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Soft chewy lemon sugar cookies are always a hit! A light lemon cookie that will be a crowd favorite.
Lemon Sugar Cookies
I may be a chocoholic but these cookies got me from the first bite. Actually, I lie. It was from the first bite of cookie dough because after one taste, I was hooked! Since my Mom loves all things lemon, I decided I had to break free from my chocolate love affair and make something that she would love – a sweet, soft lemon sugar cookie.
She was smitten with the first taste! This cookie is bursting with fresh lemon flavor without being too tart and if you could imagine a marriage between a soft sugar cookie and a tangy lemon, you will get this delectable lemon sugar cookie.
This is a soft, chewy lemon cookie with a light lemon flavor. It is a simple, crowd-pleasing recipe that everyone loves! Add more lemon zest for extra lemon flavor.
Key Steps for making the BEST Lemon sugar cookies:
- Cream butter and sugar for four minutes or until light and fluffy. This breaks down the sugar so you don’t end up with grainy cookies. It also whips in the air, which not only helps to give the cookie body but keeps it from going completely flat once it hits the hot oven.
- Use fresh lemon juice. The fake stuff you find in the grocery store just tastes fake. Fresh lemon transforms so many dishes and since it’s the star ingredient in this cookie, fresh is best.
- Use a zester to get the vibrant yellow skin from the lemon and leave the bitter white part behind. We want the good stuff! Click HERE to buy a zester for about $10 bucks.
- These cookies are best soft so don’t overbake. An outstanding cookie can become mediocre just from overbaking. I always use non-stick silicone baking sheets. These silicone baking sheets are some of my favorites because they work well and are reasonably priced.
- Top with sparkling sugar just as you are removing the cookies from the oven.
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Lemon Sugar Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter cold, cut into cubes
- 2 cups Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/2 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest may put more lemon zest for extra flavor
- 3 cups Flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- *may put in a drop of yellow food coloring for color
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar for 4 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest and stir to combine.
- Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix just until combined.
- Drop dough onto light colored baking sheet.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar or white sparkling sugar.
Video
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thank as always for all of your incredible support. xo Happy Baking!
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We made this recipe with the suggestion of more lemon zest for a more lemony flavor. We added 1 top. more and they were fabulous!
I have made these cookies many times and would like to make them ahead of time for my daughter’s wedding. Can I make them and freeze them for a couple of weeks? These are the best cookies if you love lemon!!
We all enjoyed the cookies. It’s true don’t over bake these. Know your oven! Our runs hot so we only cooked ours for 8 minutes and they didn’t end up chewing taffy like which is a disappointment when we didn’t cook them for the 9-11 minutes. Thank you for your time and posting of this recipe to share. My whole family loves them. We did add 1 drop lemon essential oil because we didn’t have another half of lemon zest we only had a tablespoon. The of course tasted great however the zest looks so pretty so we missed out on having cute yellow pieces in our cookies.
I love this recipe. Instead of adding lemon zest I added one tablespoon of lemon extract. I also added one half cup finely chopped walnuts. And they turned out so good the family loves them.
Should dough chill for a while before baking or good to go right after mixing?
I love this recipe! The cookies are so delicious and have a wonderful pop of lemon.
These are amazing cookies. The texture is perfect. The crumb is soft and buttery. I did but in 1T more of lemon juice and 1/2 tsp of lemon oil as well as 2 drops of lemon food coloring as mentioned in the recipe. One thing I’d say is that the baking directions are a bit scant. It said 20 cookies. Those must be really big cookies. I used a large 1 T scoop and it made about 37 cookies (after I ate a lot of dough). I would also suggest a bit more salt in the recipe. Because of that, I sprinkled some Maldon Salt on top after the sugar. My cookies took 12 minutes and they looked great and baked great without “smooshing” them down after scooping them.
Why cold butter cut into cubes if you are creaming it?
I am making this right now; did not read the comments first. BIG MISTAKE. Ha ha, just opened oven door and flattened cookies. The dough is not the kind you can drop. So far, it is delicious but I put in more lemon zest and more lemon juice than recipe suggests. I will keep you pasted. (I wonder why the recipe says to drop them?)
loved how this turned out made large cookies. would love to have added lemonchello to it.