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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.
I usually make chocolate goodies, bit I love these and will make them again.
Made these according to recipe. Not enough lemon flavor and a bit tough.
My absolute all time favorite cookie recipe! My goodness, these things are amazing! Light, bright, Super lemony, Crisp, Chewy, Airy…. I didn’t even know one cookie could be all those things! Thank you!!!!
I’ve made these delectable cookies twice now. The first batch went so fast that the next time, I doubled the recipe to take to a ladies meeting. They were a BIG HIT!! 😀
I made these today and they were delicious. I had to keep them in the oven for 15 minutes though. Keeper recipe!
I, too, LOVE anything LEMON! Thanks.
trying these tomorrow… looking for ideas for a baby shower in June. I may have to make them MANY times…. You know… You gotta be sure they are good!!
Taste great! Mine did not crinkle. Could it be because I softened butter in the microwave?
Just made these; tweaked it a little and YUMMO! I used organic flour; only a 1/2 cup sugar; 1 TBS lemon extract in place of the 1 TBS lemon zest; did not roll in powdered sugar; also used my Earth Balance soy free spread instead of butter!! These are so good! Thxs for the recipe!
[…] Why did Lemon Crinkle Cookies win the best cookie […]
Lauren…you write so well! I decided to follow you because of that…AND because of the lemon cookie recipe. Can’t wait to try it!
i made these cookies today and….they are amazing!!
[…] Brown explanation for the process but all I care is that it works! Last night I made these yummy lemon cookies and before I sealed up (what was left of them, they’re pretty addictive) for the evening, I […]
Just finished making these lovely cookies! They came out perfectly. I thank you so much for the recipe. I will be making all of your recipes,for sure. Greetings from Vicenza, Italy.
Thank you for sharing. It looks so yummy. I will make it when having time. Best, Thuy
I made these last night on a whim and they came out perfectly! Delicious flavour and texture, I will definitely be putting these into regular rotation.
Hi Lauren,
This is one of the best cookie recipes I have ever baked. In fact, I baked the recipe for the first time and delivered a batch to my friend Megan who’s 2 1/2 yr old son was just diagnosed with stage 3 Kidney cancer, they were in the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, OR over Christmas. She said they are “stupid addicting” (LOL), and they put a huge smile on her face (her parents too). I have delivered her several batches and will continue to do so over the next few months while her sweet son Ryder goes through chemo, Kidney removal surgery and radiation. So, Thank you for posting such amazing recipes that help me make others happy (makes me happy too). I am good at a couple of things, being a Mommy, and baking! 🙂 Happy New Year!
Hi Lauren,,
i used margarine,omitted vanilla and added lemon extract. As others found,they came out nicely domed and crinkly and delicious.Have testtasted 2 larger ones,still slightly underbaked in the middle ,but still scrumptious!i will decrease the flour a tad next batch.Thanks for the great recipe,Lauren
Just made these and they’re wonderful. It made 34 cookies. Did not have any powdered sugar so I made a 2 parts flour/ 1 part sugar mix to roll the dough balls. I also had a jar of Dickinson’s Lemon Curd and added 1 tsp. to the mix. Yum!
These were lovely. Very good and different from the typical Christmas cookie offering. I added about a 1/4 T lemon emulsion but otherwise followed exactly. I was a little disappointed though that they didn’t look like the picture. They really didn’t spread much at all and the one above look like they spread quite a bit for a cookie with a nice chewy middle. I even tried flattening them! Any idea what I need to do differently?
Thanks for a great recipe!
Can these be made without the zest? I want to make these, but have no lemon & I am under the weather & don’t want to go to the store! If it’s necessary I certainly will, though. 😉
Zest is totally necessary for this recipe…unless you don’t want your cookies tasting like lemon 😉
What would happen if I use melted butter? I don’t have time to let the butter soften
Made these delish cookies tonight. I ended up adding an extra 1/2 cup of flour and extending the baking time to 14 min. Not sure if it’s the difference in altitude, but they turned out perfect! I’ll be adding this to my recipe box. 🙂
For people who are having issues with the recipe… I wonder if they are using melted butter instead of softened butter. That can mess things up sometimes. Recipe came out perfectly when I tried it today! Yum!
these are CRAZY good. thank you!
Made two trays of these ABSOLUTELY delicious cookies. Didn’t last long – unfortunately ☺! I will definitively bake them again – maybe as an orange version. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Made them with gluten free flour blend (same amount as recipe says) & they turned out just fine. Maybe not quite as flat as Lauren’s but chewy & tasty!
Can you use parchment paper to bake these? I love lemon also especially around holiday time when there is so much chocolate around.
Yes! Most definitely!
you crack me up! =D
Has anyone tried making these with gluten free all purpose flour? If so how did they work out?
Yes, I just finished making them with a gluten free flour blend that I always use. They turned out very tasty. I used bottled lemon juice, flavor was still great. Make sure you grease the pans real well since my first panful stuck. Will make these again. Can serve them & not tell others they’re gluten free cause they don’t taste “different”.
Just wanted to chech is the temperature listed in farenhiet or celcius (unlikely to be kelvin as that would convert to less than 100 c which isnt very good for cooking anything) [sorry im a scientist]. I really want to give these a go but just a bit confused as it isnt specified as to which temperature scale is used. Ta
All of my oven temperatures are is Fahrenheit.
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy! So easy. Great recipe. Thank you! I enjoyed reading the comments and learned a lot. I am a slap-dash baker so I guess it was just dumb luck that they turned out for me. They were a little domed so I shall buckle down and sift and measure more carefully next batch. And there WILL be many more batches of these. Did I say thank you?
I made these cookies following your exact recipe, using butter, and they looked nothing like the ones that you had in the photo. I cooked them to where they were lightly browned on the bottom and the cookies never flattened out. In size, they looked like they came out of an easy bake oven even though I rolled them in the powdered sugar by heaping teaspoonfuls. Needless to say, I will not be making these again because the recipe did not work for me.
Hi Lauren,
I’ve been making these for a while now and my family and I love them! Thank you for the recipe. I forgot where I found it and was about to put it on my blog when I realized that would be wrong. Googled “Lemon Crinkle Cookies” and found that it is YOUR recipe! 🙂 Could I link to your page on my blog? Or is there some way for me to share this that is agreeable to you?
I’m kind of a newbie blogger.
Thank you! Kim
You are welcome to link to the recipe or anything on my site. Copying and pasting the directions would be a copyright violation, but the ingredients list is fair game. So if you wanted to publish the recipe to your site, just re-write the directions in your own words and add your source at the bottom with a link to my page 🙂 Or if you don’t want to type anything out, just say ‘get the recipe here’ and add the link in.
In my experience, when cookies don’t flatten out or flatten too much, it has to do with how the butter was softened – too soft and the cookies will run together, too hard and the cookies will stay in round balls.
was wandering if these cookies can be frozen after they are cooled down?
As long as you wrap them well, they should freeze and thaw just fine.
Great cookies! Made the first batch as written. Terrific, but I’m a real lemon freak, so I doubled the lemon zest, extract, and juice for the second batch. Ka-zing!! Now we’re talkin’!! Hahaha.
Lauren I’m making your Lemon Crinkle Cookies for church this Sunday, I have made one cookie sheet full but they are real puffy and a little dry, I think I used too much flour, can I do anything to the rest of the dough so it doesn’t go to waste? I made 4x recipe lots of people at church.
You can try mixing in 2-3 tablespoons melted butter into the room temperature dough to see if that helps. If all else fails, just flatten the cookies before baking.
This is the best recipe i have every had the pleasure of making. However, as I began I realized I did not have any powdered sugar; went ahead anyway. while i may have misread something as my cookies, came out, well flat and iffy,i did find that if you prepare a lemon-and-a-dash-of-lime glaze, they were incredible! Will totally bring these out for every occasion!
[…] Leftover Cashew Chicken and Lemon Crinkle Cookies […]
Hi – I found your recipe and had try it – they are delicious! I didn’t think it was possible but I found a way to make them even more tasty: ice cream sandwiches. Thanks again for the recipe!
Do you absolutely need zest and powdered sugar?
If you want them to turn out like the picture and actually taste like lemon, then yes. The powdered sugar turns them crinkly and the zest makes them taste lemony.
I made these today for a baby shower tomorrow. They are so good! I didn’t have fresh lemon juice or zest, so I used store-bought juice and added a couple extra squirts — they were great. I did what you said and used a “heaping teaspoon” (which looked so small) and the first dozen came out more like lemon crinkle balls than cookies (but still delicious!). For the rest (I got 3 dozen plus another 10) I used a small spatula to squish them down a bit and that worked great. When I did that, my oven only needed 8 minutes plus a few seconds.
Great recipe, I’m going to try freezing them next time for when my baby comes in November. For anyone interested in freezing cookies — I usually roll them into balls (and in this case, I would do the powdered sugar, too) and flash-freeze on a parchment paper-lined plate. After an hour or so, I stick all the dough balls in a freezer Ziploc bag. You can just put them directly on the cookie sheet to bake — sometimes you need to add an extra minute or 2, but it works like a charm. I’ve done this with many kinds of cookies and they always turn out great, so I hope yours do as well!
[…] sounded good in theory. However, I did come across a luscious lemon cookie recipe by Lauren Brennan and they are […]
Oh my gosh, THESE COOKIES. These cookies are so good, that the second tray is still in the oven and I’m already planning when I will bake them again. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
Just made these yesterday. I am a rank amateur cook, but these came out perfectly following your recipe to the letter. Great recipe!
Not sure if my question posted so will do again, can you use splenda with this?
I’ve never baked with splenda, so I have no idea. You can give it a whirl and let me know!
Can you make these with splenda?
Great recipe. Thanks!
I just made these and they turned out great. I did triple or quadruple the lemon zest though. One teaspoon? Why even bother. I put in a whole lemon’s worth, and they still aren’t overpoweringly lemony.