Easy Soft and Chewy Lemon Sugar Cookies {No Rolling or Cutting Out}
Deliciously soft and chewy, these easy lemon sugar cookies are a simple drop cookie (no rolling or cutting out), and they are amazing!
Thanks to a brilliant way to infuse natural lemon flavor in every bite, these light and lemony sugar cookies are perfection.
How to Make Lemon Sugar
Lemon sugar is the key to this recipe (and it occurs in two places!). Making lemon sugar is easy.
- Combine granulated sugar and lemon zest in a bowl.
- Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingers until it’s super fragrant and the sugar has a lightly moist, sandy consistency.
Rubbing the lemon zest releases the essential oils in the zest leading to maximum lemon flavor! Don’t skip this step!
Lemon Sugar Cookie Dough
The second place lemon sugar appears is in the cookie dough!
In the first step, adding lemon zest with the sugar and butter ensures that the mixing process will work on the zest to release those citrusy lemon flavors.
Fresh lemon juice is also added in a later step with the vanilla and egg.
Both the lemon juice and lemon zest in the cookie dough help to amplify the lemon flavor in the cookies.
Cookie Dough + Lemon Sugar
Scoop the cookie dough into balls – a couple tablespoons of dough each (I use a #40 cookie scoop) aff link.
Roll each cookie dough ball generously in the lemon zested sugar.
If the lemon sugar has been sitting for a while, you may need to break up any clumps with your fingers so it’s perfectly sandy before rolling the cookie dough.
For maximum soft chewiness, bake the cookies just until crackly and set.
They shouldn’t have a lot of golden color around the edges and on the bottom. If your oven tends to bake hot (and over brown baked goods), reduce the oven temperature by 15-20 degrees.
Perfect Lemon Sugar Cookies
The combination of lemon + sugar cookies is beautifully light and deliciously tasty.
I tend to find soft and chewy sugar cookies irresistible anyway, but add in bright lemon flavor, and I am really in trouble.
These cookies stay fresh for 1-2 days well-sealed or covered. The baked cookies also freeze amazingly well!
P.S. Our favorite way to use any leftover lemon sugar is on rollup pancakes, crepes or Swedish pancakes. Brush with butter, sprinkle on lemon sugar, and roll up. Yum!
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Easy Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Lemon Sugar:
- ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons fresh lemon zest (from one large lemon)
Cookies:
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, softened to room temperature (not too soft!)
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest (from one large lemon)
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons (409 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- For the lemon sugar, combine the sugar and zest in a bowl and rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingers until super fragrant and the zest and sugar are evenly and well combined. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly grease with cooking spray.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and lemon zest until lightly and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the egg, lemon juice and vanilla and mix again for 1-2 minutes until the batter lightens in color. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. It will look a bit curdled; that's totally fine.
- Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix until combined. Don't over mix – just mix until no dry streaks remain.
- Scoop the cookie dough into rounded balls (about 2 tablespoons in size; I use my #40 cookie scoop).
- Stir or crumble the lemon sugar to break up any clumps. Roll cookie dough balls in lemon sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets a couple inches apart (about 12 cookies per baking sheet).
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until slightly crackly on top (don't over bake).
- Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
I would give this 10 stars if I could! They were the best cookies I’ve ever made!
I am going to make the cookies today
I made lemon extract and I’ll be trying it rusty with this recipe. Fingers crossed 🤞
Seems like this recipe could be adapted for a Lemon Crinkle Cookie ? (The kind rolled in granulated sugar AND powdered sugar & still get the appearance of crackle on top ? ). Any thoughts ? Can’t have too many GOOD lemon recipes !
Trying this recipe tonight ! Looking forward to lemon cookies.
Thanks for your recipes.
Definitely worth a try! I don’t think they’ll get quite as crackly as a traditional crinkle cookie, but then again, I haven’t tried them this way. Good luck if you experiment.
Could I use margarine instead of butter? These look wonderful!
I haven’t tried margarine – it’s likely to affect the texture and flavor – but worth a try if you don’t mind experimenting.
LOVE this recipe. The chewy, creamy center and crispy edges create a lovely texture, and the fresh zest and juice add such a lovely, bright burst of flavor. These are great for any party, but they’re an especially good summer treat when you don’t want something too heavy.
The first time I made these I didn’t have enough lemon zest and added about one and a hald teaspoons of orange zest to the batter and the coating to make up for it, and it worked out great!
I did a test batch as suggested and needed to add a couple of tablespoons to make them perfect. They were the best! Everyone loved them and asked for the recipe. I will definitely these make cookies again and preferred over lemon bars!
These are delicious! The flavor is a gentle lemon and the texture is perfect! My mom said these were her new favorite sugar cookie! (And make sure to do that lemon sugar! It really does make a difference)
Good
These are just an absolute delight! Recipe is perfect as written. Most recently I did a coconut-lime version and used lime zest and juice in place of lemons, and then coconut extract in place of vanilla. Thanks, Mel, for another triumph of a treat!
Ohhh that sounds delish!
If I refrigerate the dough, would you suggest rolling them into balls first and covering or wrapping all the dough together to refrigerate over night?
I would roll into balls first and then refrigerate.
10/10!! The lemon flavor was perfect. I was curious how that lemon sugar was going to work out, but it added the best touch. Soooo yummy. Thanks Mel!!
Absolutely divine. We love all things lemon and these have been added to our list of favorite lemon treats.
I did! They are delicious and so pretty! I had 3 limes so I made a lime version. I am not in a super high elevation get in TN but I felt the batter could use the extra 2T of flour so I added that. I didn’t get quite 1/4C of lime juice so I topped it off with lemon juice concentrate. I also added 1/4tsp of cream of tarter to the flour. I baked at 350 for 11 minutes. They are perfect!
These are absolutely delicious!
Thanks for a great recipe!
I make a lot of cookies for coworkers and today I took these to work. Everyone loved them! Some said they’re the best cookies I’ve ever made.
This was perfect. We loved it