Description
These Lemon Crinkle Cookies are soft, chewy, and bursting with a subtle lemon flavor. Rolled in a generous coating of regular and powdered sugar, they bake up with a beautiful crackled surface and a tender texture. Perfect for a refreshing treat or an eye-catching addition to your cookie platter.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice* (double for a stronger lemon flavor, or add lemon extract as recommended)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest*
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5-8 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
For Rolling
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (also known as icing sugar or confectioners sugar)
Instructions
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. Set this mixture aside for later use.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: Using a stand mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy, which should take a couple of minutes.
- Add Wet Ingredients: To the creamed butter and sugar, add the egg, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and optional yellow food coloring. Mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Combine Dry and Wet Mixtures: Gradually add the dry flour mixture to the wet ingredients in the mixer. Mix until the dough comes together uniformly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours to allow it to set.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Baking Sheets: Set your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper to prevent sticking.
- Scoop and Shape Dough Balls: Use a small cookie scoop or spoon to portion out the dough and roll each portion into a ball. The dough should be firm enough to shape easily; if it feels too soft, chill it again briefly in the fridge or freezer to prevent excessive spreading during baking.
- Coat the Dough Balls in Sugar: Roll each dough ball first in regular sugar, then coat generously with powdered sugar to create the classic crinkled cookie appearance.
- Arrange on Baking Sheets: Place the sugar-coated dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them approximately 2 inches apart to allow for spreading.
- Bake the Cookies: Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will set and develop crackles on the surface during this time.
- Cool the Cookies: Remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely before serving.
Notes
- For a stronger lemon flavor, you can double the lemon juice or add lemon extract, but be cautious as too much juice can cause the cookies to spread excessively during baking.
- If your dough is too soft, chill it longer to prevent the cookies from spreading too much.
- Using a small cookie scoop helps ensure uniform cookie size for even baking.
- Metric measurements are provided as a courtesy and have not been tested for accuracy by the original recipe creator.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 110
- Sugar: 12g
- Sodium: 70mg
- Fat: 5g
- Saturated Fat: 3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 17g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 1g
- Cholesterol: 20mg
