Description
These Lemon Crinkle Cookies are soft, tender, and bursting with a delightful lemon flavor complemented by a sweet sugary coating. Perfect for a refreshing dessert or snack, they offer a subtle citrus zest with a crinkled powdered sugar exterior that is as beautiful as it is delicious.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5-8 drops yellow food coloring (optional)
For Rolling
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (aka icing sugar or confectioners sugar)
Instructions
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the all purpose flour, baking soda, and salt, then set aside.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar together for a couple of minutes until fluffy and light.
- Add Wet Ingredients: Add the egg, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and yellow food coloring (if using) to the creamed mixture, and mix until well combined.
- Incorporate Dry Ingredients: Gradually add the dry flour mixture into the wet mixture while mixing until fully incorporated.
- Chill Dough: Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Baking Sheets: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop and Roll Dough: Using a small cookie scoop, portion out the dough and roll each scoop into a ball. If the dough feels too soft, refrigerate or freeze briefly to stiffen up.
- Coat Dough Balls: First roll each dough ball in the regular sugar, then roll them generously in the powdered sugar to coat thoroughly.
- Arrange on Baking Sheets: Place the coated dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart to allow room for spreading.
- Bake Cookies: Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes until edges are set but cookies remain soft in the center.
- Cool Cookies: Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- For a bolder lemon flavor, consider adding lemon extract instead of increasing lemon juice to prevent cookie spreading.
- If the dough feels too soft to handle, chill it longer or briefly freeze to make scooping easier and prevent cookie spread during baking.
- Scooping uniform dough sizes with a small cookie scoop helps ensure evenly sized cookies that bake consistently.
- Using parchment paper on baking sheets prevents sticking and promotes even baking.
- Letting cookies cool on the baking sheet briefly helps them firm up before transferring to a rack prevents breakage.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 120 kcal
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 80 mg
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated Fat: 3 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 18 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Cholesterol: 20 mg
