Just like chocolate crinkle cookies, these lemon crinkle cookies are soft-baked and chewy, coated in confectioners’ sugar, and practically melt in your mouth. Lemon lovers will appreciate that the zingy flavor comes from real fresh lemon, not extract. I call them “very lemon” because there is so much natural lemon flavor!
One reader, Marcia, commented: “Goodbye, favorite bakery. Hello, Sally’s Very Lemon Crinkle Cookies! These are quite possibly the best cookies I have ever baked. Thank you so very much for sharing your recipe. I think I might try this with orange or lime, too. ★★★★★“
I always love a variety of flavors on my assorted holiday cookie platter, and especially like to throw in something unexpected among classics like gingerbread cookies and peanut butter blossoms. In previous years, little lemon coconut drop cookies and apricot thumbprint cookies have been favorites! Today, I’m introducing a zesty (and festive looking!) sweet-tart lemon cookie to your annual lineup of Christmas cookies.
Here’s Why You’ll Love These Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Mouth-watering sweet-tart flavor
- Uses more lemon than other lemon cookie recipes
- No food coloring, no artificial flavoring
- Thick and pillow-soft
- Built-in beauty from the crinkly confectioners’ sugar coating—no icing or decorating
- Warm from the oven, these melt in your mouth
- Feel free to replace the lemon with another citrus fruit, or try using Meyer lemons
Like Chocolate, But With Lemon
Have you made chocolate crinkle cookies, Nutella crinkle cookies, or even chocolate raspberry crinkles before? Like the chocolate version, these lemon crinkle cookies are also thick and soft-baked, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and iconic crinkle surface… but with the fresh flavor of citrus. Unlike these lemon ginger cookies or lemon coconut shortbread cookies, there’s no competing flavor today. This is a purely lemon-flavored cookie, and it’s sure to become a new favorite, no matter the time of year.
Why is it called a crinkle? While snowball cookies and peppermint snowball cookies get their sugar-snow dip after baking, crinkle cookies get a roll in confectioners’ sugar before baking. As the cookies bake, the powdery sugar coating cracks apart as the cookies puff up, leaving a crinkled surface. Hence the cute crinkle name.
What You Need & Why (Ingredients)
The recipe is based off of my coconut lime cookies, and you’ll be happy to find 1/4 cup (60ml) of lemon juice in the dough. Typical lemon cookies have half that amount. Get ready for flavor! Here are some key points about the ingredients you need:
- Flour: All-purpose flour provides the structure of these cookies.
- Cornstarch: The same magic ingredient for softness we use in chewy chocolate chip cookies; you only need a touch and it helps keep the cookies soft.
- Baking Soda: Makes the cookies puff up in the oven, creating that signature crinkle look.
- Salt: Brings out the flavors and balances the sweet.
- Butter: You need proper room temperature butter for this cookie dough, so it will cream nicely with the sugar. If you’re interested in learning more about this crucial step, here is my tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar.
- Sugar: Just the right amount to balance the tangy lemon.
- Egg: Binds the dough together.
- Lemon Juice: I recommend fresh lemon juice for the best flavor, but you can use bottled lemon juice in a pinch. Here is a wonderful juicer if you don’t have one and need a recommendation. And make sure you have a zester.
- Lemon Zest: Zest the lemon first, before you cut it and juice it. Much easier than the other way around!
- Vanilla Extract: For extra flavor.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: For rolling.
In Photos: How to Make Lemon Crinkle Cookies
After you make the dough, you’ll notice it’s quite soft and fluffy. That’s totally expected, and the dough needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. I know it’s a long time to wait, but your puffy cookies will be worth it! Go ahead and make the dough the night before if needed.
After chilling, the dough is much easier to work with. Each cookie is about 1 Tablespoon (20g, 5/8 ounce) of chilled dough:
Roll very generously into confectioners’ sugar:
And arrange on a lined baking sheet, and then bake:
#1 Success Tip: Chill the Dough
Chilling the cookie dough for at least 3 hours in the refrigerator is a non-negotiable. These lemon crinkle cookies contain extra liquid from the lemon juice, so the dough is very soft and sticky. The colder and firmer the cookie dough, the less they’ll over-spread. As you might remember from baking these chewy chocolate chip cookies, chilled cookie dough is not only easier to handle, it bakes thicker cookies.
Can I Use Other Citrus Flavors?
Yes! Try these crinkles with grapefruit, orange, or lime. You may also love these similar coconut lime cookies. Note that recipe has a shorter chill time because the dough is filled with coconut, which helps bulk it up.
Or if you can’t get enough lemon flavor, try my lemon thumbprint cookies and lemon shortbread cookies next. These lemon blueberry cookies are also favorites!
Their snowy exterior makes these perfectly festive in the winter months, but the zippy citrus flavor is refreshing year-round! They have become a favorite on my Summer Cookie Recipes collection page. I hope you love these too.
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 35 minutes
- Yield: 40 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This citrus spin on a crinkle cookie is a lemon lover’s delight. Chilling the cookie dough is important because it helps the flavors to develop, prevents spreading, and makes the otherwise sticky cookie dough easy to handle. Make sure you have a citrus juicer and zester.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons (225g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh or bottled lemon juice, at room temperature*
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest* (packed Tablespoon, it’s a lot of zest!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Rolling
- 3 Tablespoons (35g) granulated sugar (optional, see step 6)
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Mixture will appear curdled and that’s ok. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Dough is thick, creamy, and sticky.
- Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll in sugar: Scoop and roll balls of dough, about 1 Tablespoon of dough each, into balls. (Each dough ball should weigh about 20g.) Some readers have had trouble with the confectioners’ sugar melting/absorbing into the cookie dough balls, so to prevent that, you can roll the balls in the granulated sugar first. And then roll each ball very generously in the confectioners’ sugar. If you want lots of confectioners’ sugar to show on the baked cookies, roll 2-3x in sugar! Place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for 12–13 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2–3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The dough can chill for up to 3 days, so this is a great make-ahead recipe. Baked cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls (that are not coated in confectioners’ sugar) freeze well up to 3 months. When it’s time to bake the cookies, remove them from the freezer and thaw on the counter for at least 30 minutes. Roll into confectioners’ sugar as instructed and bake.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets | Cooling Rack
- Granulated Sugar: 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons is an odd amount, but the cookies really benefit from a little extra sugar because of all the tart lemon juice.
- Cornstarch: If you don’t have cornstarch, you can leave it out. It helps maintain a thicker, softer cookie but test batches without it were still intact and delicious.
- Lemons: I usually need 1–2 lemons to yield 1/4 cup (60ml) juice and 1 Tbsp zest. Feel free to replace the lemon with another citrus fruit, or try using Meyer lemons.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi, since the recipe has lemon in it is it okay to use a metal bowl to mix it in or do you need to use a glass bowl like in the video? I know that lemon can take on a metallic taste if heated in a metal pan but I wasn’t sure about in a metal mixing bowl. Thanks.
Hi Christy, you can use a metal bowl to mix up this dough. You aren’t cooking the dough in the bowl. When baking, be sure to line the baking sheet. Great question, and thank you for asking!
Question for you Sally, when I made these with orange zest and juice they seem to be too sweet, especially when rolled in both types of sugar. Is it possible to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe and still have them turn out?
Your recipes are always the best! You’re my go to for all baking recipes 🙂
Hi Brenda, you can definitely try it with a little less sugar, since orange is sweeter than lemon. Try 3/4 cup sugar, or slightly more, and let us know how they turn out!
Well, I truly messed these cookies up. After your suggestion to reduce sugar to 3/4 cup for the orange cookies, I said self, you can cut it to 1/2 cup. So I did lol. Don’t do it. I tried to add an additional 1/4 cup of sugar after the fact and the cookies are now sweet enough but the sugar didn’t integrate and the cookie taste and texture is messed up. I should have followed your advice lol. I was impressed with the quick response to my question and kicking myself for not following it. I do love your recipes! I’ll try these again some day.
This is the first time to stumbled upon your recipes. Here is what you do that others don’t do. When I was making this I went “oh no it curdled” and then I saw your thought. They way you explain things is fabulous, and the end result is delicious. Thanks for being so thoughtful in instructions
These cookies are delightful! My husband has renamed them Lemon Clouds
This is the 26th different recipe of yours I have made (some multiple times), and not one has failed me! Your instructions are always easy to follow, and I love using weights when baking.
Amazing flavor! I have a suggestion that might mitigate confectionery sugar from soaking into cookie. You must use flat or low lip cookie sheets. Any rise over 1/4” and the humidity hangs on cookie too long and the powdery sugar melts into the cookie.
Can this recipe be made using gluten-free flower, and have you tried it?
Hi Mary, we haven’t tested this recipe using gluten free flour so we’re unsure of the results, but let us know if you give it a go.
I was a little concerned reading all the reviews but I pressed on. I added 1/2 tsp fiori di sicilia extract b/c that’s what I had (I bet lemon extract would work too). I measured out the cookies in grams. Thank for that by the way, Sally! I always weigh out my cookies to try to get them as even as possible, but it’s nice when the recipe gives you a goal to shoot for.
I baked most of the cookies one tray at a time, making sure to keep the ones that were formed but not rolled in sugar in the fridge. When I did roll them, I followed the instructions to roll them in granulated sugar and them powdered sugar two to three times.
They came out perfect! Mine barely spread at all, but they were kind of cute and round. Very soft in the middle and just the right amount of lemon for a cookie.
I screwed up and added baking soda instead of cornstarch, but they tasted great to me. Curious how they will taste when made properly…
I love the recipe, but I have some problems..
The confectioners’ powder melts while in the oven.
Also, the cookies do not maintain their shape but spread out.
Hi Claire, we’re glad you enjoyed them! A little melting of the sugar is expected, so we recommend rolling them in granulated sugar first, then roll 2-3x in confectioners’ sugar. You’ll want them heavily coated. Spreading can be caused by a number of different factors—here are all our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading. Hope this is helpful!
These bikkies are to die for!! We like lots of lemon in my house and these are perfect!
The cookies spread SO MUCH… it was terrible. Flat, some even ended up joined and yes, I did put them apart as indicated. Very disappointed
Absolutely love these cookies, thanks to Sally and her team! Few additional tips: I used zest of 3 lemons, I rolled the dough balls after chilling overnight and weighing to be sure each was 20 grams, placed the balls back in fridge for at least 3 hours. Then took out 8 balls at a time (leaving the other dough balls in the fridge), rolled once in granulated sugar and then very generously packed on the powdered sugar. Then continued with the next sheet pan, being careful to not leave the dough balls out for too long before baking. They came out perfect!!
I really like this recipe. I rolled the first batch in my hands, I do not recommend it, gets very sticky. Scooping is much better. Make sure you pack the tablespoon of zest and you will love this cookie. I have tried many different lemon cookies and this recipe is the best one
I made these today. They came out pretty good, but nowhere near the vibrant shade of yellow in the images here. Did you add yellow food coloring? And if so, how much?
Hi Tara, we’re glad you enjoyed these cookies! We did not use any food coloring. Perhaps your lemons were not quite as yellow/bright (they get a lot of their color from the lemon juice and zest!). However, you can certainly add a drop or two of yellow gel food coloring if you wish.
Was easy to make, came out perfectly . I love lemon, so will take your advice next time and make sure I do a heaping amount of zest. Has anyone added a touch of yellow food color to enhance the lemony look?
I have, and I know many other readers have too! You just need 1 little drop.
I was so disappointed. The cookies came out completely flat. I measured by weight, chilled the dough 3 hours, even chilled the rolled balls before cooking, and got completely flat cookies with unappetizing blobs of powdered sugar around their perimeters. I am at 4800 feet elevation, so I’m not super high but maybe this recipe really doesn’t work well at elevation.
Hi Heather, I’m so sorry to hear these cookies didn’t work for you! Unfortunately, our team has no experience with baking at high elevation, so I can’t tell you whether that is the issue with this recipe. It sounds like you did everything right, so I’m not sure what could have caused the cookies to spread so much. I hope you’ll give some of Sally’s other recipes a try!
Hi can you substitute the flour for almond flour?
Hi Anisa, we don’t recommend it. Almond flour has very different baking properties than all purpose flour and is not always a 1:1 swap. It’s best to stick with all purpose flour here for best results.
These cookies are amazing! This is my go-to lemon cookie recipe! Every recipe Sally makes turns out perfect every time! Thanks!
Goodbye favorite bakery, hello Sally’s Very Lemon Crinkle Cookies! These are quite possibly the best cookies I have ever baked. Thank you so very much for sharing your recipe. I think I might try this with orange or lime, too.
My husband grabbed a cookie, took a bite and asked, “are they…..lemon?” First clue that the cookie was off. I doubled the zest and otherwise followed all ingredients and methods exactly. I thought they tasted flat. None of my three batches (using varying weights of dough to test) looked/acted like a crinkle cookie.
Really good cookies! the only problem was that the batter was really sticky and soft when i tried to form themy, don’t know if i did something wrong, but the result tasted so good anyway!
These are so lemony. They have become one of my family’s favorite
I am usually so impressed by your recipes so I guess it is not too bad to have a clunker once in a while
Oh my gosh! I’m in love! I followed your recipe as directed and they were perfect. Well, the last 2 batches were. I moved recently and am getting used to a new oven (they’re all different) so the first batch was a little burnt (not enough to toss thank goodness)! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
I just made these cookies and love them. They are soft on the inside with a slight crunch on the outside. I coated the cookies with fine granulated sugar then a heavy coat of powdered sugar before baking. That worked beautifully. I also made a cinnamon version of the coatings, using fine cinnamon sugar as the base coating followed by a coating of powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon. That was excellent, too. We will serve them at my husband’s birthday party this weekend which will be a tea. The menu includes a spice cake with lemon cream cheese frosting, fresh raspberries, molasses spice cookies, and these lemon cookies. They will be a hit. This is a 5-star review. The site isn’t allowing me to use the stars for my rating.
I followed your recipe to a T and they turned out perfectly. Thank you. I’m trying to up my baking game so now I’m glowing with pride. Thanks Sally!
I made these using a lemon from my husband’s Meyer lemon tree, following the directions to a T. They were delicious, and I will definitely make them again!
i always get so many compliments when i make these! perfect for summer
This was very disappointing. I’ve made chocolate crinkle cookies for years and they always turn out perfectly. I loaded on the confectioner’s sugar on the lemon ones and expected the same result. However, the crinkle didn’t happen – even after rolling them multiple times. Won’t bother with these again.
I just wanted to thank you for these amazing recipes. I was absolutely the worse baker until I found your site. I couldn’t even make cookies from a cake mix so I didn’t even try much after that. My hubby recommended your site so I thought okay let’s try it and I’ve done sugar cookies and today, this lemon cookie and they turned out so great. I cannot thank you enough
We’re thrilled to read this, Nancy! Thank you for making and trusting our recipes – we’re so glad they’ve been successful for you 🙂