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These simple small batch Lemon Sugar Cookies are soft and chewy and with the perfect amount of citrus to bring some sunshine to your day. 10 minutes to prep and no chilling necessary–this easy recipe will be a new favorite for the whole family!
I have no doubt that a touch of lemon in your sugar cookies will have you feeling all the sunshine–all of it. And some days, we really just have to make our own sunshine, am I right?!
I am very much a boredom baker, and that’s how these simple citrus cookies came to be. When I am stuck in the house–I bake. These Birthday Cake Sugar Cookies were also a bit of a stuck inside kind of boredom recipe–but no one has complained just yet!
I am also a sucker for small batch cookie recipes. I very rarely have enough time to make a few dozen cookies at one time. However, I can squeeze a dozen in for sure! I can make that happen.
So, if you want some sunshine in your day, and you don’t often have a lot of time to bake, these small batch lemon sugar cookies are 100% the way to go. Refreshing, soft and chewy–the very best!
Why You Will Love These Lemon Sugar Cookies:
- so soft and chewy
- refreshing and vibrant lemon flavor
- very easy to make
- freezer friendly
- so delicious!
Try these Key Lime Iced Cookies if you love citrus flavors as much as I do!
Recipe Ingredients:
- butter: I use unsalted, softened butter in my cookies. If you aren’t sure if your butter is softened, gently press your finger into it and see if it leaves a small indentation but is also still cool to touch. To speed up this process, cut the butter into smaller pieces. I don’t recommend using a microwave at all to move things along.
- sugar: divided, 3/4 cup for the dough and 1/4 cup for rolling.
- brown sugar: I prefer light brown sugar, adds a touch of chewiness to your cookies
- vanilla: you could use 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 lemon extract for an even stronger lemon flavor if preferred.
- egg yolk: a large egg yolk at room temperature for best results. The egg yolk makes these lemon cookies extra chewy and gives them that crinkle versus using a whole egg which makes them a touch more cakey in the center.
- lemon zest: measure this with your heart–all the lemon zest and more for me!
- flour: all purpose flour, stirred to aerate, spooned and leveled
- salt: I prefer sea salt
- baking soda and powder: PLEASE make sure your baking soda and powder are fresh. Not sure if they are? You can test to make sure!
I typically have every single one of these ingredients in the house. And if I am missing something, it is almost always the lemon zest. I have most certainly made these without the lemon zest as just regular sugar cookies and they have been delicious as well.
One reader said she used lime zest instead of lemon and loved those. What about orange? Lots of options if you are out!
How to make this recipe:
- Cream the butter and sugars. When you cream the butter and sugars, the mixture should be light and almost fluffy. The sugars will be fully incorporated into each other. Don’t skimp on this part–it can take about 2-4 minutes. You are aerating the butter and creating tiny pockets of air that will be the difference of a nice, light and chewy cookie versus a flat, dense cookie. Take the time! (steps 1 and 2)
- Add in the lemon zest, vanilla and egg. Using a hand or standing mixer, beat to fully incorporate the egg. (steps 3 and 4)
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. (steps 5 and 6)
- Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and beat to incorporate. Toward the end, it may seem a bit crumbly or dry, but don’t worry, this is ok. Press the dough together to form a ball. Chill at this time if desired. It can help the cookies spread less. (steps 7, 8 and 9)
- Scoop the dough with a cookie scoop or roll into balls and then roll into the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Place on a cookie sheet ( I typically line mine with parchment.) and bake for about 9-11 minutes. Take them out when they are just barely starting to get a light brown around the edges. Don’t over bake these. Allow to cool before enjoying. Or if you are like me, you will scald yourself eating one the second you pull them out. Oh, such is life, right? (steps 10, 11 and 12)
Do you need to chill the cookie dough before baking?
I find sugar cookie dough is best when chilled to help keep any extra spreading, however these lemon sugar cookies are still okay even if I don’t chill. If your cookies are spreading a lot, it typically means your butter was softened too much and is making the dough too warm, or the flour was measured incorrectly and is less than needed. Expired baking soda and powder can also cause the same issue.
If I do chill this cookie dough, I only do about 15-30 minutes, but that doesn’t always happen. As long as you don’t over soften the butter and measure your flour well, you should be fine without chilling.
Lemon Sugar Cookies Notes and Pro-Tips:
- Always, always always make sure to cream your butter and sugar well enough. Do not skimp on the time. This seems to be where I get myself in trouble when trying to cut corners. Creaming helps give the cookies the right dense texture.
- Check to make sure your baking powder and baking soda are both fresh. Expired leavening agents can cause issues when trying to bake. Keep them fresh!
- Make sure not to over bake these lemon sugar cookies. When you pull them out, you may think they are not quite ready yet, but they should be perfect that way.
- Depending on the size you make these, you will get about 12-15 cookies. If you make them much smaller you may even get closer to 18. I use a cookie scoop and press the dough into the scoop nicely to get a dense cookie.
FAQs and Troubleshooting:
This could be a matter of over baking. They will come out more on the crispy end if you leave them in the oven too long. When you think these lemon sugar cookies are almost there, then they are actually probably ready to be taken out.
You will notice the cookies will still be puffed up a bit and just starting to crinkle. I take them out at that point and love the texture. If you like crispy cookies, then feel free to keep them in a bit longer as well!
Two possible things for this issue. One, your dough is too warm. If your cookie dough dips below room temperature, the cookie dough is not cool enough.
Cooler dough has more solidified fat (from the butter) that takes longer to spread as it is baked. Once the cookie dough becomes too warm, the fat is not longer fully solid and will spread out and bake quickly. Pop the dough in the fridge for 15-30 minutes and then get back to it!
The other possibility here is that your baking powder or baking soda are not fresh. If your leavening agents are bad, you will have some flat and even thin cookies for sure.
This is often the result of too much flour. Flour can be tricky to measure and should not be packed into measuring cups like brown sugar or other ingredients. I like to stir my flour a bit with a spoon before measuring to aerate it a bit. This tends to help.
Other Cookies and Treats:
- Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Eggless Sugar Cookies
- Gluten Free Blondies
- Rosemary Orange Almond Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Molasses Cookies
- Cream Cheese Snowballs
I can’t wait to hear how these turn out for you! Keep me posted!
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Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter, softened (1/2 cup), unsalted
- 1â…“ c flour *see note below, (167g)
- 3/4 c sugar , (160 g)
- 1 T brown sugar, (18 g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- zest of 2 lemons, 2-3 T
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1/4 c sugar, for coating, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk together to combine.
- In a medium bowl, using a hand or standing mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar and 3/4c sugar until light and fluffy. (about 2-3 minutes or so). Add in egg, lemon zest and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Slowly pour in the dry ingredients and beat just until combined–do not over mix. (Chill for about 30 minutes if desired.) Roll cookie dough into about 1 1/2 inch balls or scoop with a 1½ T cookie scoop and roll into the remaining 1/4 cup sugar (add sugar into a small bowl first.) and place about 2 inches apart on a parchment lined baking pan.Â
- Bake 9-11 minutes. Allow to cool before eating.(ha–right, I burn my tongue every time)
- Store in an air tight container or freeze.
Video
Notes
- Check to make sure your baking powder and baking soda are both fresh. Expired leavening agents can cause issues when trying to bake. Keep them fresh!
- I read that adding a touch of brown sugar is what helps sugar cookies form well and spread nicely. I found that the result of adding just a Tablespoon of brown sugar did the trick for these.
- Make sure not to over bake these lemon sugar cookies. When you pull them out, you may think they are not quite ready yet, but they should be perfect that way.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I realized as I started creaming the butter that I didn’t have enough lemon to do these cookies and have enough for other things on my dinner plan list for the week. However, I had a bag of limes that needed to be used up. So, quick change to lime cookies instead, and they were great!! I also made them into sandwich cookies with some leftover buttercream and added a surprise center of strawberry jam. They were like strawberry limeade in a cookie! I can’t wait to try these with lemon next time.
I had another reader use like too and now I think that’s what I need to try as well!! Thanks so much!
I have been watching a lot of cooking shows. I bake for fun and wanted to try using lemon in a recipe. For my first time baking lemon sugar cookies they turned out perfect. The portion was perfect for my family of two, but next time we might have to double it because they were that GOOD!
Thanks so so much for sharing!! And yes, I sometimes find the smaller batch recipes a bit counterproductive when I want more and more!!!
These cookies were amazing the first time I made them. Flat, super chewy delicious. The second time they didn’t even cook the first 9 minutes in the oven. This time I let the butter sit overnight to soften and I put the zest of 2 lemons in which I wonder if that was too much. The dough was very dry when I made the balls. Any suggestions what I did wrong this second time? Can you be more specific about how much zest to add? Thank you!!
Hmm, you definitely don’t want to let the butter soften for more than a couple hours. It should still be pretty firm but leave a finger print if you press gently. I imagine that may be an issue as creaming the butter and sugar probably didn’t get the right amount of air and lift to it. As far as zest goes, mind comes out typically to about 2 tablespoons. The other issue that can happen is flour measurement. Too much or too little can impact. I stir my flour to aerate it a bit so I don’t get too much flour. Really hoping one of these will help!!!
I’ve made these twice now and can’t get the rounded shape you get in the pictures.
The second time, I tried freezing them to see if it would hold the form better but it still didn’t work and the edges are still really flat.
Do I need to press these into a flat disc before I put it into the oven?
Hmmm ok, a couple things: you could add a bit more flour. If there is too little of flour, even by just a small amount, they will spread in a way you probably don’t like. Try adding an extra tablespoon or two. Also, make sure your baking powder is super super fresh. Last thing I suggest is creaming the butter and sugars longer. This is what will give the cookie what it needs for a bit more rose when baking. Make sure your butter is not too soft—it should not be super soft, just a slight finger imprint from a gentle press. Hope something here helps!!
I recently made these cookies for a COVID dessert exchange and oh em gee.
I substituted sugar for coconut sugar and added about a tablespoon of lemon juice to the egg, brown sugar and zesting portion of the recipe. As well, I baked these for nine minutes.
My partner and I couldn’t get over how GOOEY the middle of these cookies were. Even the next day we popped them in the microwave for 20 seconds and bam, gooey again.
Cannot wait to make them again. I will be putting more lemon juice to see if I can make them zing a bit more, otherwise I’ll make a lemon glaze.
Wonderful recipe and already have people asking for more.
Ashlie you have MADE MY WEEK!!!! Thank you so much for sharing. We all need cookies in this quarantine life right?!!! ????????
Hello! First of all, I LOVE lemon anything…cake, cookies, bars, all of it! I can’t wait to make these, but I have a question: I can’t use lemon zest. Can I replace that with lemon juice or extract? If so, how much? I know that doing so will add more liquid to the cookie dough. Also, will adding the brown sugar help off that extra liquid?
Hi Kisha! I have had a lot of people say they have used lemon extract and had great luck. I think you should be ok. If they seem a bit too wet, just add a tablespoon of flour or so and you should be good to go!
We made this recipe, the cookies were delicious! I happened to have lemon extract on hand so I used that instead. I love this recipe. I was looking for a nice chewy cookie and this recipe did not disappoint me.
Love the addition of the lemon extract. I need to try that! So glad you enjoyed them!
Just made these ….so delicious!!! Will definitely make these again!
So great to hear, Marj! I am so excited that spring is here for refreshing recipes like this one!
These were really good! And easy! I added a ridge of brown sugar and no problem!! Thank you! Carol
So so glad to hear this Carol! Glad they were a hit!
I love lemon & I love sugar cookies, so I doubled this recipe! I didn’t roll the dough in the sugar before baking but they still turned out fabulous!!! So good, definitely saving this recipe to make again!
Oh, so good to know they easily double! You never know with baking. Thanks so much Laura~