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These lemon sugar cookies are seriously delicious. They are a little crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. There is just the right amount of lemon flavor with a little lemon juice and lemon zest. (I usually squeeze the lemon by hand while using a mesh strainer so that you don’t get seeds into the bowl with your ingredients). My kids devour these. (Yes, they are cookies and kids, in general, love cookies, but they wanted to eat the whole batch). My daughter even asked this morning if she could have one for breakfast. Um… No.

You can drizzle a little glaze on top of these lemon sugar cookies if you want. I made the same glaze from my Lemon Blueberry Scone recipe. I dyed the glaze blue, (it should have been a deeper blue color. Oh well), and then added red sprinkles to try to make it festive for the 4th of July. (I am not the best at decorating cookies, but they don’t look too bad). One great thing about these cookies is that they freeze well. You can freeze the dough before baking or you can freeze them after you bake them. (See freezing instructions in the recipe notes).

When baking cookies it’s important to have a good cookie sheet, (this is my favorite cookie sheet) and I highly recommend using a silicone baking mat (this one is 15×21, which fits my favorite cookie sheet). The silicone mat helps the cookies bake more evenly, plus it make clean up a breeze.

Lemon Sugar Cookies

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Author: Lisa
Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 3 dozen 1x

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Description

These are slightly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The perfect amount of lemon flavor. They are now one of our favorite cookies.

Ingredients

Scale

Lemon Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 lemon zested and juiced
white sugar for coating the outside of the cookie dough balls

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
2 to 3 drops food coloring, if desired

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tarter, and sea salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Beat until well combined.
Next add flour mixture about a cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Once all the flour is in, beat it until the flour is incorporated. The dough should be somewhat stiff, not sticky. If the dough seems too sticky, add another 1/4 cup of flour. This can happen because lemons are all different sizes so a bigger lemon is going to have more juice in it. If the dough sticks to your hands when you are trying to roll in into balls, you need more flour.
In a small bowl pour some white sugar. Scoop out the dough. I used a #24 cookie scoop and then divided that ball in half to create the size I wanted. (#24 cookie scoop is the smallest scoop I have. You can make yours any size you want, but if you make them bigger, it won’t yield 3 dozen cookies). Now roll each ball in the bowl of sugar.
Then place the ball onto a cookie sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Now press the each dough ball down with the bottom of a glass.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Let cookies cool completely on a cooling rack. While cookies are cooling combine the powdered sugar, heavy cream and vanilla in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Drizzle each cookie with glaze. (I like to use a piping bag with a small tip). Add sprinkles if desired.

Notes

To Freeze:

Option 1: Form dough into balls and coat with the sugar. Place the dough balls close together, without touching, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and flash freeze for 3 hours. Once the dough is frozen, place the dough balls into a freezer bag and place back in the freezer

When ready to prepare option 1: Take desired amount of cookies out of the freezer and place them on a cookie sheet to thaw a little bit while the oven is heating up. Bake as directed.

Option 2: After you have baked the cookies, let them cool, and added the glaze if using, allow glaze to harden. Place cookies in a gallon freezer bag or air tight freezer container and freeze.

When ready to prepare option 2: Thaw on the counter for a few hours and enjoy.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Category: Desserts, Baked Goods

Lemon Sugar Cookies