Lemon Crinkle Cookies

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These award-winning cookies will make you an addict. Lemon Crinkle Cookies are chewy, soft, and bursting with hints of lemon in every bite!

I made these Lemon Crinkle Cookies 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.

Lemon Lover

I think we all can agree that I am a lemon freak. 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— my thighs can prove it. 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!

But these cookies……ohmygoodgravy–they caught me at a moment of weakness and I ate them up. Fresh out of the oven, they taste like lemon bars. But they are still super good a day or two later. Let me give you some advice. Run, don’t walk to your kitchen. Make these cookies today if you can.

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 – use real butter, nor 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.
• 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 – 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.
• Flour – this fills the cookie out and gives them some structure.
• Powdered Sugar – rolling the dough in powdered sugar puts the crinkle onto these lemon cookies.

How to Make Lemon Crinkle Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Or cover with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again.
3. Stir in flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of the bowl and mix again briefly.
4. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
5. 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 lemon crinkle cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

My cookies won’t spread!

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.

My cookies spread too much!

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.

My cookie dough is sticky!

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.

Freeze These Cookies

Luckily these cookies freeze super well. This is a great way to make Lemon Crinkle Cookies ahead of time.

To freeze, 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, 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 as well so check them often!

Variations of Lemon Crinkle Cookies

This post was originally posted in 2011! Since then I’ve received over 300 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.

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

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Lemon Crinkle Cookies

These award-winning cookies will make you an addict. Lemon Crinkle Cookies are chewy, soft, and bursting with hints of lemon in every bite!

servings 24 cookies

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 11 mins

Total Time 21 mins

Ingredients

• ▢ ½ cups butter softened
• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 whole egg
• ▢ 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• ▢ 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ▢ ¼ teaspoons salt
• ▢ ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoons baking soda
• ▢ 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ ½ cups powdered sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Or cover with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again.
• Stir in flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of the bowl and mix again briefly.
• Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place 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.

Notes

*If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 105kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 64mg | Potassium: 13mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 118IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg

Course: Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Crinkle Cookies, Lemon Cookies, Lemon Crinkle Cookies