Soft and Chewy Lemon Cookies — Packed with big, bold lemon flavor for all you lemon lovers! They’re soft, chewy and not at all cakey!
Table of Contents
Best Lemon Cookies EVER!
If you like lemon, you’re going to love these cookies. They’re soft, chewy, and packed with bold lemon flavor.
These easy lemon cookies pack a powerful lemon punch, they’re soft and dense rather than cakey, they’re thick enough to sink your teeth into, and I love that they’re crinkly.
For robust lemon flavor, I used lemon three ways: extract, zest, and juice. If you wanted to intensify that, glaze them and sprinkle with zest. I didn’t find it necessary, but you may.
Although there’s plenty of intense lemon flavor, the cookies are sweet enough that you’ll keep going back for one more. And one more. Good thing it’s a small batch recipe that makes one dozen.
Ingredients in Lemon Cookies
To make this easy recipe for lemon cookies, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Egg
- Lemon extract
- Lemon juice and zest
- Honey
- Yellow food coloring (optional)
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Salt
- Baking soda
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Lemon Cookies
My daughter is a lemon fan like no one else. She eats lemon wedges like they’re orange wedges and reaches into water glasses for the lemon and helps herself. She’s loved these and asked when I’m making them again — high approval from my little lemon connoisseur!
Here’s an overview of how the soft lemon cookies are prepared:
- Cream together the butter, sugars, egg, and lemon extract.
- Add in the lemon zest, honey, and optional food coloring, followed by the dry ingredients.
- Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop the cookie dough into balls and chill for at least 3 hours.
- Once the cookie dough has chilled, bake until the edges have set and the tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center.
- Let these lemon cookies cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
Recipe Tips
The yellow food coloring is totally optional. I used 1 teaspoon gel food coloring; add drops or gel to desired shade. One teaspoon gel makes the batter quite yellow, but it mellows slightly after adding the dry ingredients.
Be sure to add the lemon juice directly on top of the baking soda. It will bubble and foam, which means the baking soda has been activated and this is good — if your baking soda doesn’t bubble, it’s old and expired.
Don’t try to swap out the lemon juice for lemon extract or vice versa. You need both! When comparing lemon juice vs lemon extract, lemon juice has a less concentrated lemon flavor and is very acidic whereas lemon extract has a very potent lemon flavor. I like to use both for extra lemon flavor and freshness.
Recipe FAQs
To keep the cookies soft and dense, there’s a tablespoon of honey in the dough. Honey is hydroscopic (attracts water) so it helps the cookies stay softer, moister, and denser without turning cakey.
The 2 teaspoons of cornstarch help keep cookies softbatch-style soft. I’ve got 20 other cornstarch cookie recipes showcasing what a great little trick it is.
No, the cornstarch is what makes the lemon cookies so soft and chewy.
If you want to glaze the tops of these chewy lemon cookies, I’d recommend making my Glazed Cream Cheese Lemon Cookies instead. They’re super thick, so they can handle a healthy drizzle of lemon glaze.
No, you must use actual lemon extract to make these homemade lemon cookies. Do NOT use lemon oil and lemon extract interchangeably because oil is much more potent and intense.
Also, do NOT add extra lemon juice and omit the lemon extract. Lemon juice isn’t as strong in flavor and because it’s acidic it may alter the texture of the cookie dough.
Yes, you MUST chill the dough for a minimum of 3 hours. Do not bake with unchilled dough because the cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and will be more prone to spreading.
Yes, simply double all the ingredients.
Storage Instructions
Note that these soft lemon cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Can I Freeze the Raw Cookie Dough?
Yes! Roll the dough into balls and freeze. You can bake them straight from frozen, no need to thaw first!
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Soft and Chewy Lemon Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon lemon extract
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon honey
- yellow food coloring, optional and as desired
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- confectioners’ sugar for dusting or lemon glaze + lemon zest, optional
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, sugars, egg, lemon extract, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, light, fluffy, and well combined, about 4 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the lemon zest, honey, optional food coloring, and beat on medium-high speed until well combined, about 2Â minutes. I used 1 teaspoon gel food coloring; add drops or gel to desired shade. One teaspoon gel makes the batter quite yellow but it mellows slightly after adding the dry ingredients.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour, cornstarch, optional salt, and baking soda (keep the baking soda in a nice little mound rather than sprinkling it).
- Add the lemon juice directly on top of the baking soda. It will bubble and foam, which means the baking soda has been activated and this is good; if your soda doesn’t bubble it’s old and expired. Beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form approximately 12 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly.
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet).
- Bake for about 10 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake or undersides could become too browned. Cookies firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
- Optionally, dust with confectioners’ sugar. Or, for increased lemon intensity, make the lemon glaze and then sprinkle with additional lemon zest.
Notes
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Lemon Desserts:
Lemon Lemonies — Like brownies, but made with lemon and white chocolate! Dense, chewy, not cakey and packed with big, bold lemon flavor!
The BEST Lemon Bars — Classic lemon bars that pack a punch of big time lemon flavor, without being too tart or too sweet!
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting – Soft, fluffy, moist, very lemony cupcakes from scratch! Easy one-bowl, no-mixer recipe for cupcakes that taste like they’re from a bakery.
Softbatch Glazed Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies — Big, bold lemon flavor packed into super soft cookies thanks to the cream cheese!! Tangy-sweet perfection! Lemon lovers are going to adore these easy cookies!!
Strawberry Lemonade Bars — Imagine crossing lemon bars with a strawberry pie. These easy bars taste like strawberry lemonade! Sooo good!
The Best Lemon Loaf (Better-Than-Starbucks Copycat) — It took years, but I finally recreated it!! Easy, no mixer, no cake mix, dangerously good, and SPOT ON!! You’re going to love this lemon pound cake recipe!
Lemon Olive Oil Cake — My new FAVORITE lemon dessert of all time!! Lemon zest, juice, extract, and Limoncello add so much AMAZING lemon flavor to this EASY, ridiculously moist no-mixer cake that’s unique and INCREDIBLE!!
Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread — This EASY, no-mixer homemade quick bread combines tangy lemon flavor with tender zucchini which keeps it so incredibly soft, tender, and moist! Topped with a simple lemon glaze, this bread is not overly sweet.
Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze — An easy buttermilk cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!
Originally posted on August 25, 2014 and reposted on June 24, 2020 with updated text.
Love this cookies. Didn’t have extract though I thought I did. So I omitted it. Didn’t add anything else. Turned out amazing, just not as lemony. Rolling in the icing sugar was good!!!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you loved them!
Hello all! I followed the recipe exactly. I chilled the dough balls overnight. The cookies came out flatter, thinner, and definitely spread. Any suggestions? Thanks and Merry Christmas
Hello all! I followed the recipe exactly. I chilled the dough balls overnight. The cookies came out flatter, thinner, and definitely spread. Any suggestions? Thanks and Merry Christmas
It’s always hard to say from a far what possibly happens in someone else’s kitchen. My suggestions would be to use a cell Pat or silicone baking mat. Secondly switch your flour to King Arthur brand all purpose flour. It’s a bit more expensive but it has a slightly higher gluten percentage which prevents spreading. Finally, check to make sure your leavener is not expired
Baking soda cannot expire. It is absolutely chemically stable.
When you add the lemon juice directly to the soda they neutralize each other. The acid of the lemon juice reacts with the soda making carbon dioxide gas in the process (the bubbles). What this means is that you’ve made the lemon juice less sour (so this might be desirable) but you’ve also completely destroyed the leavening power of the soda. Since you’re making cookies, you don’t really need much leavening anyway. You can test this by making the same recipe without any soda. The cookies will be more sour, and they might taste a bit less intense because there’s less sodium, but otherwise be reasonable cookies.
Every website and research I’ve ever done does indicate that baking soda CAN expire, and at the very least, lose its potency. If you Google “does baking soda expire” you will get about a billion affirmative responses to that end. Perhaps all of those are wrong? I appreciate you sharing your info though.
Love all of these lemony recipes, can’t wait to try them! Do you think it would be possible to decorate these with sugar cookie icing or would they be too textured or absorbent?
They do have some texture and my guess is they are absorbent but you could always give it a try with a test batch and see how it goes.
Delicious! I made them with the boy I babysit because we love to bake together and try new things. They came out really good! We both loved them. Baked exactly as recipe stated! Only put in fridge for 45 minutes. I love lemon so this was a win for me.
Delicious! I made them with the boy I babysit because we love to bake together and try new things. They came out really good! We both loved them. Baked exactly as recipe stated! Only put in fridge for 45 minutes. I love lemon so this was a win for me.
Glad you both loved them!
This recipe is amazing! My family even agrees with me!
This recipe is amazing! My family even agrees with me!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad that you and your family love these!
Wow! I made a batch that I didn’t get to try last week for a care package, so I made a second batch for my lemon-loving mother today and they are amazing! I can’t believe I’ve never used honey or cornstarch in cookies before. I’m re-thinking every cookie recipe I have now.  I’m going to make your Nutella cookies next.  I’m excited to bake again, so thank you!
Wow! I made a batch that I didn’t get to try last week for a care package, so I made a second batch for my lemon-loving mother today and they are amazing! I can’t believe I’ve never used honey or cornstarch in cookies before. I’m re-thinking every cookie recipe I have now.  I’m going to make your Nutella cookies next.  I’m excited to bake again, so thank you!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you loved these! I know, honey isn’t a common one in cookies but for those that I have used it in, always so good. Cornstarch always adds just that extra bit of softness that I adore too! Enjoy the Nutella cookies!
These are delicious! They. And out perfect. Thank you!Â
These are delicious! They. And out perfect. Thank you!Â
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad they are delicious and perfect!
I don’t know what happened, but my cookies are huge.  Anyway, my question is, how firm should the dough be and will it still be sticky when you are creating the mounds?  At any rate, they are delicious!
I don’t know what happened, but my cookies are huge.  Anyway, my question is, how firm should the dough be and will it still be sticky when you are creating the mounds?  At any rate, they are delicious!
Not too sticky, not too firm. If it’s dry and really firm, it’s overfloured. If it’s sticky and on the limper side, it could use more flour.
Huge…well likely you made pretty big mounds of dough then but hey why not!
I personally didn’t think it was as ‘lemony’ as implied…what should be added to make it more zesty with that lemon tartness?  Lemon extract, real lemon juice or lemon zest??
Either zest or extract (try another brand, they vary a lot) – not juice, it will throw off all the ratios!