These soft and chewy lemon cookies use lemon zest and fresh squeezed lemon juice to get that perfect lemon flavor! Do yourself a flavor and make a batch or two right now!
This delicious cookie recipe is from an award winning lemon crinkle cooke recipe on LDS Living by Lauren Brennan from Hood River, Oregon. I’ve been making this recipe for years, and it is always a big hit at cookie exchanges, dinner parties, or for gifting. My kids love to help make the cookies… they are fun to make, just like snickerdoodles, as you roll the cookie dough balls in powdered sugar before baking. I hope you love these lemon cookies and have fun making them.
Ingredients & Supplies for Lemon Cookies
Baking Sheet You’ll need a baking sheet or two for this recipe. Using a light colored non-stick baking sheet is ideal, but if you use a darker one just keep an eye on your cookies while baking and maybe bring out of the oven a minute or two early to prevent over-baking.
Wire Rack is helpful for cooling the cookies down before you eat them. Wait a few minutes after removing cookies from the oven before you transfer to the cooling rack to complete cooling.
A Cookie Scoop is not absolutely necessary but helpful in getting perfectly sized and uniform cookie dough balls. I use this Oneida Trigger Cookie Scoop.
Basic Baking Ingredients needed for this lemon cookie recipe include butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, salt, baking powder, baking soda, flour, and powdered sugar.
Lemon you will need a fresh lemon or this recipe, for both the juice and the zest. You’ll need 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest, which you should be able to get from one lemon. You can play around with different varieties of lemons; Meyer lemons are a great variation for this recipe!
How to Make Lemon Cookies
These lemon cookies are so simple to make, with two easy steps… making the dough, and then rolling the dough balls in powdered sugar. This recipes makes 2-3 dozen cookies.
First, preheat your oven to 350F.
Now, to make the dough cream butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined. Next, add in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Combine all dry ingredients (except for powdered sugar) in a separate bowl and mix into the dough slowly until combined. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so the dough can mix properly.
Now for the fun part. This is the step that my kids love especially to help with. Pour powdered sugar into a bowl. Using a cookie scoop, scoop out balls of cookie dough and roll it in the powdered sugar and place on baking sheet. Repeat this step with remaining dough. Give the dough balls space on the baking sheets as they will spread out a little during baking.
Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are cooked through but still soft. Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to complete cooling.
Lemon Cookies
These soft and chewy lemon cookies use lemon zest and fresh squeezed lemon juice to get that perfect lemon flavor! Do yourself a flavor and make a batch or two right now!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
-
Preheat your oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined. Add in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Combine all dry ingredients (except for powdered sugar) in a separate bowl and mix into the dough slowly until combined. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so the dough can mix properly.
-
Pour powdered sugar into a bowl. Using a cookie scoop, scoop out balls of cookie dough and roll it in the powdered sugar and place on baking sheet. Repeat this step with remaining dough. Give the dough balls space on the baking sheets as they will spread out a little during baking.
-
Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are cooked through but still soft. Remove baking sheet from oven and let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to complete cooling.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Info
Any nutritional information on RainbowDelicious.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. The nutritional labels are a product of online calculators such as (but not limited to) Verywellfit.com Although RainbowDelicious.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered only as estimates. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe.
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I am loving how simple these are together! And the lemon flavor is just perfect!
Thanks so much, Suzy!
I love lemon and I love cookies so this is the perfect recipe for me! I’m putting this on my weekend baking list! Can’t wait!
So great to hear, Jenn! I hope you enjoy the cookies this weekend, let me know how they work out!
These are incredibly delicious! My kids love it as welll!
Thanks Jo! So glad you like them.
Glad to find this recipe, my lemon trees are ready to pick and that means I’ll have lots of lemons to bake with. Starting with your cookies
Nothing beats fresh lemons! I’m so jealous of your lemon trees!
I haven’t made lemon cookies in ages and these look so perfect. I love the fudgy texture!
Thanks Stine!
Wow, these looks so delicious and I ams o excited to make this for my kids. I love it!
I hope you and your kids enjoy them, Amy!
I’ve made these twice already! Everyone in my family loves them, its their new favorite cookie!
Aw, that makes me so happy Dennis!
This is the epitome of a lemony delicious cookie! Easy to make, soft, and made with the perfect lemon flavor! YUM!
I’m so glad you liked these cookies, Leslie!
This is the recipe that is going to make my little one stay willingly in after care at school because it will be in his aftercare snack box! Yay!
Yay! I hope your little ones enjoys the cookies, Kari!
These are amazing! I love how delicious these lemon cookies came out. Will make it again for the family soon.
I’m so glad you liked them Julie!
My teenage daughter made those cookies yesterday and they were very nice. We will definitely make them again. Simple and delicious.
I’m so happy to hear this Ramona!
It’s hard to find a delicious lemon cookie but these are amazing! So soft and the perfect lemon flavor. My kids all love them.
I feel the exact same way… they are the perfect lemon cookie! So glad your kids loved them!
Do these lemon cookies freeze well?
I haven’t tried freezing them but I see no reason why they wouldn’t! If you end up trying to freeze them, let me know how it goes!