Lemon Sugar Cookies are refreshingly light and crispy, and perfect with a cup of hot tea or coffee. Lemon zest and lemon juice are added to create the perfect blend of tart and sweet.
I love lemon in baked goods, so when I saw a recipe for lemon sugar cookies in Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, Dorie's Cookies
There are a myriad of delicious looking cookie recipes in Dorie's cookie book. This lemon sugar cookie recipe jumped out at me for its simplicity and my love for lemon in all things baking and cooking.
These cookies remind me of old fashioned crackly cookies that you might have with a piping hot cup of earl grey tea. This is also a good recipe for bakers looking for a solid sugar cookies with lemon zest recipe. I know in the past, there have been times where I have searched for a sugar cookie with orange zest or lemon zest when a sugar cookie craving hits me - now I have one. Yippee!
In summary, these soft lemon sugar cookies are slightly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside - they're light, but sweet and quench the need for something sweet without having to indulge too much (like with this Milk Chocolate cupcakes recipe.)
If you like lemon desserts, you might also want to try:
Lemon White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Enjoy!
Recipe
Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 or 2 lemons
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 butter (unsalted at room temperature, cut into chunks)
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Sugar (for coating)
Instructions
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Position your oven racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 350 degrees F.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
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Whisk the flour, baking soda and baking powder together.
Grate the zest of 1 lemon and squeeze the juice. If you dont have ¼ cup after the first lemon, squeeze the juice from the second lemon.
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Put the sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Using your fingertips, rub tthe ingredients together until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and salt to the bowl and beat on medium speed until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, followed by the vanilla and lemon juice.
Turn off the mixer, add half of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until they're almost incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula.
Add the rest of the flour and beat on low speed until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
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Pour some sugar into a bowl. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out level portions of dough or use a teaspoon to get rounded spoonfuls. I used a cookie scoop. I find them to be more exacting.
Roll each portion into a ball between your palms, drop into the sugar, roll it around to coat and place on the baking sheets. These cookies spread dramatically, so make sure to leave about 2 inches between them.
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Bake the cookies for 8 to 14 minutes. If you bake them for 8 to 10 minutes, you'll get pale cookies that will be chewy; bake them for 12 to 14 minutes, until theyre barely golden around the edges (the bottoms will be lightly browned), and you'll get cookies that are chewy in the center and crisp around the edges. I baked mine for 12 minutes and enjoyed the crispy/chewy version.
The cookies will be crackle-topped and too soft to lift from the baking sheets after cooking. Transfer the whole baking sheet to cooling racks and let the cookies cool completely before you move them.
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Repeat with the remaining dough, always using cool baking sheets.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Dorie's Cookies
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