Soft lemon sugar cookies coated in lemon-scented sugar for the most incredible sugar cookie experience. These melt-in-your-mouth delights are our favorite lemon cookie recipe!
You will soon find out that I have a huge minor obsession with citrus fruits, particularly lemons. Additionally, yellow happens to be one of my favorite colors. Coincidence? I think not! The other day I found myself with a couple of extra lemons and a craving for cookies. I decided it was the best time to make lemon sugar cookies. Heavy on the lemon, not on the sugar, of course.
Traditionally, I put a bit of lemon in all my sugar cookies to really round out the flavor. Never enough to make the lemon stand out, but definitely enough for you to notice there is something different about these cookies. This time though, I wanted the lemons to be the star of the show.
I love these cookies. Absolutely love them. And your family will love them too. In fact, I highly recommend making two batches of these bad boys right away. The first time I made these, my family ate them all within 18 hours. That was about 24 cookies. I only had 1. You and everyone you know will love them because they are everything a good cookie should be. Crisp, buttery edges and soft and chewy on the inside with the perfect amount of lemon. They are sweet, but not so sweet that you feel guilty eating a few at once. These cookies put all other cookies to shame. (Except my s’mores cookies cause, well, s’mores.)
Okay, I am exaggerating, but not by much.
The most juice comes from room temperature lemons, so I recommend leaving your lemons out for about an hour before you juice them. Zest is best (hehe) when the citrus is cold, so you can zest your lemons just after taking them out of the fridge to warm up. Although I do not recommend it, you can replace the fresh lemon juice and zest with about 1 tablespoon of extract.
- 2¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 2 lemons, room temperature
- 1½ cup sugar, plus extra for rolling
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl. Set to the side
- Beat the butter with the sugar until light and creamy.
- Zest both lemons and extract about 2 tablespoons of juice - about half a large lemon. Set aside ¼ of the zest in a separate bowl.
- Mix the remaining zest, lemon juice, egg and vanilla extract in the butter/sugar mixture and mix until well incorporated.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients one cup at a time. Mix until combined.
- Mix the zest you set aside with some sugar for rolling.
- Take a tablespoon of the dough and roll into a ball between your hands. Roll the ball in the lemon sugar.
- Place the ball on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat the the remaining cookie dough, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie.
- Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to get a nice golden brown.
- Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for a minute before transferring to a cooling rack.
Those look really delicious! Definitely will have to make a batch 🙂