normal??? Please help
Sometimes, citrus added with dairy can curdle. Next time, try mixing the vanilla and the lemon together first before adding it with the other ingredients. Hope this helps!
I don’t have a stand mixer can I use hand electric mixer if so how long
Yes, you can use a hand mixer. It’ll still only need about 2-3 minutes of mixing. Enjoy!
Are you using all-purpose flour or self rising flour?
all-purpose 🙂
These were very good!!
Unfortunately they didn’t really get that “crinkle” look but still tasted great.
Happy to hear that you liked them! Sorry to hear that they didn’t crinkle! If you want to troubleshoot, shoot me an email at contact @ dinnerthendessert .com
Hi! They look great! Quick question though- should the butter be straight out of the fridge/ room temperature /melted? Does it matter?
Thanks for sharing!
You can use either straight out of the refrigerator or at room temperature butter because the dough will get put back into the refrigerator to really get cold. I hope you enjoy them!
Oh my goodness! They are delicious and my family loves them. “Soft and not too sweet” were the comments. I pretty much have to make them for every party now. Question: your cookies are so yellow, mine were pale…did you add food colouring or is that a filter?
I didn’t add anything additional to change the color. I’m so glad you all enjoyed them!
These turned out so good! They were soft and light and made a perfect snack!
I think your time estimation is a bit off though – 10 minutes to zest lemon, juice lemon, mix together the dough, and roll each cookie individually? And in my opinion, chilling time should be included in the total time – after all, I want to know how long it’ll take before I can enjoy the cookies and if you say 20 minutes I’ll expect them to be finished 20 minutes after starting, haha.
Thank you for sharing, I’ll definitely be making these again and next time I’ll try to double the batch so I’ll actually be able to throw some in the freezer to save!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for the feedback.
These cookies are so delicious!!!
I’ve just made them but unfortunately I’m from germany so i usually bake after grams.. I’ve googled “teaspoons” and “cups” and it said, per teaspoon 14g and 1 cup is about 340g. Is that right? My dough was not very soft after adding so much flour. Still tastes amazing, just wanted to ask!! Xx
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Each recipe card has the option to change to metric vs US customary measurements. This should help to adjust in the future.
These sound delicious! Dangerously good…
Definitely!
This looks insanely delicious! I’m definitely making a batch of these, so excited for it!
I hope you enjoy them!
I have tried to save recipes by creating an account as you describe above, when I log in to the account it says ‘no saved recipes’. Can you tell me how I operate your ‘saving’ system? I was trying to save the chicken and sugar recipe, but when logged into my newly created account it was not there? Any advice? I would love to keep my own favourites, but don’t know where to go from here. Many thanks.
Oh no! If you’re still having the issue please email me at contact @ dinnerthendessert .com so I can help you out.
These lemon crinkle cookies are crazy delicious! I am obsessed with them!
Love it!!
Yum! These cookies look like a new favorite in my house!
That’s awesome!
Delicious!!! So light and lemony! I didn’t have any lemon zest, so used orange zest instead, which worked great!. ?
That sounds amazing too!
These cookies are MOUTHWATERING delicious!
Yay!! So glad you love them!
Why is your recipe page so difficult to get to the recepies. All the ads and crossover ads are entirely too much and to many. If you don’t want to share don’t but your maze is crazy. Only self centered people with braces is n their brains do this. Terrible surprise and insulted with this. Bennett
And yet you were able to find your way to the comment section Bennett. Sorry a blog page is “insulting”.
Hi! Can I use sub half the vanilla for lemon extract? Or just add it in?
The sweet notes of the vanilla really helps balance out the flavors of the cookie, which already has a lot of lemon flavor in it. You could definitely use any amount of lemon extract you wanted in substitution for vanilla but it might turn out having a much more bitter flavor than you were hoping for. Let us know how it turns out!