Lemonade Cookies are perfectly buttery, sweet, and slightly citrusy. Ready in under 20 minutes and all topped with a quick, easy icing.
Lemonade is the perfect summer treat, and now you can enjoy this Cookie Recipe inspired by the drink. If you’re a lemon fan, be sure to also try Iced Lemon Muffins and Lemon Shortbread Bars.
Table of Contents
Sabrina’s Lemonade Cookies Recipe
This refreshing lemon cookie recipe makes the perfect summer cookie. They’re sweet and soft with a burst of lemon flavor that you’re sure to love. Serve them at your next picnic or summer party for a crowd-pleasing dessert.
You may have already tried this classic Lemon Cookies recipe, but these cookies are quite different. Although both pack a powerful lemon punch, these Lemonade Cookies are made with actual lemonade concentrate in the cookie dough. The concentrate gives them the same sweet and tart lemonade flavor that you’d usually get from the drink. They’re also topped off with delicious and simple lemon icing.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter: Make sure you leave the butter out at room temperature long enough for it to soften before starting the recipe. That way, you can easily cream the butter with sugar.
- Sugar: To make these cookies taste like lemonade, you have to balance the sweet and tangy flavors carefully. Use 1 cup granulated sugar for enough sweetness.
- Lemon Ingredients: 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and ⅓ cup lemonade concentrate gives the cookies their robust lemon flavor. The lemonade concentrate adds a combination of lemon and sweet flavors and sets these Lemonade Cookies apart from regular lemon cookies.
- Icing: To make the icing, all you need is powdered sugar, water, and lemon juice. You can add more water or powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want and easily adjust the amount of lemon juice according to your taste.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Baking Sheets: Use 2 baking sheets or cookie sheets, that way you can bake more cookies at one time.
- Parchment Paper: Lining your baking sheets with parchment paper helps your cookies bake evenly and keeps them from sticking to the cookie sheet.
- Electric Mixer: Whether you use a stand mixer, or handheld electric mixer, these tools will make easy work of combining your dough. You can also mix the dough by hand with a whisk if you don’t have an electric mixer.
- Cookie Scoop: Using a cookie scoop allows you to have cookies that will all end up the same size. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can use a tablespoon scoop to achieve balls of cookie dough that contain 2 tablespoons of dough each.
- Mixing Bowl and Whisk: A medium bowl is a good choice to quickly whisk together your icing ingredients. It just needs to be large enough to hold 2 cups of powdered sugar with room left to stir.
How to Make Lemonade Cookies
Time needed: 25 minutes.
- Prep Time
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Then line each cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Lemon Cookie Dough
Add unsalted butter and granulated sugar to your electric mixer. Set the mixer to medium speed, then raise it to high to cream butter mixture until fluffy. This should only take 2-3 minutes. Add in one egg at a time. Blend in eggs before adding the next one. Sift the all-purpose flour and baking soda, then add them to the stand mixer at its lowest speed in 1 cup increments. Mix on slow speed until there are just streaks of flour. Then add the lemonade concentrate and lemon juice. Mix lemon ingredients until just combined.
- Shape Cookies
Use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop to shape into balls. After you roll the dough into balls, place the dough balls on a parchment-covered baking sheet with about 2 inches between each one.
- Baking Time
Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven to bake for 10-12 minutes. Let the lemon cookies cool for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack. Then let them cool completely before adding the icing.
- Icing
Add 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon water, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to a mixing bowl. Whisk the icing ingredients together until blended. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cookies to lightly coat them. Then sprinkle coarse sanding sugar over the top to finish the Lemonade Cookies.
“Can Lemonade Cookies be made ahead?”
These Lemonade Cookies are wonderful to make ahead. You can make the dough and refrigerate it to make fresh the day you’d like to serve the cookies. You can bake the cookies and they will keep well at room temperature for over a week so you could serve these cookies to friends on the weekend, then eat them throughout the week with your family. You’ll find more details about storing and freezing Lemonade Cookies later on in this post.
Nutritional Facts
Baking Tips & Tricks
Enjoy the perfect, sweet, slightly tart cookies made easy by following these tips.
- Icing Made Easy
- To easily drizzle icing on your Lemonade Cookies, pour the icing into a gallon or quart size ziplock bag. Place the bag into a wide mouth cup with the ziplock edges folded around the rim to make the job easy. Then when ready to use it, remove the bag and cut a very small hole in one corner of the bag and drizzle pretty lines straight from the bag.
- Avoid Over-mixing Dough
- Over-mixing can lead to dense baked goods. Mix just until the ingredients are combined for the best results.
What to Pair With Lemonade Cookies
Lemonade Cookies create a delicious finish to any meal, and will bring smiles to your loved ones when packed in their lunchboxes. The lemony cookies makes a light, refreshing dessert to a heavy dinner like Creamy Salmon Pasta or Baked Ziti. They offer a great summery finish to your favorite barbecue staples like BBQ Beef Brisket or BBQ Chicken.
How to Store
- Serve: Give the icing a few minutes to harden on the Lemonade Cookies before you serve them.
- Store: To keep the cookies fresh, put them in a ziplock bag or another airtight container to store at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.
- Freeze: If you want to freeze this lemon cookies recipe, put them in a freezer-safe container with parchment paper between the cookie layers so that they don’t freeze together. They can stay good frozen for up to 8 months.
Ideas to Serve Lemonade Cookies
Lemonade Cookies are great as a dessert or a sweet snack, however they would also make an excellent gift for any lemon lover. Bring them with you to a potluck or neighborhood barbecue. Wrap them up in a box and a bow to give to friends as a gift or to say thank you. Make a summer cookie tray starring these Lemonade Cookies alongside S’mores Cookies, Strawberry Bars, and Coconut Cookies for a wonderful blend of summer flavors.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can freeze the cookie dough before baking the delicious Lemonade Cookies. Follow the recipe as usual, roll the dough into balls, and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Then lay the sheet flat in the freezer for about an hour. Once the dough balls are completely frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag to keep in the freezer. Just place dough balls back on a cookie sheet when you’re ready to bake. They’ll need a few extra minutes in the oven so that they can thaw and bake.
Yes! It’s really easy to double up this cookie recipe just by doubling the ingredients. This is an excellent idea if you’re serving a party, making gift boxes, or want to freeze one batch for later.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Lemonade Cookies:
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup lemonade concentrate , thawed
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice , fresh
Icing:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice , fresh
- 2 tablespoons coarse sanding sugar
Instructions
Lemonade Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- To your stand mixer add the butter and sugar on medium speed then raise to high speed and cream for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs one at a time until well mixed.
- Sift the flour and baking soda then add it into the stand mixer on the lowest speed setting in 1 cup increments.
- Add in the lemonade concentrate and lemon juice until just mixed in.
- Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough onto your baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes.
- Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheets.
- Let cool completely before icing.
Icing:
- Whisk together the powdered sugar, water, and lemon juice.
- Drizzle over the cooled cookies and sprinkle with coarse sanding sugar.
Nutrition
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Variations
- Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: If you want a heavier frosting to top off the cookies, you can replace the simple lemon glaze with lemon cream cheese frosting. Follow a regular Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe, then add a tablespoon of lemon juice and a teaspoon of lemon zest. You can also sprinkle grated lemon zest on top of the Lemonade Cookies.
- Strawberry Lemonade Cookies: If you love a glass of strawberry lemonade, why not try making pink lemonade cookies? To make Strawberry Lemonade Cookies, you can follow basically the same recipe, but add strawberry extract to the dough and icing according to taste. To give the pink lemonade cookies the right color, you can also add food coloring.
- Decorating: To decorate the cookies, you can add lemon zest or thin lemon slices over the top right before serving. You could also add sprinkles or colored sugar. For brighter cookies, add optional food coloring to the icing or cookies. Use yellow food coloring for regular Lemonade Cookies and pink for Strawberry Lemonade Cookies.
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