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These award-winning cookies will make you a cookie addict. Lemon Crinkle Cookies are chewy, soft, and bursting with hints of lemon in every bite!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
I made this Lemon Crinkle Cookie recipe for a recipe contest and won! Approved by all who taste them, these lemon cookies are soft, but still slightly crunchy, tart, but still really sweet. I bet you have all the ingredients too. Easy to make, made with simple ingredients, and done in 30 minutes, this recipe is made for the novice chef.
I think we all can agree that I am a lemon lover. I love love love lemon ridiculously. It’s in the genes. My Mom is the same way. Lemon and I are buddies, especially when it comes to lemon desserts–I have made a Lemon Cream Pie that’s to die for. Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake Muffins? Oh, mama. And traditional but Perfect Lemon Bars!
Ingredients Needed for Lemon Crinkle Cookies
As said above, Lemon Crinkle Cookies use simple, everyday ingredients to make the most delicious lemony treat. You should have most if not all of these ingredients already on hand.
- Butter – salted or unsalted butter-use your preference. Just make sure to use real butter, not margarine for these cookies. Some readers have had problems making these and it’s because they used margarine.
- Granulated Sugar – to sweeten.
- Vanilla Extract – this is a super nice complimenting flavor to the lemon.
- Egg – for structure and texture.
- Fresh Lemon Zest – a lot of commenters said that they’d prefer more lemon flavor, so feel free to add in more zest.
- Fresh Lemon Juice – If you can find Meyer lemons, use those, but you can use store-bought lemon juice if you like. It’s just not as fresh.
- Salt – balances out the sweet and sour.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – this gives the cookies their rise and texture.
- All-Purpose Flour – this fills the cookie out and gives them some structure.
- Granulated Sugar + Powdered Sugar – rolling the dough in both of these sugars puts the crinkle onto these lemon cookies.
Variations
This post was originally posted in 2011! Since then I’ve received over 600 comments about how amazing these lemon cookies are. In some of these comments, I’ve noticed people putting their own spin on things, which I love! You are making these cookies for you, your family and friends so make it your way! I thought I’d share some of my favorite renditions of Lemon Crinkle Cookies below.
White Chocolate Chips. Add some creamy chocolatey-ness to your lemon crinkle cookies by mixing in white chocolate chips. Yum!
Gluten-Free. Yes, you can make these cookies gluten-free. Simply replace regular flour with your favorite, gluten-free flour blend (same amount needed). So easy, so thank you faithful and adventurous readers who did the experimenting for us.
Glaze. Either top with a simple vanilla glaze or with a lemon glaze. Mix together milk, powdered sugar and your choice of flavoring.
Different Citrus. You can use an entirely different citrus to make these cookies. Think of the possibilities. Lime, Orange, or Grapefruit flavored crinkle cookies.
How to Make Lemon Crinkle Cookies
As written, this recipe makes about 24 cookies. Feel free to double the recipe for gifting and sharing! For full recipe details including ingredient measurements, see the printable recipe card down below. Here is step-by-step instructions for making these award-winning cookies:
1. Preheat Oven + Prep Baking Sheets
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease light colored baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Or cover with parchment paper.
2. Make the Cookie Dough
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla extract, egg, lemon zest and lemon juice. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again.
Switching to a rubber spatula, stir in the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder) slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of the bowl and mix again briefly.
3. Roll Cookie Dough Balls in Both Sugars
Pour granulated sugar onto a large plate. Pour powdered sugar onto a separate large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll it first in the granulated sugar and then in powdered sugar. Place cookie ball on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
4. Bake
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely golden brown and cookies look matte (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool lemon crinkle cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Pro Tip: If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.
Storage Directions for Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Allow cookies to cool to room temperature. Place in an airtight container or ziplock bag for up to 3-4 days.
Make Ahead: Luckily this cookie dough freezes super well. This is a great way to make Lemon Crinkle Cookies ahead of time.
To freeze the dough, simply follow the directions, including rolling the dough in powdered sugar. Don’t bake! Instead flash-freeze on a parchment paper-lined plate. After an hour, stick all the dough balls in a freezer-safe bag. You should be able to keep these in the freezer for about 2 months before you want to use them.
To bake from frozen, put them directly on the cookie sheet and pop them in your preheated oven. Sometimes the cookies need an extra minute or 2 to bake correctly, so check them often!
You can also freeze these cookies already baked. Allow to cool to room temperature and place in a freezer safe, airtight bag and into the freezer for up to 2 months.
FAQ About Lemon Crinkle Cookies
A common problem when making these Lemon Crinkle Cookies is that they flatten out way too much! Why?
Butter.
This recipe calls for softened butter, not melted butter. The best way to get softened butter is to plan ahead. A couple of hours before you make these cookies set 1/2 cup of butter on the counter. As it sits there is will soften.
But if you are in a pinch you can microwave butter to soften it instead. Microwave in 5-second intervals rotating your cube of butter each time. Please please please use caution when softening this way. It can easily go from solid to melted in seconds! And in turn, your cookies will spread way too much.
If you already used melted butter instead of softened butter, and your lemon crinkle cookie dough is sticky don’t worry! You have two options to fix this.
Pop your dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to solidify the dough a bit.
OR
Add in small amounts of flour until your cookie dough comes together better. Definitely use my photo of the cookie dough above to base your cookie dough off of.
A lot of you have mentioned to me that these cookies don’t spread. This problem happens because there is too much flour in your cookie dough!
Fluff up your flour, spoon it into your measuring cup and then level the top. That is the correct way to measure flour and how I measured it for this recipe. So be careful when measuring and you’ll have perfect lemon crinkle cookies.
More Cookie Recipes to Try!
- Soft Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Cookie Recipe
- Double Chocolate M&M Cookies
- Monster Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies
- Classic Coconut Macaroons
More Favorites from Lauren’s Latest
- Dry Turkey Brine
- Best Crepes Recipe
- Saltine Christmas Crack
- PB Energy Balls
- Strawberry Pavlova Dessert
- Best Ever Beef Stew
- Hashbrown Sausage Casserole
- Christmas Salad Pomegranate
- Parmesan Bites
The lemon lovers in your life are going to fall in love with these chewy lemon cookies! The printable recipe card is below. Happy Baking, friends! 🙂
If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
for the coating
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a light colored* baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Or cover with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla extract, egg, lemon zest and lemon juice. Scrape sides and mix again.
- Switching to a rubber spatula, stir in flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of the bowl and mix again briefly.
- Pour granulated sugar onto a large plate. Pour powdered sugar onto a separate large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll it first in the granulated sugar and then in powdered sugar. Place cookie ball on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Delicious with the addition of 1/2 tsp lemon extract!
Thank you for a great recipe! I did not have any major issues that many others had, everything worked out great. I did increase the time to 12 minutes after my first 11 minute batch. They were a bit too soft and chewy. My oven is funny, so I just adjusted. I just made a double batch a few hours ago and they look delicious. Thank you again!
Hands down the most scrumptious cookie I’ve ever baked! Slightly chewy and full of lemon flavor (I tend to add a bit more lemon juice and zest). Make them small and bake them on parchment paper. They are perfection. Thank you for posting your recipe!
These cookies are very good – crispy on the edge and soft in the middle. I made my balls twice the size and baked them for 16 minutes and they turned out very good. I ended up with a baker’s dozen. I will try this recipe again and will use baker’s cocoa to see if chocolate cookies will be just as good.
My mother is a lemon lover!!! Made them for her today and they were a total hit. This is what I did. Used the juice and rind from two whole lemons, as well as a half teaspoon of lemon extract. Dough was soft so I put it in the frig until hard. Scooped them out, rolled in powdered sugar and baked. Baked longer as a result of the dough being colder. Doubled the recipe and cut sugar by a half cup. Outstanding flavor and texture.
I made this recipe with the aid of a person’s comments that called for boxes of lemon and white cake mix. They turned out perfectly. I have spent hours searching for that comment. Is there some way that you can send that to me? They turned out perfectly and were soooooo good. Thanks in advance
Carol
These are perfect. They’re soft with a crisp edge and nice and lemony. After reading the comments I did add more lemon zest and they’re wonderful. I love finding a new Christmas cookie. Thank you!
Can I freeze the finished cookies?
yes, absolutely! Store in an airtight container for up to 3 months in the freezer.
Great cookie. Thanks
Need a few minutes more here in Vermont
Best lemon cookies ever…I’ll be making these many more times
Love these cookies. I made smaller balls to make close to 35 cookies. Huge hit with the family.
AMAZING!!
This is a winner!! First time baking this recipe and they taste delicious! I added a bit more lemon juice and zest but baking time is spot on. Will definitely add these to my rotation and into my holiday cookie gift bags.
I made these last night and they are AMAZING! Crinkley, crispy and chewy. These are the best recipe I’ve tried next to my brown butter chocolate chip cookies. I like these even more! So fresh tasting and the perfect texture. I followed the directions exactly and it’s perfection. Thank you! I shared them with 3 neighbors and they all agree, delicious and I can’t wait to get more lemons and make again!
We love lemon so I was excited to try these. My cookies did not crinkle, which was not a big deal, and the lemon flavour was too subtle., almost unnoticeable, which WAS a very big deal. i am still looking for a truly lemon cookie. Darn it.
What kind of zester were you using? Try a microplane! You will get more zest that way 🙂
Hi Lauren,
Just made these and they are delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I have the same question as a previous poster—wondering if a teaspoon of dough per cookie is an error? It certainly makes them very small. I wonder if it was meant to be a tablespoon of dough? The recipe made over 60 tiny cookies.
Excellent and delicious cookies
I double checked the recipe to make sure I followed to a T. Mine came out smelling like play dough and tasting a bit like lemon play dough. With the amazing reviews, it makes me wonder where I could of gone wrong? Again, I double checked everything. Maybe they are just not for me!
I have made this recipe a few times now and love it- the cookies are so light and elegant – thank you!
Just here to say that I made these twice this week because they are that good.
Love these, time and time again…
Overly sweet!!! Not adding to my repertoire. I would have liked a more lemony taste too (I did add lemon zest).
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made a double batch last night. They are excellent! They have a rather light lemon flavor. Next time I make them I will add more fresh lemon zest and juice. I followed the recipe exactly. Came out wonderfully! My students loved them. I made them for them because I was introducing The Lemonade Stand book today. 🙂
I baked the cookies following all ingredients except I used lemon powder sugar. I also baked cookies 11-14 minutes. And extra lemon zest. They are so lemony good!
These cookies were great. My addiction was the zest of a whole lemon for more zing and and 1/2 cup of shredded coconut. My cooking time was a bit longer (my oven) and they turned out perfectly! Thank you!
These were good but not lemony enough for me. My mom made a similar cookie each year for Christmas and topped it with a lemony frosting made of lemon juice and powdered sugar, stirred together to make a thick mixture, then spread about one teaspoon on each cookie. They were delicious.
These are so delicious and easy for the kids to help!
Absolutely fabulous! I shredded my lemon peel instead of zesting, OMG! They turned out so good. I also shredded and juiced a whole lemon to use.
So good, Might of needed more baking time to get the cookies a little more crisp.
These are delicious. I made them once, my question is do you use Salted or Unsalted butter? I know most baking recipes use Unsalted but thought I’d confirm. Thank you
Either is fine! I prefer salted butter.
Delicious and mild flavor. Not too sweet which gives the lemon flavor prominence. Ok I confess to doubling the baking soda by mistake. They didn’t spread and were more raised, but still we liked them.
i haven’t tried this yet but is there something i can do if i don’t have baking soda?
I love these cookies!! I am wondering if I can make them the day before I need hem and just refrigerate hem to cook the next morning?
Sure!
Made this recipe and cookies are delicious. Thank you for the crinkly lemon cookie recipe
I don’t ordinarily share comments but feel I need to this time so it won’t happen to others. I decided to make the “award-winning” Lemon Crinkle Cookies as a gift. Changed serving size to 48. Made recipe. Cookies spread terribly & were very greasy. Took my printed copy to my computer to see if I had made a mistake. Changed serving to 48 and darned if that recipe called for 3 cups of flour. I have in my hand the one I printed earlier that clearly calls for 2 cups of flour. Since I had them all rolled & covered in powdered sugar I decided to bake them in a mini muffin pan to see if they would set up. No, still too greasy and fell apart. Now they are crumbled and in the oven. I will use them as a topping on another dessert. I could have added more flour but since they were rolled and covered in powdered sugar I couldn’t see how that would work. Anyway, it’s the end of the day and I’m tired and very disappointed.
I made this exactly as the recipe stated and my cookies tasted like a sugar cookie so needs more lemon juice…also my cookies wouldn’t spread so I flattened them and they looked good…will try them again using more lemon..
Really good cookie. I probably could have baked them 13 minutes instead of 11 and used a greased cookie sheet instead of parchment. I had a little extra batter and put those on a greased sheet and they came out crisper with brown bottoms. That being said, I doubled the recipe but it will still be. hard to save the dozen I’ve set aside for the workmen coming tomorrow. Yum!
Great recipe! Followed exactly and they delish. Soft, chewy and crispy edges. I will add more lemon next time 😁 Thank you for sharing.
Delicious! I add a tablespoon of lemon zest and it just perfect.
I want to make these today, but curious if I should use salted or unsalted butter? I assume salted, but I want to make sure.
Thank you!
Either will work fine! Use what you have.
These are delicious!! Since I have a lemon tree and have plenty of lemons, I increased the lemon juice to 2 Tablespoons and used the zest of a whole lemon. I’m not sure that the powdered sugar adds much to the cookie except mess in the kitchen so I might skip that next time.
These cookies were super easy and the taste is great! I added some confetti sprinkles for fun.
The only thing I would say is that the 9-11 baking time even with a dark sheet seemed to be a bit less than they needed. I felt 15 minutes was closer to what was needed, at 12 minutes they still came out a touch underdone and our oven actually tends to run hot, so I was surprised. They had the appearance of a matte top but still were a little too soft for me, but could also just be preference!
That aside, fun spring time recipe!
I made these cookies a few weeks ago with a bit of extra lemon zest and thought they were amazing. What made me decide to do a 5-star review now, was that everyone has been talking about them ever since.
Yesterday, though, I was telling my family that I’d be making my famous chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, and they begged and pleaded for me to make these cookies.
I’m may add some yellow food colouring since they did turn out almost white last time and I believe the colour carries its own magic.
Any suggestions on why they aren’t turning out crinkly and flat like in your pictures? I’ve made them twice on my silicon cookie sheet and both times they stayed pretty round. More like round tea cookies. The dough is moist enough where if I used less flour, it’d be to sticky to place on the sheet.
The dough is supposed to be a little sticky, but once you roll it in the powdered sugar, it should become easier to work with.
Made these- Turned out beautiful and, most importantly, DELICIOUS.
My hubby and I agreed that these are the best lemon cookies I have ever made (and I have made a LOT of lemon cookies)! Just the right amount of zing and sweetness and came together so quickly. Thank you so much for sharing.
Fantastic every time! Just popped the last half dozen in the oven from my Christmas batch and the kids are both excited and upset that there aren’t any more in the freezer.
Recipe is absolutely great! Any lemon lover will find these cookies are super tasty.
The only problem I ran into was the powdered sugar staying on the cookie and not melting during baking. Basically I didn’t get the crinkle effect.
I’m a professional baker by trade,, and I make a large variety of crinkle cookies for my bakery and I’ve never ran into this problem. I even tried a batch where I mixed 1 teaspoon of cornstarch with 3/4 cup powdered sugar as a corn starch can help keep the sugar from melting. Unfortunately that didn’t help. Scientifically speaking I cannot come up with any reason why this would happen with these cookies but none of the other crinkle cookies that I make…
Regardless once they came out of the oven I just dusted them with some powdered sugar using the sifter , and all is well.
This is a easy recipe that’s quick due to not having to chill the dough and taste fantastic! Crisp edges and soft tart center! Yum!
Finally a recipe that doesn’t open up with a 5,000 word essay about spending the summer at a lake house when they were a kid. Intro -> info -> tips -> recipe boom done.
The flavor is amazing so lemony and delicious however they turned out flatter than the baking pan 🙁 my butter was room temp and the consistency after mixing seemed fine. Will try again as people are noting the texture is supposed to be amazing. thank you for sharing!!