Lemon Sugar Cookies
These perfectly soft and chewy lemon sugar cookies are incredibly easy to make and have the best pillowy, melt in your mouth texture. With super chewy, buttery, sweet, zesty centers and tender edges these will easily become your new favorite lemon cookies. They’re bursting with fresh lemon flavor, making them the perfect thing to bake this spring!
Why these are the best lemon sugar cookies
Soft, melt in your mouth texture– They’re fluffy, buttery, tender and chewy all at the same time.
Lots of fresh lemon flavor- The dough is flavored with lots of lemon zest. The key to extracting the most lemon flavor from the zest is rubbing it together with the sugar. This allows for the oil in the zest to be released, giving you the best lemon flavor! The cookie dough is also rolled in lemon sugar before baking to pack the most lemon flavor into the cookies.
Equal parts butter and sugar– 1 cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar is the key to the cookies perfect texture. The butter, lemon zest and sugar are creamed together really well, and the egg is beat into the butter and sugar until very fluffy to help the cookies get a little lift, making them pillowy and perfect.
Slightly underbaked centers– Just slightly underbaking helps to give the cookies the perfect centers. As they cool they finish baking on the pan and you’re left with the ideal cookie texture: soft edges, melty buttery centers.
Thick and pillowy– I hate a flat sugar cookie, so I wanted to make sure these were anything but. They’re extra thick, like little pillows of tender, soft cookie heaven.
For the full recipe, including measurements, step by step instructions, and bake time, please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is just a brief overview!
Lemon Sugar Cookies FAQs
Store in an airtight container or Ziploc baggie for about 3 days for best taste. As they sit they somehow become softer. They go from super chewy right after baking to super soft the more days that go by!
Nope! Simply make the dough, scoop, roll the balls in sugar and bake! (I Actually think the cookies are best when baked straight away.)
If you need to make the dough in advance and bake the next day, you of course can. For the best results I would just recommend letting the dough return to room temperature before attempting to scoop and bake!
Yes. Store in a Ziploc baggie and freeze for up to a month.
Tips for baking perfectly chewy lemon sugar cookies
Very softened butter. You’ll want to make sure your butter is super soft. As in, you should be able to press your finger into it very easily. This will make it easier to cream together with the sugar and help give the cookies the best texture.
Measure your flour properly. This is always my #1 baking tip. Do not ever scoop a measuring cup into your flour. This will always lead to using too much flour. Instead, sprinkle spoonfuls of flour into your measuring cup and swipe excess flour off with the back of a knife. Or better yet, weigh your flour with a kitchen scale. 1 cup of flour equals 125 grams.
Beat the egg and vanilla thoroughly. Make sure to beat your egg and vanilla into the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale in color and very fluffy, not just until it’s combined. This helps to give the cookies their pillowy texture.
When the cookies are straight out of the oven, scoot a large circular cookie cutter around them to give them a perfect circular shape! Because we’ll be rolling them into balls and shaping before baking, the cookies should be pretty round after baking, but to make them extra perfect use this trick! ?
If you make these lemon sugar cookies please leave a star review! Also, tag me on Instagram @inbloombakery_ so I can see your creation! Follow me on Pinterest for other dessert ideas!
Other Lemon Recipes to Try
Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
For the Lemon Sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated white sugar
- 1/2 tbsp (5 g) lemon zest
For the Lemon Cookies
- 2 3/4 cups (344 g) all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated white sugar
- 2 1/2 tbsp (25 g) lemon zest
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, very softened
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
For the Lemon Sugar
- Add the sugar and lemon zest to a medium bowl. Rub the lemon zest and sugar together with your fingertips to extract the most lemon flavor from the zest. Set aside for later use.1/2 cup (100 g) granulated white sugar, 1/2 tbsp (5 g) lemon zest
For the Lemon Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.2 3/4 cups (344 g) all purpose flour, spooned and leveled , 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt
- Add the sugar and lemon zest to a large bowl. Rub the lemon zest and sugar together with your fingertips to extract the most lemon flavor from the zest.1 cup (200 g) granulated white sugar, 2 1/2 tbsp (25 g) lemon zest
- Add in the softened butter. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together with an electric mixer on high speed for 1-2 minutes until very light and fluffy.1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, very softened
- Add in the egg and vanilla and mix on medium speed until pale in color and very fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.1 egg, at room temperature, 1 tsp vanilla
- Add in the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed just until combined.
- Scoop the dough with a 2 tbsp cookie scoop, and roll them into balls. Then roll the dough balls in the lemon sugar.
- Place the cookie dough balls at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Slightly flatten each ball and form into a circle as best as you can. (See photo in the blog post above.)Bake 6-8 cookies at a time.
- Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes, then let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. (When the cookies are straight out of the oven, scoot a large circular cookie cutter around them to give them a perfect circular shape.)
- Transfer the baked cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Then enjoy!
Very good sugar cookie recipe and the lemon makes it really outstanding.
Soooo good! Soooo buttery ?
You are literally the best omg I love you
How do you store the cookies?
This was not mentioned in the recipe and I was just wondering about it.
The whole family loved them.
Love these cookies! Perfect for spring as you mentioned Ginny! I just want to make more of them at once… can this be doubled easily? Oh …and my kitchen smell luscious!
Great recipe! Perfect lemon flavor and love the texture of these cookies! They were a hit with the whole family! ?
I am trying baking for the first time , as a hobby for de-addiction from Alcohol. So, quite happy that this is helping two ways. Lol.
Also, as a beginner the typical mistake I made is to add all ingredients together and whisked them. Silly. But, always scope of improvement for next time.
Thanks for the simple recipe.
I am trying baking for the first time , as a hobby for de-addiction from Alcohol. So, quite happy that this is helping two ways. Lol.
Also, as a beginner the typical mistake I made is to add all ingredients together and whisked them. Silly. But, always scope of improvement for next time.
Thanks for the simple recipe, which has turned out to be a great hit.
My sister and I made these cookies because we both love lemon desserts. They were tender with the right amount of crispness, and so flavorful.
Absolutely lovely, made a double batch to share with friends and family
Excellent cookie! Thanks for the recipe! A nice add to my cookie collection!
Amazing! Loved how these tasted!
Just perfect ?
These are the most amazing lemon sugar cookies I’ve ever had in my entire life. I live in a house full of boys and all of my boys think this is the best cookie I’ve ever made. I do not typically leave reviews, but this recipe is so incredible. It deserves to be recognized. The recipe cannot be Improved… It is perfect the way it is! These cookies are soft, buttery and have a slight hint of lemony, sweetness.
These cookies are AMAZING! I will say this recipe has a lot of lemon zest needed. I only had 6 lemons and got 18g of lemon zest, so the cookies did not have the full 25g, but they were still awesome.
Thank you! I’m your people from Kazakhstan ?
These are by far the favorite of my family! Perfect lemon flavor. Exquisite! The only alteration is that I add the juice of three lemons to the recipe. Thanks for this recipe to put in my rotation!
Absolutely loved these!! Made these for my office and family. I split the dough and lemon sugar, and added lavender to half (followed the amounts in your lemon lavender cookie recipe). Made it easy to make two different cookies!! Thank you!
These were AMAZING! I added a little lemon glaze on top and ate them ALL. Do you have the nutrition info on these?
i have no words!! these were aboslutely delish and they have such a great lemon flavour 😀 i loveee the addition of more lemon zest to the lemon sugar to roll the dough in! SOFT and CHEWY!
Had to swap for vegan butter due to an allergy and switched to half vanilla bean paste/half lemon juice. Decided to make a cookie cake and baked in a 9” pan for about 20 minutes and came out perfect!
I made these cookies for a family reunion and everybody loved them. They are the perfect lemony chewy cookies!
I made these cookies and I like them very much, as did my friends and family! Very easy and tasty! I’m usually not the best baker but I was able to make these cookies ?
where is the temp and time
Delicious!!!
Phenomenal lemon cookies! These are famously a hit every time I make them! They are soft and buttery, light yet thick and chewy at the same time. Fabulous!