These soft and chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies are the perfect cookie to enjoy with cup of tea! These sweet little bites are surprisingly easy to make and owe their bright, delicate flavour to fresh lemon juice.
This recipe is one for my lemon-loving friends! As far as desserts go, lemon flavoured ones are up there with chocolate as my all-time favourite desserts. These Lemon Crinkle Cookies are no exception. They are downright irresistible!
Soft, chewy and flavourful little bites of heaven.
These cookies have a delicate, citrus flavour which they get from fresh lemons. Freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest give them just enough lemon flavour without feeling overpowering.
And did I mention how easy they are to make? This super simple recipe doesn’t require any finicky steps. You can make it with just a stand mixer or a hand held one.
The ingredients are also simple and likely things you already have stocked in your kitchen!
Let’s not forget how pretty these cookies are with their crinkly pattern! I absolutely adore the look of these crinkle cookies. If you are a fan of crinkle cookies, be sure to also check out my recipe for Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.
So what are we waiting for? Let’s get baking!
Why you should make Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- They’re delicious!
- This recipe is easy to make.
- My recipe uses freshly squeezed lemons for flavour (no artificial lemon flavour here).
- These cookies are so pretty with their crinkly pattern!
- This makes a perfect treat year round but especially in the spring and summer months!
- These cookies travel well and are great for potlucks.
- I have a trick to help make the best crinkly patterns (see Tips section)!
Ingredients in Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Butter: softened
- Sugar
- Egg
- Lemon-Both freshly squeezed juice and zest. The amounts in the recipe produce a light, lemony flavor but can be doubled to produce a bolder lemon flavor.
- Vanilla extract
- Yellow food colouring (optional)
For rolling:
- Sugar
- Powdered sugar (aka icing sugar or confectioners sugar)
Note: Recipe quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.
How to make Lemon Crinkle Cookies
1. Mix the dry ingredients: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar: In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy (a couple of minutes).
3. Add the wet ingredients: Add the eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract and food colouring (if using) and mix to combine.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer and mix until they are incorporated.
5. Chill dough: Cover bowl with plastic food wrap and place in the fridge to set for 2 hours (the dough will be too sticky to handle without chilling it).
6. Roll the cookie balls: Scoop out dough (I like to use a small sized cookie scoop- to get a uniform size) and roll the dough into a ball. Roll the dough balls in regular sugar first and then in the powdered sugar, being sure to coat them generously. Place the dough balls on the baking sheets, 2 inches apart.
7. Bake: Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Remove them from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Tips for making the best Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Don’t over mix your batter: As with most baking, this is important to ensuring you end up with a soft texture.
- Use fresh lemons: There are no artificial lemon flavours in this recipe. I prefer not to use boxed lemon pudding and cake mixes in these cookies since you really can’t beat the flavour of fresh lemon! This recipe gets the perfect amount of lemon flavour from freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest.
- Roll them in two types of sugar: One of my tricks for getting pretty, crinkly patterns is to use two types of sugar for the coating. First, the dough is rolled in granulated sugar, then in the powdered sugar. This helps produce gorgeous crinkly patterns with a distinct icing sugar layer.
Storing these cookies
Once cooled, transfer the cookies to an airtight container and store at room temperature for about a week.
Can you freeze these cookies?
These cookies work great for freezing. I recommend freezing the dough, not the baked cookie but both ways are possible. Note: Freezing baked cookies can cause some of the powdered sugar to get moist and then the pretty, crinkly pattern won’t be as visible. That said, they still maintain most of their pattern and are just as delicious.
To freeze the dough, I recommend scooping out your dough and rolling it into the cookie balls as described in the recipe. Then lay them out on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze them until they are solid. Once they are solid, transfer them to a freezer safe bag.
When you are ready to bake the frozen dough balls, let the dough balls thaw in the fridge overnight. Then roll the dough in the sugars as described in the recipe and bake them.
I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do!
-Cathy
You may also like:
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Lemon Cheesecake (No Bake)
Lemon Zucchini Bread
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice* fresh (Note: double the amount if you want a more bold lemon flavor)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest*
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5-8 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
For rolling:
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (aka icing sugar or confectioners sugar)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy (a couple of minutes). Add the egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract and food colouring (if using) and mix to combine.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer and mix until they are incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic food wrap and place in the fridge to set for 2 hours (the dough will be too sticky to handle without chilling it).
- Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop out dough (I like to use a small sized cookie scoop- to get a uniform size) and roll the dough into a ball.
- Roll the dough balls in regular sugar first and then in the powdered sugar, being sure to coat them generously. Place the dough balls on the baking sheets, 2 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Remove them from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
The batter needs to be refrigerated much longer. 4 hours minimum or they spread out. And skip the rolling of granulated sugar. Not necessary.
Hi Mary Jean! You can definitely skip the rolling in granulated sugar if you want but the reason I do this (and other bakers do this too) is to ensure the icing sugar doesn’t melt too much into the cookie. Icing sugar tends to melt a bit into the moist cookie and turn a bit yellow and therefore, has less contrast to the crackly cookie showing beneath. The granulated sugar prevents this and gives them the best look. 2 hours chill time works for me but I’m glad you adjusted to suit your own needs. 🙂
I also made these, after trying out a different lemon crinkle cookie dud recipe online – the 2 hour chill time was completely accurate for me. If you try rolling without granulated sugar the smaller icing sugar granules melt into the cookie and you don’t get the same look. The cookies are quite sweet with the rolled sugar but that’s to be expected! Great recipe, very happy with my cookies.
Made these cookies a few weeks back and I am about to make them again for some friends. They are so yummy and easy to make! I added a bit more lemon juice because I am a sucker for tart (pun intended). Thanks for posting! Love the Recipe 🙂
That makes me so happy to hear!
I just made these for the first time, I used lemon extract instead of vanilla and got such a fantastic lemon flavor! Just a quick question, after 12 minutes I took them out but after resting I ate one and the centre was quite soft, I was worried I did not bake them long enough but they taste great!
So glad you enjoyed these cookies! You can adjust the cooking time by adding a couple of minutes if they feel underdone. They should be soft and tender inside but not too soft. Happy baking! 🙂
Why preheat the oven as the first step if they have to chill for hours before you bake them?
The preheating should be step 4. Thanks!
Hi- these were delicious! However they came out thin and flat, and the powdered sugar only stuck to small penny-sized portions of each cookie, did not look crinkled. Any ideas on what i did wrong? I’ll still make them regardless but wish they looked like yours!
Hi Marie! It sounds like they spread a bit more than intended. This could be fixed by adding a little more flour to your dough to prevent over-spreading or increasing the chilling time (or re-chilling the dough balls after rolling them out since a warm kitchen may warm up the dough and cause more spreading).
Hello, do you think I could sub lime juice and zest instead of lemon?
A lime crinkle cookie would be delicious! You could substitute each of those ingredients 1:1. 🙂
I followed your recipe exactly and the cookies were FANTASTIC! Thank you for sharing! Just the perfect amount of tartness for a treat!
Thank you! So happy you enjoyed them! 🙂
These cookies were absolutely delicious!! I’ve never made crinkle cookies before. Thanks!
So happy you enjoyed them!
I’m excited to make these cookies – I just wanted to confirm if the butter should be unsalted.
Yes, I use unsalted butter.
They taste great but my cookies came out sooo flat. Any recommendations on how that could be happening and how to prevent it? Followed this recipe to a T
Hey Alexis! Assuming all of the ingredients were measured out correctly, what may have contributed to them flattening is that the butter warmed up too much and they may have needed more chilling time.
Hi there!! Can the dough be made and chilled overnight??
Yes, you can cover and chill in the fridge.
What if I used salted butter? I didn’t realize it was supposed to be unsalted.
It depends on the brand of salted butter and how salty it is. If it isn’t overly salted you can use it in the recipe and then just omit the salt in the recipe.
Followed the recipe to a T and chilled overnight
Flat and not crinkled 😞
Love these! Two hours in refrigerator was enough for me. I noticed some people said they spread or were flat. This is usually caused from the butter being melted instead of softened.
Thank you! So happy you loved them! And you are right about the butter. 🙂
These were amazing and so pretty!! I opted for the extra lemon juice and tripled the lemon zest, but I also added 2TBSP extra flour to compensate for the extra liquid.They do need to be cold before you pop them in the oven, or I suspect they would spread out too much. I put them in the garage for 5 min before baking (it’s 10 below here today!). Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.
Thank you so much for your review! Also, yikes that is cold! Stay warm!
I made these as one of the four cookies we had as desert for my daughter’s wedding. They were a massive hit! Such a change from chocolate or cinnamon everyone was raving about them and they are still asking for them now a year later!
You made my day with this comment! Thanks for sharing and so happy they were enjoyed by all! 🙂
Fully my fault, I skipped the chilling because it was late at night and I just didn’t have the time. Don’t be like me, make sure you chill the dough or they will spread into lemon pancakes and lose most of their sugar coating. I’ll give this one another shot when I have the time to let them chill properly
Could I freeze these ??
Yes, you can freeze the dough before baking or even the cookies after baking. The only issue with freezing after baking is that the icing sugar may melt into the cookies after thawing so if you can freeze the dough before baking, that would be better.