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Lemon Crinkle Cookies
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Lemon lovers–this one’s for you! These pillowy soft, melt in your mouth lemon crinkle cookies are loaded up with fresh lemon flavor and have the perfect balance of tart and sweet! Enjoy!
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Say hello to the new it girl of the summer: lemon crinkle cookies. These babies are having their Sofia Richie moment and they deserve every moment in the spotlight. Pillowy soft lemon cookies with the perfect amount of tart lemon flavor, finished off in a powdered sugar coating and complete with a gooey center and slightly chewy edge… I mean, how could anyone not love these?
Lemon crinkle cookie ingredients
These crinkle cookies come together with a 10 simple ingredients that meld into the most delicious, bright, lemon cookie you’ll ever sink your teeth into. Hop on over to the grocery store and get your hands on these ingredients so you can have lemon crinkle cookies in your belly:
- Unsalted Butter
- Granulated Sugar
- Powdered Sugar
- Lemons
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- All Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Lemon Extract (optional)
How to make perfectly tart lemon sugar
My secret sauce to lemon desserts is lemon zest infused sugar. I picked up this trick working at a bakery. Instead of just folding the lemon zest into the sugar, use your fingers to rub the lemon zest into the sugar. This will release all the lemon oils from the zest into the sugar and intensify the lemon flavor. I think it makes all the difference in really deepening the lemon flavor of any lemon dessert.
Tips for getting perfect crackly top crinkle cookies
Not to toot our own horns, but we’ve cracked the code to crinkle cookies. They’re not a difficult treat to make, but we have all our tricks here for your crinkle cookie notes:
- Don’t chill your dough: You want these cookies to spread a little bit so you don’t get round snowballs. We found that refrigerating our dough made the cookies keep their shape too much, so if you do prep the dough in advance, give it an hour on the counter to come back to room temp!
- Roll the dough in granulated sugar AND powdered sugar: This will help the powdered sugar stick to the cookie and prevent the powdered sugar from dissolving into the moisture of the cookie so you get that good powdered sugar coated crinkle every time!
- Don’t over bake: If there’s one piece of advice I could give bakers it would be to always underbake your cookies slightly. It makes such a difference in the texture and will leave you with soft, gooey cookies once they’ve cooled! Remember that cookies continue to bake as they cool off on the pan, so if they’re fully baked when you take them out of the oven they will be overbaked by the time they’re cool!
Can you freeze lemon crinkle cookies?
Yes, and also no. Let me explain. Powdered sugar can get a little funky when it freezes and defrosts because the cookies will emit moisture as they thaw out. They’ll still be delicious, but the moisture from the cookies will soak up some of the powdered sugar, so if you’re looking to prep these ahead of time, I recommend freezing the dough balls, then rolling them in granulated and powdered sugar after you take them out of the freezer and bake off as directed! If it’s more of a “I have too many cookies laying around I want to freeze the leftovers situation”, you can go right ahead and store them in an airtight plastic bag or freezer safe container for up to 3 months–just keep in mind the powdered sugar might dissolve when you defrost them!
Happy baking, sweet friends!!
XXX
Print
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 cookies
- Category: dessert
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: american
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Lemon lovers–this one’s for you! These pillowy soft, melt in your mouth lemon crinkle cookies are loaded up with fresh lemon flavor and have the perfect balance of tart and sweet! Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 cookies
- Category: dessert
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: american
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperautre
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (about 1 lemon’s worth of zest)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 drops yellow food color, optional
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine the sugar and the lemon zest, using your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar starts to clump together and is fragrant.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and the lemon sugar. Beat on medium speed, gradually increasing to high until the butter is light and fluffy, and pale in color; about 3 minutes.
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape the down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg, egg yolk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract (and lemon extract and yellow food coloring if using). Beat until smooth and completely combined.
- Scrape down the bowl and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir on low speed until combined and no streaks of flour remain. Do not over mix.
- Fill one small bowl with granulated sugar and one bowl with powdered sugar. Use a 1.5 ounce cookie scoop to scoop cookies out. Roll the balls first in the granulated sugar and then in the powdered sugar to completely coat the cookie balls.
- Place the cookies 2 inches apart on your cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are set and the centers have puffed up, but are still gooey. Remember, the cookies will continue to cook as they cool so you want them to be a little under baked when you take them out. Allow the cookies to cool completely.
Amazing!! Highly recommend this recipe if you want to impress friends and family. Always requested by mine! ❤️❤️
I was trying to find a specific lemon cookie for my grandma as the ones she wanted are a limited edition holiday thing and couldn’t. I figure the ones she wanted were more like a shortbread but these looked like a good enough dupe. UM. AMAZING??????? I don’t know what it is about this recipe since it’s relatively simple but it’s the ABSOLUTE PERFECT texture i would want from ANY cookie, never mind I’m obsessed with lemon. i probably went a little overboard on the zest and measured the vanilla with my heart and they were perfect. I actually only had enough granulated sugar for the actual cookie and none left for rolling and I can tell you that step is essential because I didn’t get a perfect crinkle. I rolled half the batch in powdered sugar and dusted the other half with powdered sugar after baking. They are still cute and perfect for taking to my grandma for christmas tomorrow. THANK YOU!
This makes me so so happy to hear! Enjoy them 🙂
Hello, my daughter made these to add to a Christmas Cookie tray to take for Christmas dinner with family. I sampled one ahead of time, of course. They were so delicious I am making them today -Christmas Eve! I cannot promise that I will give these away to company over the holidays or simply freeze them to quench a craving for something so delicious yet sweet and tart! It’s a tough decision. Wish me luck and many thanks for something so delightful!