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Tender Lemon Crinkle Cookies

By: Cassie Johnston / Updated: July 31, 2025 / Posted: November 25, 2024

Chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies on a white board dusted with powdered sugar

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Every time I’ve brought these lemon crinkle cookies somewhere, they’ve garnered the same reaction that I had the first time I tried them. At first appearance, people think they’re boring little sugar cookies, and then after a bite, people are over-the-moon, stumbling over themselves to get the recipe!

In this post:

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Cassie Johnston (a light skinned brunette woman with glasses and a red streak in her hair) smiles toward the camera with a wall of photo frames behind her

Lemon crinkle cookies are one of the cookie recipes that I get asked for year after year.

I think the unassuming look of these cookies is probably a defense mechanism. If they looked as incredibly tasty as they are—bright, sweet, and full of lemon flavor— you’d never get them out of the kitchen. They’re in disguise. And hidden under that disguise is pure cookie magic.

Here’s why you’ll love this recipe:

  • It’s a bright spot on a cookie plate. A fresh spark of lemon flavor provides a nice contrast to rich chocolate, nut, and gingerbread flavors typically found on a holiday cookie plate.
  • They are ready in an hour. This cookie dough comes together in a snap, and is ready to bake after a short 30-minute stint in the fridge.
  • It’s a well-worn recipe. I’ve been making these cookies for over a decade now, and I get asked for the recipe nearly every time I serve them.

Step-by-Step how to make lemon crinkle cookies

1

Make lemon sugar.

To make sure every bite of cookie is filled with lemon flavor, we need to infuse the sugar. Using clean hands, massage the lemon zest into the sugar until you can smell the citrus.

2

Make the dough.

Cream the butter with the lemon sugar. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix until they are combined. If it looks curdled, that’s just because of the lemon juice—add the dry ingredients, and it will smooth out. Mix until the dough starts to form a ball.

3

Chill and roll.

Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll the dough into 1 1/2″ balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. They will spread, so leave around two inches between the cookies.

4

Bake and cool.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes—err on the side of underdone for the best chewy cookies. They will still be very soft, so let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Protip: Err on the side of underbaking.

Don’t let these cookies linger in the oven—to keep them chewy, you want them to be a little underdone. These cookies should be just be slightly (like, barely) browned on the bottom, a beautiful pale yellow color on top, and a tiny bit jiggly in the middle. We promise they will firm up further as they cool!

5

Toss in powdered sugar.

To give the cookies their melt-in-your-mouth finish, toss the cooled cookies in powdered sugar.

lemon crinkle cookie protips

  • Keep an eye on these lemon cookies while they are baking. For a perfectly chewy cookie, you’ll want to pull these from the oven when they are just barely starting to brown. They’ll even still be a little jiggly in the center. They will firm up into a perfect chewiness as they cool!
  • Start with a cool cookie sheet. A warm cookie sheet starts the butter melting in cookies before they ever hit the oven, which means you’ll end up with a liquid mess of cookie instead of a perfect pillow of lemonness.

 

Lemon drop cookie with a bite taken out of it

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WATCH Me MAKE LEMON CRINKLE COOKIES

Stack of baked lemon cookies in front of a wire rack of cooling cookies

Chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies on a white board dusted with powdered sugar

Chewy Lemon Drop Cookies

This recipe was updated in December 2017 to reflect reader feedback. The original recipe can be found as a PDF here.

Chewy Lemon Snowdrop Cookies are perfectly little pillows of chewy lemonness. They look unassuming, but might be the best cookie ever made!
4.39 from 145 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Chill Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 20 cookies
Calories: 131kcal
Author: Cassie Johnston

Ingredients

  • ⅔ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
  • ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (see note for gluten-free)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
US Customary – Metric

Instructions

  • Combine 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest and ⅔ cup granulated sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using your hands, rub the zest into the sugar for a minute or so until the mixture is very fragrant.
  • Add the ½ cup unsalted butter. Using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and lemon sugar, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.
  • Add the 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 teaspoon lemon extract and beat until combined. The mixture may look curdled because of the lemon juice.
  • Add the 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and ¼ teaspoon sea salt, and beat until the dough comes together and begins to form a ball. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  • Form the dough into balls about an inch and a half in diameter and place them two inches apart on a cool, ungreased cookie sheet.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the bottoms are light golden brown.
  • Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Once the cookies have cooled, toss them in ½ cup powdered sugar and serve. Store extras in an airtight container.

Video

Notes

To make these cookies gluten free, use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free 1-to-1 Baking Flour instead of all-purpose flour. If the dough has difficulty coming together, add up to two tablespoons (18 grams) of additional 1-to-1 flour and mix again.
If you are using just one cookie sheet, be sure to let it cool completely before using it to bake another set of cookies. If the cookie sheet is warm when you add the dough balls, the cookies will spread too much.
A 3/4-ounce small cookie scoop is very handy for portioning out the dough, but a tablespoon measure also works.
The original version of this recipe can be found as a PDF here.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 131kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 85mg | Potassium: 19mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 142IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg
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Frequently Asked Questions about lemon drop cookies

Like all chewy cookie recipes, the absolute key to getting the texture right is closely monitoring your cooking time. As a matter of principle, I underbake all my cookie by 3-4 minutes less than what the recipes call for. These you have to watch like hawk. You want them to just be slightly (like, barely) browned on the bottom, and a beautiful pale yellow color on top. I wouldn’t leave the kitchen while these are baking, because 30-60 seconds in the oven too long, and your delicious, chewy cookies are instead delicious, crunchy cookies.

You’ll be tempted to leave them longer because they seem just so liquidy and gooey, but I promise, as they cool, they’ll solidify. You want to err on the side of raw cookies on these guys. You want them to be jiggly enough that it’s a little hard to wiggle them onto a spatula to take them off the tray.

Another key to getting the perfect chewy cookie: cool cookie sheets. When you’ve taken your first batch of cookies out of the oven and transferred them to a cooling rack, don’t immediately go and place raw cookie dough on the hot cookie sheet. Instead, either wait 10-15 minutes for the cookie sheet to cool (or have a second cookie sheet that is cooling while your other one is the oven), or quickly run the sheet under cold water and dry it.

I haven’t tried veering away from the lemon flavor, but I’m sure this cookie could be equally incredible with other citrus flavors. Orange zest and juice, plus maybe a tiny pinch of ground cloves would make for a delicious, holiday-flavored cookie. And some key lime zest and juice would make for a cookie that is almost like a hand-held key lime pie! Or put lemon and lime in them and they could be Sprite/7Up cookies. Yum.

To make these cookies gluten free, use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free 1-to-1 Baking Flour instead of all-purpose flour. If the dough has difficulty coming together, add up to two tablespoons (18 grams) of additional 1-to-1 flour and mix again.

This recipe was updated in December 2017 to reflect reader feedback. The original recipe can be found as a PDF here.

Cassie Johnston

Cassie is a holistic nutritionist, cookbook author, and all-around food lover. She grew up cooking dinner with her parents every evening, and her passion for home cooking has been strong ever since. Cassie is the author of two published cookbooks (Cooking with Greek Yogurt and Chia, Quinoa, Kale, Oh My!) and dozens of recipes published in major magazines and newspapers. Cassie has been sharing her award-winning recipes on Wholefully since 2010. She loves dark chocolate, homegrown tomatoes, motorsports, and anything that sparkles. She lives in Indiana with her family on a small homestead.

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4.39 from 145 votes (145 ratings without comment)

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80 Comments

  1. A local bakery makes the most flavorful chewy lemon cookies that managed to have the thinnest crackly confectioners sugar exterior. Their ingredient list is the same as yours, except it includes egg. It does seem an egg would contribute to a bit lighter and chewier texture! I’m just checking to be sure the omission of egg in your recipe is not an error —could you confirm? Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Hi Lisa! Our recipe is correct as written—it doesn’t use eggs! We hope you give it a go and let us know how it turns out for you. =)

      Reply

  2. To quickly cool a cookie sheet, hold it with a potholder, turn it over and run an ice cube over the back. It’s ready to use again right away!

    Reply

    1. Hi Eve! Does it seem like they spread too much and that’s what’s making them flat? Or did they just not puff up at all? If it’s the former, it could be because the cookie sheets were too warm and the cookies started spreading before they hit the hot oven! Multiple cookie sheets or allowing the cookie sheet to cool before adding more dough balls is key to keeping these cookies pillowy and delicious.

      Reply

  4. These turned out beautifully! I don’t have lemon extract, so I used extra lemon zest. Instead of making balls, I rolled the dough into a cylinder and then cut the cookies into pieces about an inch thick before placing them in the fridge for the suggested time.

    They baked up fluffy and lovely after 10 minutes. I let them set you suggested and then, instead of powdering them, I glazed them with a 1/2 cup of icing sugar combined with the juice of 1/2 a large lemon and about a 1/4 tsp of almond extract. Absolutely delicious!

    Thanks! I’ll add these to my favorite cookie recipes file.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for coming back to tell us how they turned out, Heather! We’re so glad you loved them, and we really appreciate you sharing the changes you made and how they worked. =)

      Reply

  6. this recipe is a total flop as written. It comes out way too dry and barely sticks together. I tried baking one and it tasted like flour. I added about 2 more tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbsp honey to the batter and they came out much better this time. The texture of both versions came out just like the photo after setting up for a few hours, so at least theres that. Take them out as soon as the top is nicely cracked and no longer. 3 TBSP zest makes no sense to me since it’s so variable based on how you pack it but i ended up using the zest and juice of 2 lemons after the second addition and they had a nice lemon flavor. Strong but not too much. After making the above modification to the remainder of the batter, they came out good and with a nice texture that I’d happily share, but not sure that I’ll be making these again. prefer lemon ricotta cookies.

    Reply

  7. I made these cookies last year a few times with great success each time (like, I had to make double batches every time because my friends and family are a bunch of lemon-sucking insatiable cookie monsters). I didn’t realise the recipe has changed – is there a particular reason why? I’m not complaining, just curious what all the changes were meant to accomplish. Still a big fan!

    Reply

    1. I’m so glad you’ve liked the recipe! We retested the recipe because lots of folks (go ahead and scroll up through the comments to see) haven’t had success with the recipe. So we retested it and clarified the measurements and instructions, so everyone can have success with it.

      If you loved the old recipe, it’s still available by clicking the link in the header of the recipe card. 🙂

      Reply

  8. My family loves very tart lemon cookies and desserts so I know from the start that adjustments will need to be made on just about any recipe. The important thing is that the bones of a recipe be spot on and your cookies are just that! Very tasty and very more-ish. ?

    So, what I did was to actually dunk the still slightly warm cookies into a small bowl of pure lemon juice mixed with sugar. Once the cookies dried, powdered sugar was sprinkled on.

    My sister went especially wild over your cookies and she isn’t particularly a cookie eater. Along with her daughter, most of those cookies were bogarted (technical term) between the two of them. I was smart enough to leave a few cookies behind and gave them to her as she left for her family’s long drive home. ✨

    Reply