Tasty Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe : These lemon crinkle cookies are coated in confectioners’ sugar, soft-baked and chewy, and they virtually melt in your mouth, just like chocolate crinkle cookies. Lemon aficionados will enjoy that actual fresh lemon, not extract, provides the zesty flavor. Because there is so much authentic lemon flavor, I refer to them as “very lemon.”
Tasty Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1Â cup + 2 Tablespoons (225g)Â granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh or bottled lemon juice, at room temperature*
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest* (packed Tablespoon, it’s a lot of zest!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Rolling
- 3 Tablespoons (35g) granulated sugar (optional, see step 6)
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
In a larger basin, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Put aside.
Cream the butter and granulated sugar in a large basin using a hand mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed for approximately one minute. After adding the egg, beat on high speed for one minute or until mixed, adding the lemon zest, juice, and vanilla extract. The mixture may seem curdled, but that’s okay. Scrape up the bottom of the basin and down its sides. After adding the flour mixture, beat briefly to ensure blending. The dough is sticky, thick, and creamy.
Keep the dough tightly covered and refrigerated for a minimum of three hours and a maximum of three days. This sticky cookie dough needs to be cooled.
Take the cookie dough out of the fridge. Let the cookie dough remain at room temperature for approximately ten minutes if it was refrigerated for more than three hours. This facilitates scooping and rolling the cold cookie dough.
Turn the oven on to 350°F, or 177°C. Use silicone baking mats or parchment paper to line baking sheets. Put aside.
Roll in sugar: Using a tablespoon of dough at a time, scoop and roll dough balls into balls. (Each dough ball ought to weigh roughly 20 grams.) You can roll the balls in granulated sugar beforehand to avoid the confectioners’ sugar melting or seeping into the cookie dough balls, as some readers have experienced. Next, thoroughly coat each ball with confectioners’ sugar. Roll in sugar two or three times if you want a lot of confectioners’ sugar to show on the baked cookies! Arrange on the baking sheets 3 inches apart.
Bake for 12 to 13 minutes, or until the cookies seem set around the edges but still have a soft core. Advice: Take them out of the oven and give the baking sheet a couple of gentle taps on the counter if, by minute nine, they aren’t really spreading. This facilitates the beginning of that spread. Go back into the oven to finish baking.
After the cookies have cooled for five minutes on the baking sheet, move them to a cooling rack to finish cooling. As they cool, the cookies will lose some of their air.
Cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week to keep cookies fresh.
Notes
Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The dough can chill for up to 3 days, so this is a great make-ahead recipe. Baked cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls (that are not coated in confectioners’ sugar) freeze well up to 3 months. When it’s time to bake the cookies, remove them from the freezer and thaw on the counter for at least 30 minutes. Roll into confectioners’ sugar as instructed and bake.
Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets | Cooling Rack
Granulated Sugar: 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons is an odd amount, but the cookies really benefit from a little extra sugar because of all the tart lemon juice.
Cornstarch: If you don’t have cornstarch, you can leave it out. It helps maintain a thicker, softer cookie but test batches without it were still intact and delicious.
Lemons: I usually need 1–2 lemons to yield 1/4 cup (60ml) juice and 1 Tbsp zest. Feel free to replace the lemon with another citrus fruit, or try using Meyer lemons.
