Lemon Sugar Cookies
Published on June 14, 2021
Quick Summary
Lemon Sugar Cookies-soft and chewy sugar cookies bursting with lemon flavor. If you like lemon, you are going to love this sugar cookie recipe!
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Pin ItI love all kinds of cookies, but traditional sugar cookies with frosting have never been my favorite. I am just not a frosting gal. (If you put a frosted sugar cookie in front of me, I would eat it, but they just aren’t my absolute favorite.)
I do adore these Lemon Sugar Cookies. They are soft, chewy, and bursting with lemon flavor. They are rolled in sugar which creates pretty sugary tops that are oh so sweet!
The cookies are soft and chewy in the middle with slightly crisp edges. Even though the cookies are “sugar” cookies and rolled in sugar, they aren’t overly sweet-making it easy to eat cookie after cookie:)
These cookies are simple, elegant, and perfect for baby showers, bridal showers, weddings, or any party. They are also a great cookie to whip up on any old day. Cookies are always a good idea, especially when they are easy to make. I love that you don’t have to worry about frosting these sugar cookies. They are perfect without frosting, I promise!
Lemon Sugar Cookie Ingredients
If you bake regularly, I bet you have all of the ingredients to make these delightful lemon cookies!
You will need all of the basics:
- all-purpose flour
- baking soda and baking powder
- salt
- granulated sugar
- unsalted butter
- egg
- vanilla extract
The recipe also includes lemon zest and fresh lemon juice which gives the cookies the BEST lemon flavor.
How to Make Lemon Sugar Cookies
Are you ready to bake cookies? I sure am! Let’s get this sugar cookie party started!
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat baking mats. Set aside while you make the dough.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Rub together with your fingers until fragrant. This will make the zest come to life and add more lemon flavor to the cookies!
- Make sure your butter is at cool room temperature and not super soft or melted. If your butter is too soft, your cookies will be flat and we don’t want that!
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar with the lemon until smooth and creamy.
- Add the egg, vanilla extract, and fresh lemon juice. Mix until combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients and mix until JUST combined. Don’t over mix.
- Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Make sure the cookies are well coated in sugar, you want then to be pretty and sweet!
- Place on prepared baking sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are slightly brown around the edges and slightly set, but still soft! Don’t over bake or you will have crisp cookies. We want them soft and chewy!
- Let cookies sit on the baking sheets for two minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
How to Store
Place cooled cookies in an airtight container and keep on the counter for up to 4 days. You can place a piece of bread in the container to keep the cookies super soft. The bread will get hard as a rock, but the cookies will stay soft. It’s magic!
You can also freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months. Freeze in a freezer bag or freezer container.
If you want to freeze the cookie dough, roll them in balls and place on a tray or baking sheet. Freeze the balls for 30 minutes or until firm. When firm, transfer to a freezer bag or freezer container and freeze for up to 3 months. Remove from freezer when ready to bake. You don’t have to defrost the dough. You can re-roll them in sugar if the sugar has faded. Add a few minutes to the baking time.
More Lemon Cookie Recipes
- Glazed Lemon Cookies
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
- Lemon Blueberry Pudding Cookies
- Lemon Bars
- Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars
Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Zest of 2 large lemons
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, for rolling cookies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Rub together with your fingers until fragrant.
- Using a mixer, beat together butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add the egg, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don't over mix.
- Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are slightly brown around the edges and set. Let cookies sit on the baking sheets for two minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
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Photos by Baked Ambrosia
YES! This is the recipe I’ve been looking for! If you don’t have silicone mats, you can just lightly oil a traditional cookie sheet (or the bottom of a large rectangular cake pan) and lightly dust with flour.
@ Jenny, if you used margarine or other vegetable spread instead of real butter, they will melt into each other like that.
I am on a strict cleanse and I adapted this recipe to fit my diet. It was incredibly delicious and I really felt like I was cheating! I substituted the Perfect Flour Blend (gluten free AND whole grain brown rice) for AP flour and Xylitol for sugar, all equal substitions. Amazing!
Just delcious. Amything lemon, one of my faves this. Thanks .
Simon
Maria:
I finally got around to baking these Lemon Sugar Cookies. Mine were Lemon-Lime with freshly grated peel mixed with the sugar. Excellent cookies – better than the Cook’s Illustrated recipe! Looked just like the photos. Perfect! I plan on making an Orange-Cardamom version as well as Vanilla Bean. Easy, too!
I will have to try a lemon and lime version! Glad you like the recipe!
Also – I used a #40 Cookie Scoop – a little larger than 1 tbsp. Took about 12 minutes in the oven.
These are one of my husband’s favorites. So delicious.
Can I freeze this cookie dough? How long will it keep in the freezer?
Can this be made with shortening as my son has a dairy allergy?
Mine ended up a bit flat, for some reason. But they tasted amazing. So lemony. Will be trying different variations to see if I can get them to stay fluffy.
Try cold butter
My Husband got home hooked on anything lemon but he’s pretty picky when it comes to lemon desserts and I have tried many lemon cookie recipes and all didn’t quite fit the bill (either too sweet, too dry etc) but these are PERFECT! They are not too sweet and have a much more real lemony taste than other lemon cookies. They are the perfecy tart, sweet and fresh
Enjoying these cookies right now. Recipe is a keeper!
You are the cookie master! Love all your cookie recipes. These were wonderful, with just a hint of lemon flavor.
How many cookies are a serving?
I like your all recipes
You are not only putting indigents you are putting in it your love.
Regards
ogustos.com
Delicious!
Delicious! I actually found myself wanting even more lemon flavor (I really like to be hit with lemon), so I might try adding a bit more zest next time.
How did you get yours so yellow? Mine were still more pale like sugar cookies with lemon zest flecks in it.
Thanks!
You can certainly add more zest if you want them super lemony. They really aren’t yellow, just a hint of yellow. Sometimes computer screens adjust colors:)
I sat aside 1/4 cup lemon zest infused sugar to roll the cookies in then added plain sugar to make up the other 1/4 cup. Live the lemony sugar flavor! Great recipe and simple to boot!
Very short dough did not spread out . Had to use a fork to flatten
Perfect cookies – a big hit for Christmas – delicious, chewy, and they are devoured quickly. Not too sweet, yet they are sugar cookies – and not too tart from the lemons. Thanks for a perfect and easy recipe.
Hi! Baking as i type but dont seem to be flattening at all! Help!
Ana, mine didn’t flatten st all like sugar cookies, they were too thick and I used 1 tablespoon per cookie
Okay, I need to amend my meh 3-star review. We weigh everything, right, so I asked my husband to give me 2.75 cups as grams of flour. I misheard him and was short 100 WHOLE GRAMS OF FLOUR! No wonder they were so flat and too buttery and spread everywhere! Please forgive my ridiculousness. You are amazing. Your cookies are amazing. H(belated)BD to you.
Ha! Glad you figured it out:) I am glad you loved the cookies!
Is this the same recipe from like 6-7 years ago? They use to be my absolute favorite and I made them CONSTANTLY with a lemon glaze but these ones look totally different. I had the recipe written down but seem to have lost it and had a craving for these.
I have a lot of cookie recipes:) You are probably thinking of my glazed lemon cookies. Here is the recipe! https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/glazed-lemon-cookies/
I made these for my daughter in law’s birthday and they were a big hit! Just the right amount of lemon.
These were very good — but be warned, if you halve the recipe, weigh the egg to halve it. I eyeballed it and think I ended up with too much, as the cookies were domed and round and not at all flat.
Followed directions exactly. The cookies came out very flat and not at all pretty and perfect. They taste fine but I’m not going to include them in my Christmas cookie boxes.
Do we need to flatten ourselves? Mine are domed, and it sounds like others are too.
These are the BEST cookies! I made them around Christmas to add to the cookies I made to fill 10 tins. I loved every bite of these cookies!
So happy you love the cookies!
I made these lemon sugar cookies and they were gone in less than 48 hours!! The flavor is buttery, but also has that sugar cookie flavor with nice lemon overtones!! As great as the flavor is, the texture was even better!! Lightly crisp edges, but soft and wonderfully chewy on the inside. Not flat either- not puffy tho. Truly delightful cookie. Thank you for creating this perfect recipe!!
So happy you love the cookies!
I love lemon anything and these lemon cookies are the best I’ve made.
Looking forward to trying out the lemon poppyseed cookies too.
Thank you for sharing.
These cookies are amazing! I drizzled them with a glaze of lemon juice and powdered sugar and they are off lick ally my new favorite cookie. I took them into work and my coworkers still ask for them. diVINE.
Lol. **offically
Love the glaze idea!
Amazing recipe! The cookies were soft, sugary, and intuitive to make. One thing I would change however is adding more lemon, after baked the flavor disputed a little. But other than that, I will definitely make these again!
Glad you loved the cookies.
I tried this recipe because at my summer camp, my cousin was going to make lemonade to bring and I felt like there needed to be something to go with it. So I searched on my Chromebook and found this recipe. They were very easy to make and tasted amazing. Everyone at camp loved them.
I am so glad everyone loved the cookies.
Thank you so much for putting out this lemon sugar cookie recipe. I made it last night for the first time and they came out wonderful! They tasted lemony better than any lemon cookie I’ve had before. And they were so easy to make. I’m excited to have a new cookie recipe to add to my holiday baking.
Happy Baking…
Debbie
They are such a great lemon cookie. Glad you loved them!
This is a great recipe, 5 stars all the way. Thank you for sharing.
Glad you loved the cookies! Thanks for reporting back!
I made these this week & will be in my cookie rotation often. I drizzled with a lemon glaze-lemon juice & powdered sugar- next time I plan to add even more lemon zest. Delicious
Glad you loved the cookies!
am I rolling the cookie dough in the lemon zest and sugar? I got a little confused by this.
No, the sugar and lemon zest goes IN the cookie dough and then you roll the cookies in granulated sugar before baking.