Lemon Crinkle Cookies are a zesty lemon take on a classic crinkle cookie. These one bowl cookies use fresh lemon juice and zest for a super lemony cookie that melts in your mouth. No chilling required!
Hi hi - I am just popping in to share this super easy lemon crinkle cookie recipe with you! Made with fresh lemon (both zest and juice), these cookies come together in one bowl in about 30 minutes. They don't require any chilling, and are soft and chewy, and super flavourful.
I have a few crinkle cookie recipes on my site - my classic chocolate crinkle cookies and also my red velvet crinkle cookie recipe, but a lot of people asked for a lemon crinkle cookie version, so here we are!
These lemon crinkle cookies are slightly thicker and chewier than their chocolate counterparts. I love them a lot and I hope that you do too! I love making recipes with fresh lemon so these are great to add into rotation.
Ingredients in Lemon Crinkle Cookies
These lemon crinkle cookies come together with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. Here's what I used and why:
- Granulated sugar. I used just regular granulated sugar - if you have caster sugar that will work too. Using white sugar helps with spread in cookies and gives a really nice chew.
- Lemon Zest. This recipe uses 10g lemon zest - about two lemons worth but weigh it just to make sure as lemons can be different sizes.
- Melted butter and oil. This recipe uses both melted butter and oil - more on that in a bit. I use unsalted butter and a neutral oil which just means anything neutral tasting - canola, vegetable, rice bran, grapeseed etc
- Fresh lemon juice. Some recipes use lemon extract but I much prefer these with fresh lemon. Make sure you zest the lemon before juicing - if you do it the other way around it's a pain!
- Vanilla - I use vanilla bean paste but if you have vanilla extract that will work fine too.
- Flour. I use all-purpose flour, which is also called plain flour depending on where you live.
- Salt. Essential for balancing out the sweetness in baking.
- Baking Powder. In my chocolate and red velvet crinkles I use baking soda, but because of the lemon juice in the recipe I didn't want them to react before the oven and not give any rise, so I switched to baking powder.
- Granulated sugar and powdered sugar for rolling. It is important to use both to get a nice even coverage on your cookies.
Oil vs Butter for Cookies
I wrote extensively in my chocolate crinkle cookie recipe about using oil vs butter in crinkle cookies because of how it reacted with the powdered sugar on the outside.
When I tested the recipe with only butter, the powdered sugar went super gooey from the water in the butter. When I switched to oil which is only fat and no water to evaporate, this fixed the problem.
However when I made this lemon crinkle cookie recipe I ran into an issue - it was really missing the butter flavour. The cookies I tested with only oil weren't super flavourful and really just needed something else.
To get around this I went for half oil and half butter which seemed to do the trick and not give gooey soggy cookies while still benefitting from the butter in the recipe.
If you wanted to keep these totally dairy free you could - just use 75g neutral oil instead of the oil and butter mix.
The trick to super lemony baking - rubbing the zest into sugar
This is a trick I use whenever I am making anything using lemon zest and sugar. Rubbing the fresh lemon zest into the sugar helps to release the oil in the zest and flavour the sugar, meaning that you get as much flavour into your lemon crinkle cookies as possible.
How to get a good coating on Crinkle Cookies - Granulated Sugar then Powdered Sugar
One thing with crinkle cookies is that it can be quite hard to keep the powdered sugar on the outside of the cookie. This is what is essential to give it the signature crinkle look.
The best trick that I have found to make sure you get a good coating is to do two coatings of sugar - the first in granulated sugar and the second in powdered sugar.
Because the dough is quite soft, I find it best to plop the lemon cookie dough directly into the granulated sugar and coat it so that it is easy to handle. I find it best to work with one ball of dough at a time as they can get a little mis-shapen and be hard to shape if you do them all at once.
How do you store Crinkle Cookies?
Store lemon crinkle cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They should keep for up to 5 days. Make sure that, if possible, you don't shake the container around too much as it messes up the powdered sugar on the outside of the cookie.
Can Lemon Crinkle Cookies be made ahead of time?
Because of how sticky the dough is to work with and how quickly they come together, I don't think that these would be good to make ahead of time. For some recipes it works, this is one of those where you are best to just make the dough while the oven preheats.
Can I freeze Lemon Crinkle Cookies?
Again - I don't think it will work sorry, things will get super weird super fast, as the dough is just too sticky to work with so making ahead and freezing would be a nightmare.
For all my notes on cookies that are great to make ahead of time check out my post - how to freeze cookie dough and bake from frozen.
Oven Temperature for Lemon Crinkle Cookies
You will notice that the oven temperature on these cookies is slightly lower than a 'regular' recipe - I bake them at 325°f / 160°c instead of the more common 350°f / 180°c.
This is to do with how the cookie sets up in the oven. Playing around with the oven temperature can affect the spread of the cookie a lot - in this case, baking at a slightly lower temperature means that the cookie sinks down in the oven slightly slower, giving it time to bake up nice and thick. Because it is thicker and a slightly wetter dough from the lemon juice in the recipe, it is also good to give it a lower and slower baking time so that the inside has a chance to fully bake before the outside dries out.
How to tell when Lemon Crinkle Cookies are baked
This can be slightly trickier for this recipe than it is for others - you want the cookies to be fully baked on the inside, as if you underbake them they are super cakey and not at all in a good way. (This happened when I was testing them and it definitely isn't the same as a gooey chocolate chip cookie).
Look for the outside of the cookies to be fully set, and if you press one with your finger you are looking for them to not feel too wet in the middle. For me, the baking time was 15-16 minutes, but make sure that you keep an eye on them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tools and equipment do you use?
You can find a full list of the tools and equipment I use on my products page
Can I make these with bottled Lemon Juice?
I wouldn't. Bottled lemon juice can have an artificial taste to it (even if it is real lemon), so I much prefer to use fresh lemon for this recipe - you also need the zest for the recipe.
Help - is the dough meant to be sticky?!
Yes, it is a sticky dough. The dough won't be able to be rolled into a ball - it sort of just forms a blob when you scoop it out. Scooping it directly into the granulated sugar helps this a lot.
For more Holiday Cookie recipes, check out:
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Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
30 Minute Lemon Crinkle Cookies with Fresh Lemon
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookiesq
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Lemon Crinkle Cookies are a zesty lemon take on a classic crinkle cookie. These one bowl cookies use fresh lemon juice and zest for a super lemony cookie that melts in your mouth. No chilling required!
Ingredients
- 150g granulated sugar
- 10g fresh lemon zest
- 40g melted unsalted butter, left to cool slightly
- 35g neutral oil
- 30g fresh lemon juice
- 1 large egg (50g without the shell), at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 210g all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- Powdered sugar and granulated sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°f / 165°c and arrange a rack in the middle of the oven. Line 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper (I fitted them all on one half sized sheet but do what you are comfortable with).
- In a medium bowl, place the granulated sugar and lemon zest. Using your fingers, rub the lemon zest into the sugar until evenly incorporated. Add the melted butter, oil, and lemon juice. Mix to combine, then add the egg and vanilla.
- Mix well with a whisk or an electric hand mixer until the mixture has thickened slightly and is well combined, 1-2 minutes.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until just combined with a spatula.
- Place granulated sugar and powdered sugar in bowls for rolling.
- Using a #40 cookie scoop, scoop out balls of cookie dough (approximately 40g per dough ball) and place them into the bowl of granulated sugar (work with one ball of dough at a time). Roll it in the granulated sugar to coat, then shape it into a ball and roll in the powdered sugar (I like to shake the bowl and then give the dough ball a little gentle squeeze to help the powdered sugar stick. Place the dough ball onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat with the remaining dough balls, arranging on the baking sheet leaving room for spreading. They may flatten a little as you place them onto the baking sheet - do not flatten further.
- Bake the cookies for 15-16 minutes checking after 14, until the cookies are set around the edges and no longer look soft in the middle of the cookie. The cookies can taste a little gluggy if they are undercooked so just watch the baking time carefully.
- Remove the pan from the oven and leave to cool on the pan for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
The dough is quite wet and a little sticky which is why I am getting you to scoop the dough straight into the sugar. They will sink down slightly when you place them onto the baking sheet - this is ok.
Comments
Rebecca Long says
I saw this recipe and made them right away! Great flavor, but you must have added food coloring because mine didn’t look anything like your picture.
Erin Clarkson says
Haha nope I didn't add any food colouring - lemons and eggs can be different colours in different countries - the eggs and butter and lemons here are super yellow. I pride myself on being very honest and transparent with my recipes and so if I use food colouring I would include it in the ingredients.
Lauren says
I made these today with my daughter and they turned out so well! Thank you for sharing such amazing recipes!
La Ng says
Made these as soon as I saw recipe. I’m a lemon addict. They turned out great. I did add a little more zest cause I didn’t want to wast a lemon and more juice so I had to add more flour to get the batter to a consistency that I could work with but the flavor was perfection. Best recipe ever. I’ll be making these for years too come.
caribou says
recipe works perfectly and really really good!!
Grace Adeson says
SO good! Made these for a bridal shower and received a ton of compliments and several asks for the recipe. I only had 3 lemons that I guess were small because it only got me to 4g of zest but obviously they were still yummy so I’m excited to try again with bigger lemons!
Nadia says
Made this recipe just before Easter with my freezer stash of lemon juice and zest. Made cute little cookies that kinda look like cracked eggs - perfect for a non traditional Easter themed treat. My dad loved them, think he ate about 5 out of the 9 I took to my parents house
Ida Pedersen says
Love it😍
Jessica says
I made them and my family of 4 devoured them in 2 days! Make sure that you remove all of the pith though. I think there was some in my batch and it had a slightly bitter aftertaste. But they were still very enjoyable.
Erin Clarkson says
Ahh yes I find that using something like a microplane which only takes off the zest is the best way to avoid pith!
Lydia F says
These are delicious! I've made them twice in a week! Mine however lose their shape and spread out, I'd love to achieve the little dome biscuit shape - any tips on what could cause them to spread? Unfortunately I didn't have the right flour or butter (I used self raising and salted butter) - maybe that was my problem. Great recipe, I'll crack it some day! Thanks!
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! Ah yes the recipe doesn't use self raising flour so that was likely your issue!
Merophy Hyslop says
Making these today - Yum! Do they freeze well AFTER baking?
Erin Clarkson says
I don't think so sorry as the icing sugar doesn't like to be knocked around!
Erik says
Do you have all the measurements in cups/tbsp/tsp? I’d love to try but don’t have a kitchen scale…
Erin Clarkson says
I don't sorry! You're welcome to convert but I don't post my recipes in cups as they are not accurate.
Natalie says
Such a great recipe! I didn't change a thing. They turned out great and tasted even better! The only issue I had was getting the confectioners sugar to stick to the cookie- mine was quite clumpy. Next time I'll sift it!
Bex says
New favourite cookie. Super easy to make, flavour is perfectly balanced and honestly a little fun to watch the texture come up.
Deepa says
Can the dough be premade and refrigerated for next day use?
Erin Clarkson says
I haven't tested it sorry!
Gill says
Really tasty, and easy to make. I’ve shared this recipe with several people who loved these cookies.
Larae says
This recipe was delicious! I appreciate recipes in grams, though I didn't bother weighing the lemon zest. I just zested 2 small lemons and it was perfect.
Lauren Stone says
Love this recipe. Accurate 30 min recipe for a fast and tasty cookie.
Cecily says
FOOD OF THE GODS! These are so delicious and beautiful too. Fantastic detailed recipe with clear helpful advice at each step. They are quite a hearty and substantial biscuit (my family enjoy them this size), I’m going to try a daintier half size and adjust the cooking time for a morning tea at my kids’ school tomorrow morning.
Thank you Erin for this excellent recipe!
Lana says
Thank you for the recipe - delicious!
Jie says
Hello! Since these crinkles use half oil and half butter, could a butter compound work?
Erin Clarkson says
I'm not sure what a butter compound is sorry - I haven't come across it before
Georgia says
Super easy, delicious recipe and not too sweet! Love making Cloudy Kitchen recipes.
Kelly says
These were absolutely delicious and CUTE little cookies. What a treat. Loved making them. Thanks Erin!!