Lemon Crinkle Cookies - Herbs & Flour (2024)

These soft and chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies are the perfect cookie to enjoy with cup of tea! These sweet little bites are surprisingly easy to make and owe their bright, delicate flavour to fresh lemon juice.

This recipe is one for my lemon-loving friends! As far as desserts go, lemon flavoured ones are up there with chocolate as my all-time favourite desserts. These Lemon Crinkle Cookies are no exception. They are downright irresistible!

Soft, chewy and flavourful little bites of heaven.

These cookies have a delicate, citrus flavour which they get from fresh lemons. Freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest give them just enough lemon flavour without feeling overpowering.

And did I mention how easy they are to make? This super simple recipe doesn’t require any finicky steps. You can make it with just a stand mixer or a hand held one.

The ingredients are also simple and likely things you already have stocked in your kitchen!

Let’s not forget how pretty these cookies are with their crinkly pattern! I absolutely adore the look of these crinkle cookies. If you are a fan of crinkle cookies, be sure to also check out my recipe for Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s get baking!

Why you should make Lemon Crinkle Cookies

• They’re delicious!
• This recipe is easy to make.
• My recipe uses freshly squeezed lemons for flavour (no artificial lemon flavour here).
• These cookies are so pretty with their crinkly pattern!
• This makes a perfect treat year round but especially in the spring and summer months!
• These cookies travel well and are great for potlucks.
• I have a trick to help make the best crinkly patterns (see Tips section)!

Ingredients in Lemon Crinkle Cookies

• All purpose flour
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Butter: softened
• Sugar
• Egg
• Lemon-Both freshly squeezed juice and zest. The amounts in the recipe produce a light, lemony flavor but can be doubled to produce a bolder lemon flavor.
• Vanilla extract
• Yellow food colouring (optional)

For rolling:

• Sugar
• Powdered sugar (aka icing sugar or confectioners sugar)

Note: Recipe quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to make Lemon Crinkle Cookies

1. Mix the dry ingredients: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar: In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy (a couple of minutes).

3. Add the wet ingredients: Add the eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract and food colouring (if using) and mix to combine.

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer and mix until they are incorporated.

5. Chill dough: Cover bowl with plastic food wrap and place in the fridge to set for 2 hours (the dough will be too sticky to handle without chilling it).

6. Roll the cookie balls: Scoop out dough (I like to use a small sized cookie scoop- to get a uniform size) and roll the dough into a ball. Roll the dough balls in regular sugar first and then in the powdered sugar, being sure to coat them generously. Place the dough balls on the baking sheets, 2 inches apart.

7. Bake: Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Remove them from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Tips for making the best Lemon Crinkle Cookies

• Don’t over mix your batter: As with most baking, this is important to ensuring you end up with a soft texture.
• Use fresh lemons: There are no artificial lemon flavours in this recipe. I prefer not to use boxed lemon pudding and cake mixes in these cookies since you really can’t beat the flavour of fresh lemon! This recipe gets the perfect amount of lemon flavour from freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest.
• Roll them in two types of sugar: One of my tricks for getting pretty, crinkly patterns is to use two types of sugar for the coating. First, the dough is rolled in granulated sugar, then in the powdered sugar. This helps produce gorgeous crinkly patterns with a distinct icing sugar layer.

Storing these cookies

Once cooled, transfer the cookies to an airtight container and store at room temperature for about a week.

Can you freeze these cookies?

These cookies work great for freezing. I recommend freezing the dough, not the baked cookie but both ways are possible. Note: Freezing baked cookies can cause some of the powdered sugar to get moist and then the pretty, crinkly pattern won’t be as visible. That said, they still maintain most of their pattern and are just as delicious.

To freeze the dough, I recommend scooping out your dough and rolling it into the cookie balls as described in the recipe. Then lay them out on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze them until they are solid. Once they are solid, transfer them to a freezer safe bag.

When you are ready to bake the frozen dough balls, let the dough balls thaw in the fridge overnight. Then roll the dough in the sugars as described in the recipe and bake them.

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do!

-Cathy

You may also like:

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Lemon Cheesecake (No Bake)
Lemon Zucchini Bread