Soft lemon cookies that are perfectly light, not cakey, are so simple to make! They’re just the thing when you want something sweet but not too sweet. The tart lemon flavor balances the sweetness in the cookie and makes having just one basically impossible! For more tangy lemon dessert recipes, try my lemon meringue pie recipe, lemon cupcakes recipe, or lemon bars recipe.
What You Need to Make this Recipe
Leavening — you need baking powder and baking soda for these cookies to help them puff up. Butter — use unsalted butter, and set it out beforehand so it softens slightly. Sugar — granulated sugar adds the perfect amount of sweetness to balance out the tart, bright lemon flavor. Lemon — you’ll use 3 types of lemon to flavor the cookies- freshly grated lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, as well as lemon extract. Egg — one large, room temperature egg is all you need. Yellow food coloring — while optional, yellow food coloring adds a pretty color to the cookies. Use gel for the best results, and remember that a little goes a long way. Lemon Glaze — for the lemon glaze, you’ll need to whisk together 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 to 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, depending on the consistency you want.
How to Make Lemon Cookies
- Whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter, granulated sugar, and lemon zest on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, lemon juice, and lemon extract to the mixture. Beat on medium speed with a hand mixer or your stand mixer until well combined. Scrape the bowl down once while mixing. If you decide to use food coloring, add it in at this point.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat on low speed until almost combined. Scrape the bowl down one last time then beat just until incorporated. The dough is now ready to be covered and chilled for at least 30 minutes.
- Once the dough is chilled, line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Scoop 1½ tablespoon-sized balls of lemon cookie dough and place them on the prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time in an oven preheated to 350°F for about 10 minutes or until the edges are set and just starting to turn golden. Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet, and then you can transfer them to a wire rack for glazing.
- Make the lemon glaze in a medium bowl while the cookies are cooling. Whisk together the powdered sugar lemon juice until it reaches your desired consistency.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cooled lemon cookies and enjoy!
Pro Tips for Making this Recipe
Measure the flour correctly. Using too much flour is a common mistake when baking and will result in dry, crumbly cookies. To measure flour accurately, use a kitchen scale and go by weight. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, don’t scoop directly from the flour container. Fluff up the flour first and spoon it into the measuring cup before leveling it off with a butter knife. For a super tender, fluffy cookie: Add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the flour mixture and replace ¼ cup of the granulated sugar with packed light brown sugar. Cornstarch is the secret ingredient to making a soft cookie soft and brown sugar makes them slightly chewy! Chill the cookie dough. It might not seem important, but chilling the dough is so important to ensure the cookies don’t spread and flatten too much. Use a cookie scoop. This is helpful for getting the cookies to all be the same size. Use more or less lemon juice in the glaze depending on how you want to use it. For a runnier glaze that’s easy to drizzle, use more lemon juice. For a thicker glaze you can spread or dip the cookies into, use less lemon juice. For a neater presentation, use a piping bag. I love the rustic look of a cookie drizzled with glaze straight off the whisk. But if you want a uniform glaze on the cookies, use a piping bag.
Frequently asked questions
If you’ve tried this lemon cookies recipe, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
