This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
With over 1.5 million views and counting, this lemon sugar cookies recipe is one of the most popular cookie recipes on my website, and for good reason! These soft lemon sugar cookies can be made with one bowl, are thick, chewy and easy to freeze.
Soft and Chewy Lemon Cookies
I spent a whole week baking lemon cookies. The first batch failed miserably. The cookies were paper thin and see through!!
The batches got better as I made small tweaks to the recipe. By the time I was happy with the recipe, I had made it 5 times – that’s about 2 dozen cookies per batch, or 120 cookies in total!
Ryan took a lot of those with him to work. He said a few coworkers asked him if we had an industrial sized oven!
Why This Recipe is the Best
- Common pantry ingredients
- Great recipe for beginngers
- Chewy & soft cookies
- Bright, fresh, real lemon flavor
This lemon cookie recipe is chewy on the outside and soft on the inside. And they are just puffy enough! And the lemon flavor is everything you’d want it to be in a cookie. The fresh lemon zest really gives them a bright lemon flavor.
They are one of my favorite lemon desserts to make with whenever we have fresh lemons.
They follow similar steps as classic sugar cookies where you cream butter and white sugar together in a medium bowl. Add the remaining wet ingredients, including plenty of lemon zest. Then add in the flour mixture and use a hand mixer to gently combine.
Roll into balls and bake on parchment paper or a silicone mat. They turn out to be the best chewy lemon cookies!
Lemon Cookie Ingredients
- unsalted butter – adds flavor and and tender texture
- granulated sugar – adds sweetness, flavor and encourages browning
- lemon zest and lemon juice – adds that fresh lemon flavor
- egg – binds the cookies together by providing structure
- all purpose flour – flour is necessary to build structure in cookies
- baking soda – helps to leaven and lift the dough, affects browning and flavor
- salt – enhances the other flavors in the cookies
Where’s the extract?
You can add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. If you’d like a more intense lemon flavor (hello lemon lovers) add 1 teaspoon lemon extract.
Lemon Cookie Recipe Variations
I have made these cookies multiple times with King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour with great success.
How to Make Lemon Cookies
- Cream together. In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar and lemon zest together on medium speed.
2. Mix in. Add in the fresh lemon juice and egg, beat again until smooth.
3. Dry ingredients. Gently add in the dry ingredients, mixing on low or by hand just until combined.
4. Refrigerate. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
5. Scoop. Use a cookie scoop to form dough balls, roll the balls in sugar then place on a silicone mat lined baking sheet. Bake and Cool.
Time Required
- 10 minutes to make the cookie dough
- 30-60 minutes to chill the dough in the fridge
- 11-13 minutes to bake the cookies
- 15 minutes to cool the cookies
How to Store Lemon Sugar Cookies
Store lemon sugar cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to 5 days.
How to Freeze Lemon Cookie Dough
Drop cookie dough balls onto a silicone mat lined baking sheet. You can place the dough balls close together since you won’t be baking them.
Place the baking sheet in the freezer until the cookies are frozen solid, about 1 hour.
Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to a ziplock freezer bag. Label the bag with baking directions.
Freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months.
To bake: remove the dough from the freezer. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Roll the balls in sugar and bake for 13-15 minutes. Frozen cookies may need to bake for 1-2 minutes longer than non frozen cookies.
Tips for Making Lemon Sugar Cookies
- Properly measure the all purpose flour using the spoon and sweep method.
- Use room temperature butter for easier creaming of the butter and sugar.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough for 30-60 minutes. I’m telling you, this helps to make the best thick & chewy cookies!
- Use a cookie scoop to form cookie dough balls.
- Bake cookies on a silicone baking mat.
Our lemony cookies have a chewy texture that is to die for! They complement our soft sugar cookies really well.
Lemon Cookies Recipe FAQs
The King Arthur website explains, “Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.”
Refrigerating the cookie dough will help produce cookies that are chewier and softer because they won’t spread as much.
But I get it. Sometimes I really dislike chilling dough. So here’s my suggestion – if you can fit it in, refrigerate the dough, even for 15 minutes.
If not, at least refrigerate the dough between baking batches. For example, if you can fit 8 cookies on one baking sheet, bake those and put the dough in the fridge while you’re waiting.
It’s important to properly measure the flour to ensure the cookies are moist and not dry. Follow the section How To Properly Measure Flour. Also be sure to bake the cookies for the proper amount of time. Over-baking will produce dry cookies.
Sugar cookies can become hard if they are over-baked. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven as soon as the cookies have set and developed a bit of color. We do not want the edges of the cookies to brown.
This specific recipe does require that you refrigerate the cookie dough for 30-60 minutes before baking. Refrigerating the cookie dough will help produce cookies that are chewier and softer because they won’t spread as much.
The main difference between a sugar cookie and a regular cookie lies in their ingredients and flavor profile. Sugar cookies are primarily made with a higher proportion of sugar and butter, resulting in a sweeter and more delicate taste. Regular cookies, on the other hand, have a more balanced combination of ingredients like sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and often include mix-ins like chocolate chips, oats, or nuts, leading to a broader range of flavors and textures.
More Dessert Recipes
Tap stars to rate!
Lemon Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, 1 cup – 230 grams
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar, 300 grams
- 3 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 large egg
- 3 cups all purpose flour, 360 grams
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup sugar, for rolling cookies, 50 grams
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the lemon juice and egg, beat again to combine.
- Gradually add in the flour, baking soda and salt, mixing by hand with a spatula until combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the fridge. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Place 1/4 cup sugar in a bowl for rolling the cookies.
- Use a cookie scoop to form balls, rolling each ball into the sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a silicone lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the edges have a faint golden color.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
As a coworker of Ryan’s, I’m gonna give these a 9.8/10. Subtracting a 0.1 for the visible lemon zest (which for some, might be a plus for denoting exactly WHAT kind of sugar cookie they were, but it just seemed odd) and another 0.1 for the oddball humans that don’t like lemon. I’m looking at you, Justin.
LOL thanks for the honest rating Weston!
How long would these last in the freezer?!
I would see what this post recommends! https://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-cookies-to-freeze-and-how-to-do-it-tips-from-the-kitchn-213638
I tried putting about 1 cup of leftover dough and it didn’t hold up well in the freezer.
Hi Kailani! I recommend rolling the dough into balls then freezing. Did you freeze the dough in one big ball instead individual cookie sized balls?
3tbs of flour or three cups?
Hi Esme! The recipe calls for 3 cups.
Is there a substitutions for the lemon zest? My mom doesn’t like any sort of zest and know immediately if I use it without telling her.
Hi Lynn! The lemon zest is important to this recipe for flavor. Maybe try looking for a lemon cookie recipe that uses lemon pudding mix instead?
I substituted lemon extract and it worked great!
I used 5 tbsp of lemon juice and it worked fine
Try using lemon essential oil. I use it for zest of lemon and orange oil for orange zest. It’s fantastic
Thank you for the recipe! Just made this for my family at my grandma’s house and everyone loved it! I had to substitute most of the lemon zest for more lemon juice though, ’cause I only had two lemons left. It worked pretty well, I think.
Quick question – do you know why your sugar cookies have this interesting shape? They are not completely flat on top, but have a bit of a dip in the middle. I’ve seen it on other recipes online, but mine never do that, they are always just dome-shapped. I don’t mind exactly, just got me curious.
Maybe fluff not compact the baking soda?
I’d like to know the reason for this too, Beth???
I’m thinking it might have something to do with how long you are baking them. I like to under bake my cookies just slightly, that way they are still chewy! But with under baking them, they will slightly fall in the center. Everyone has a different perception of what a “done” cookie is, so baking time will vary and effect this.
I also had dome shaped cookies. Not flat at all. I don’t have a mixer so maybe this is why?
Hi Emily! I used a hand mixer – did you mix by hand? I’m worried that the butter and sugar may not have been whipped enough if mixed by hand.
For flatter cookies, once they’re out of the fridge and you roll them, take a cup and ‘slightly’ flatten the top before putting them in the oven. I usually dip the bottom of a cup in some white sugar between each pressing, so the glass doesn’t stick to the cookies.
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but you bet I will! YUM!
First, I have to say that I love this cookie!! Soft, perfectly lemon and delicious. I would also like to use this recipe to make just a plain sugar cookie too. Could I just leave out the lemon zest and lemon juice and maybe add some vanilla extract?
You will need to cut the baking soda by half if you omit the lemon juice or your sugar cookies will taste distinctly alkaline. Part of the purpose of the baking soda here is the neutralize and react with the acidity in the lemon juice.
Can you make these heart-shaped? I want to make some lemon-flavored heart shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day and these look like fun, but I’m not sure whether they would work for the effect that I’m looking for.
I’m sure they would turn out okay!
Maybe do Strawberry instead of Lemon for Valentines
Not sure where I went wrong. The dough seemed way too dry and crumbled. Followed the directions to a T.
I have made these several times and everyone loves them. However, I tried today with the KA gluten free flour and they did not turn out. Totally flat after baking. Any ideas on what happened? I am certain I included the baking soda.
Hey Karen! I’ve made these with the KA gluten free flour before! Honestly, sometimes baking flukes happen. You used room temperature butter – not melted, right?
First words out of my hubby’s mouth were ‘Oh. My. God.’ And he was right. Bright, sunny, delicious, and just the right combination of chewy and crispy. Definitely making these again. Thanks!
WOOHOO!!
Didn’t do the stars as I didn’t make these yet…. just waiting for the blasted snow to stop so I can go get lemons. Can’t wait ❤️❤️❤️
How important is “unsalted butter”? I just have salted butter.
Salted butter is fine! Just omit the additional salt in the recipe.
Hi beth, your cookies look scrumptious! Don’t mean to be a bother, but can you pls help with the flour and sugar measurement in grams. This will be very much appreciated, Thank you in anticipation.
Yinka from Nigeria.
Hi Yinka! I just added gram measurements, hope that helps!
What size cookie scoop?
I use this cookie scoop and make heaping dough balls (about 3 tbsp) – https://amzn.to/3hGVOl0