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Lemon Crinkle Cookies

You’ll Love These Lemony Crinkle Cookies

There are plenty of reasons I can’t get enough of these sweet, tangy cookies. Here’s what keeps me coming back again and again:

BIG lemon flavor. These cookies are bursting with refreshing, bright, REAL lemon flavor from fresh lemon juice and zest. No extracts. No bottled juice. No dried zest. Au naturel, and OH so fabulous.
Great texture. The light, cake-like texture of these cookies is unbelievable! They’re soft and tender on the inside with a subtle hint of chewiness, while the sugar-coated edges add a satisfying crunch.
Easy to make. No mixer needed here. Just combine your ingredients, chill, then bake.
Fun to look at. With a powdered sugar coating that crackles in the oven in a gorgeous pattern of yellow and white, they’re as eye-catching as they are delicious.

Recipe Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make the best lemon crinkle cookies ever! For precise measurements, scroll to the recipe card below.

Ingredients for lemon crinkle cookies, labeled.

All-purpose flour – Be sure to measure correctly, as too much flour will cause your cookies to not spread and dry out. I always recommend a food scale.
Unsalted butter – You can also use salted butter, but you’ll want to reduce, or leave out, the added salt.
Egg – A large egg, not medium or extra large.
Lemon juice – Freshly squeezed, please! The bottled stuff just doesn’t give the same flavor.
Lemon zest – The fresher, the better! I don’t recommend jarred zest.
Powdered sugar (for rolling) – I highly recommend using a fine mesh sieve to sift the powdered sugar, especially if it’s been sitting in your pantry for a while. Clumpy powdered sugar won’t stick well to the dough.

How to Make Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Here’s a quick rundown of how to make these lemony treats. Be sure to scroll to the recipe card below for more detailed instructions.

Combine the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Combine the wet ingredients. Whisk together the melted butter and sugar, followed by the egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract.
Put it all together. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg mixture.
Chill. Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.
Prep to bake. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together melted butter and sugar for lemon crinkle cookie dough. — Whisk together the butter and sugar.

Mix the eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla into melted butter and sugar. — Whisk together the butter and sugar.

Roll. Roll ~1 tablespoon of dough into a ball and then roll the ball in granulated sugar, followed by powdered sugar to coat. Place the sugar-coated cookie dough on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with the remaining dough (and sugar). Leave 2-3 inches between each dough ball.
Bake. Bake for 9-13 minutes.
Cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 3-5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Rolling a ball of lemon cookie dough in sugar. — Roll balls of dough in sugar.

Balls of lemon cookie dough coated in powdered sugar, ready to bake. — Roll balls of dough in sugar.

Tips for Success

Don’t over-mix. When mixing the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients for the cookie dough, mix just until everything is combined. Over-mixing can cause the glutens in the flour to overdevelop, resulting in tough cookies.
Don’t skip the chill. The cookie dough will be quite sticky, so it really does need to be chilled for a few hours before rolling. This makes the dough much easier to work with. The lemon also has time to settle into the dough and results in a stronger lemon flavor.
Don’t over-bake. These sweet treats bake pretty quickly and are way less tasty if they’re overdone and ry. So check on them at about 8 minutes and then every couple of minutes thereafter. Remove them from the oven just as the centers begin to look done.

A lemon crinkle cookie with a bite taken out of it.

How to Get The Perfect Crackle Effect

Sift the powdered sugar. Seriously. Even if your powdered sugar doesn’t really seem lumpy, sifting it will help separate all the little granules of sugar, and they will stick to the cookie better and stay in place better as they bake. This step made the biggest difference in the crackly look, so don’t skip it!
Roll in granulated sugar first. This will help the powdered sugar stay on your cookie. The granulated sugar creates a barrier, so that the powdered sugar doesn’t dissolve before the cookies are fully baked.

Can I use Lemon Extract?

Technically, you could add a little lemon extract for even bigger lemon flavor. However, I did test that in these cookies and it definitely added an artificial flavor, even with a high quality brand extract. For the best, most real and natural lemon flavor, stick with the lemon juice and zest. The flavor really incorporates beautifully into the cookie dough during chilling and gives the best flavor.

Overhead image of lemon crinkle cookies on a cooling rack.

How to Store

Room temperature. Store the fully cooled leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Freezing before baking. I would recommend freezing the dough before baking, if you’d like to prep ahead. The dough could be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw the cookie dough before baking, so that the powdered sugar sticks properly.
Freezing after baking. If you freeze them after baking, just keep in mind that the moisture creating during thawing will soak into the powdered sugar, and your cookies won’t have the same crackly powdered sugar effect.

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