Soft and Chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies
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Say hello to the only lemon crinkle cookie recipe you’ll ever need.
I’m not kidding. 😉
And once you’ve become hooked on these lemon cookies, try these other delicious cookies: best ever chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodle cookies, funfetti cookies.
If you’re looking for another lemon dessert that’s not cookies you’ll have to make this dangerously delicious moist lemon pound cake!
These cookies really live up to everything you want in a lemon cookie.
- Soft and Chewy
- Full of lemon-y flavor in each bite
- Perfectly sweet
- Ultra thick and cakey
- Easy to make
- INCREDIBLY delicious
One of my tricks to get the powdered sugar to “stick” to these crinkle cookies is to roll them in granulated sugar first, then in the powdered sugar.
The granulated sugar creates something magical; a lightly crisp edge while the inside stays nice and warm, chewy and soft. It’s truly a dreamy treat!
One of my favorite parts of these lemon crinkle cookies is that there is no need to chill the dough! I purposefully create my cookie recipes with no chill time because I’m an impatient kind of girl, haha!
Here’s the low down:
- Cake Flour: (spooned and leveled): If you know me and my cookies, you know I love adding cake flour with all-purpose flour to make the perfect cookie!
- Corn Starch: key ingredient to making thick, big cookies.
- Fresh Lemon Juice: if you have bottled it’s OK, but try to use fresh when you can for ultimate flavor.
- Lemon Zest
- Lemon Extract (for extra lemon flavor): some people have made without and just added a little more zest and have had great results.
- Vanilla Extract
- Yellow Food Coloring (optional)
The process is very similar to most of my cookie recipes, like the funfetti and chocolate crinkle cookies. So if you’ve nailed that recipe down you’ll be a pro at this one!
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl: All-Purpose flour, cake flour, corn starch, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter. Then add in the white sugar and let the butter and sugar cream together until light and fluffy.
- Then add in the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract, lemon extract, lemon juice, lemon zest and food coloring.
- Gradually add in the dry ingredients. Mix well.
- Shape dough into 8 large cookie dough balls (~5 oz. each), roll in sugars and bake for 11-13 minutes.
- Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
- If your cookies are turning out flat, try adding a little extra flour.
- Be sure you preheat the oven to 400°F first. Get the oven nice and hot while you prep the cookies.
- Use cold butter, not room temperature.
- Ungreased cookie sheets are key. If you bake your cookies on a greased cookie sheet they can spread like pancakes!
- Don’t flatten the cookies prior to baking, keep them in a ball.
- Be sure to not over bake the cookies. Slightly under baked is the way to go, and they will be dry if you over bake.
- Cool completely before freezing.
- Let the cookies rest: If your cookies are turning out too gooey, let them rest longer. I recommend at least 15 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. They are even better if you let them sit and enjoy the next day. Your cookies aren’t ruined, just let them rest!
the goods
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Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Cake Flour
- 2 tsp. corn starch
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cold, cubed (16 Tbsp.)
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3/4 tsp. lemon extract
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (4 Tbsp.)
- 2 tsp. lemon zest (add more for more lemon flavor!)
- 2-5 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Last step! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Whisk together the All-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and secure the paddle attachement. Turn the mixer on the lowest setting. Let the mixer cream the butter for ~30 seconds, followed by the white sugar until light and fluffy. 2-4 minutes.
- Then add in the eggs, egg yolks, extracts, lemon juice, lemon zest and food coloring. Blend until mixed. If any of the butter gets stuck on the paddle attachment use a rubber spatula to knock it off.
- Gradually add in the flour mixture. Mix until combined. Turn machine off.
- Measure out ~8, 5 oz. cookies (you can of course make smaller if you want!). In a bowl or shallow dish, roll the dough balls in granulated sugar first, and then in powdered sugar next. Place 6 cookies on 1 cookie sheet and 2 on another.
- Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes. Let them rest on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- You can make these cookies smaller in size. I’ve made them 3 ounces and bake them for 12 minutes.
- Let the cookies rest: If your cookies are turning out too gooey, let them rest longer. I recommend at least 15 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. They are even better if you let them sit and enjoy the next day. Your cookies aren’t ruined, just let them rest!
Made these for the second time tonight. They are SO good! I got about 20 palm-sized cookies out of the recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful! yayyyy 🙂 thank you sooo much!
If I make smaller cookies would you recommend adjusting the baking temp? I saw in previous comments you suggested adjusting the baking time but wasn’t sure if the temp should be adjusted as well. Thank you!
Hi! Keeping the oven the same should be just fine 🙂 Keep an eye on them, all ovens vary so much!
Hi, if I replace lemon emulsion with the lemon extract. Do I need to adjust anything else?
Hi! I wouldn’t think so 🙂 The emulsions are more concentrated so they’ll give a stronger flavor!
Thank you! Sorry, fir the double comment. I didn’t think the first comment posted lol
Hello! What if I used room temperature butter vs cold butter?
You might need to refrigerate the dough prior to baking, I am not sure I only tested with the cold butter 🙂
Hi, if I want to add lemon emulsion. Do i replace the zest or lemon extract?
Hi! Hmmm, I would maybe use that to replace the extract!
Hey Tawnie! I bake frequently, and the most requested cookie I get is the chocolate crinkle. People love them…even more than the Levains!?!?! Anyhow, I had recently come across a lemon crinkle recipe by another baker and gave it a shot, but it failed. The cookies spread terribly and after the baking time, they were still essentially raw. I had to double to bake time, at which point they became crispy and weren’t the texture I expect in a crinkle. I assumed the issue was not enough flour compared to wet ingredients. Sure enough, I just came across your recipe and you have 4 cups of flour vs 3 cups in the other recipe. Would you agree that was the cause of the spread and undercooking? Also, I was thinking of adding in white chocolate chips to make for a richer cookie, as I put chocolate chips in the chocolate crinkle cookies. Do you think there’s any issue with adding the white chocolate? Thanks
Hi Jay! I bet the flour was the issue. But it’s hard to say, baking can be so tricky sometimes right?! ugh. White chocolate chips would be amazing in these!! Love lemon + white chocolate combo so much. Happy baking! xo, Tawnie
Hi there! Love these cookies. I’ve found my dough is a lot wetter than yours in the video. I have to chill it pretty long for it to be handled without being a mess. Did something change in the recipe at some point? Thanks for your time.
Hi Alexa! This recipe hasn’t been changed since I first developed it. It is a pretty soft dough. You can always try adding a few Tbsp. flour to the batter to see if that helps. You can chill overnight, but I don’t ever chill for this recipe. Or use a lightly floured hands to work with the dough balls when rolling. So sorry for the sticky issue, I hope you love them!
Hi. I was going to make these for a event so I need a lot. I would make them small, like regular cookies and would need about 60-70, How many batches do you recommend? Ty!
Hi! This recipe makes 8 pretty large cookies. I bet you could easily get 16 cookies from 1 batch. So 16×4 = 64 cookies. And adjust baking time as needed since they are smaller 🙂 I hope everyone at the event loves them 🙂 Thank you! xo, Tawnie
These are just as they are named! Soft, chewy, light, and refreshing. We love this one!
My young son and I make a lot of crinkle cookies which tastes basically the same but this have that little extra bit of love that make them special! They were easy enough for a 5 yr old to help and delicious enough to share! I love how these are big cookies and probably won’t make small crinkle cookies again-there were a lot of even the big ones. We decided to chill the dough for cleaner hands.
Hi Jessica! I love this, thank you so much!
Can we use all purpose flour only instead of cake flour?
Yes 🙂 That will work perfectly!