Welcome summertime with these delicious Soft & Thick Lemon Sugar Cookies. They are easy to make and are infused with a refreshing, light lemon flavor! Watch the video below to see how quick & simple they are.
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Why I love these lemonade cookies:
- Thick & dense: These cookies are not only thick, but they have the perfect combination of melt-in-your mouth softness with a touch of denseness.
- Amazing chilled! I developed this recipe back in 2015 before Crumbl existed and it turns out the texture when chilled is similar to their cookies, which lead me to turn these into frosted birthday cake cookies, as well!
- Light lemon flavor: The combination of lemon extract & fresh lemon juice give these a bright, light lemonade flavor. For a stronger flavor, feel free to double the lemon extract in the cookie dough!
What You Need To Make Thick Lemon Sugar Cookies
- Unsalted Butter
- Granulated Sugar & Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla Extract & Lemon Extract
- Eggs
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- For Frosting: Butter, Cream Cheese, Lemon Extract, Lemon Juice Vanilla Extract, Powdered Sugar
How to Make Thick Lemon Sugar Cookies
Step 1: Mix Cookie Dough
Follow the instructions in the recipe card below to make the sugar cookie dough.
Step 2: Scoop, Roll, and Bake
After scooping the dough into 3 tablespoon-sized balls, use your hands to roll into balls and then flatten the tops a bit to look like thick discs (see below). This helps them bake into a nice even cookie without having dome tops.
Step 3: Make Frosting
After baking & allowing the cookies to cool, whip up a batch of the Lemon Cream Cheese frosting and pipe it on top. This frosting is super creamy, has a light refreshing lemon flavor, and is the perfect consistency for piping basic swirls or spreading with a knife.
Step 4: Decorate
Top each cookie with sprinkles and fun paper toppers (links to SVG files bel0w) and you're ready for all the lemonade stands and summer barbecues coming your way!
Materials
Soft & Thick Lemon Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (i.e. 1 ½ sticks) you will be melting this
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk (you will be using 1 whole egg + 1 extra egg yolk)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (i.e. ½ stick) room temperature
- 4 ounces cream cheese chilled (ie. straight from the fridge)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
Before you begin! If you make this, will you do me a huge favor and leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe? This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small glass bowl, microwave unsalted butter (¾ cups, i.e. 1 ½ sticks) until melted. Pour into large mixing bowl. Add in granulated sugar (½ cup) and powdered sugar (½ cup) and mix for 10 seconds.
- Add 1 egg + 1 yolk, vanilla extract (2 teaspoons), and lemon extract (½ teaspoon) and mix on medium speed for 20 seconds.
- Turn mixer to low speed, then add baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons), baking soda (½ teaspoon) and salt (¼ teaspoon). Mix for 10 seconds.
- Half cup at a time, add all-purpose flour (2 ½ cups) and mix until flour is just incorporated (about 10-20 seconds). Do not overmix.
- Immediately after mixing, scoop dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls. Lightly flatten each ball before placing on cookie sheet. (Because this has melted butter, do not let the dough sit out before rolling into balls & baking, or your dough will become dry and crumbly.)
- Bake at 350℉ for 8-10 minutes. (The magic number in my oven is 9 minutes) They may look underdone, but they will finish baking on the hot cookie sheet after you take it out of the oven. (Of course, because ovens bake differently use your best judgement to keep them in a minute longer if they look severely underbaked.)
- After removing from oven, allow the cookies to cool on the hot baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them from cookie sheet.
To make frosting:
- In a large bowl, beat the softened unsalted butter (¼ cup) and cream cheese (4 ounces) on medium speed using a hand or stand mixer (with paddle attachment) for 2-3 minutes (until light and creamy).
- Keeping the mixer on medium speed, slowly add in vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), lemon extract (½ teaspoon), fresh lemon juice (1 tablespoon), and powdered sugar (1 ¼ cups). Once incorporated, turn mixer to high speed and beat for 2 minutes.
- Spread or pipe frosting on cooled cookies and top with sprinkles, if desired!
Last Step! Please leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe! This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Nutrition
So now I'm curious: If you had to choose between chocolate or a citrus cookie, which would you choose?
My family loves these cookie. Can’t get them to stop eating them to even frost enough. I’m making them for my son’s wedding. Do you know if they freeze well?
I'm so happy your family loves the lemon sugar cookies, Caprice! Thanks so much for taking time to leave a review! If you'd like to freeze them, I'd freeze them before frosting them. You'd want to let them come to room temp before frosting. Because the frosting has cream cheese in it, it thaws tacky. So, it's not the most ideal for freezing. Hope this helps!
these are my favorite dessert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so glad you love the lemon sugar cookies, Jill. Thanks so much for taking time to leave a review!
Hi! I am looking for a thick lemon cookie recipe and thought I'd try yours. In addition to being thick, I like to make my cookies large, like a 3" diameter. Will your size dough ball give me this size cookie or do I need to go up to 2 oz or 4 tbsp? Thank you.
For a 3" size, I would do 4 tablespoons! Just be sure to gently flatten the tops before baking so they aren't raw in the center.
My work had a bake-off event so I quickly went to Melissa's website to see what would be fun to make (and simple). These were a HUGE hit, and I ended up winning the contest! The cream cheese frosting really makes it so perfect!
YAY, this makes me so happy to hear! Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews, Autumn! :)
I found this recipe on TikTok over a year ago and have make them for every occasion. They are a hit! Super simple recipe and soooo good!
Yay, so glad you love this recipe so much, Jessica! Thank you so much for leaving a review!
I made these as part of the baking challenge and wow! They are delicious!!! They are soft and tangy and the frosting is super creamy. They were very easy to make and very lemony! Yum!
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, I really appreciate it!
I loved this Lemon Cookie recipe for the May Baking Challenge! I personally did not try the lemon icing, I chose to make a lavender lemon icing and it was perfect with it.
Yummm, a lavender lemon icing sounds intriguing! Thanks for leaving a review, Veronica!
Not usually a lemon fan, but these cookies are so good! Refreshing taste, looking forward to taking these to every cookout this summer!
So happy to hear this recipe made it on your summer go-to list! Thank you so much for leaving a review, Jordan!
I was a little worried about the cookies being too lemony, but that is not the case at all. A subtle hint of lemon in a thick and delicious bakery-style cookie! I will definitely be making this again throughout the summer!
So happy to hear you ended up loving this recipe, Kathryn! Thank you so much for leaving a review!
I made this recipe for my mum who absolutely LOVES lemony things when I went to see her. She fell in love with them and begged me to make them next time I saw her. I am a part of the baking challenge this month and was delighted by this recipe.
So glad to hear you and your mom love this recipe so much! I'm with her, can't get enough of all the lemony things! Thank you so much for leaving a review and for participating in the baking challenge! :)
The cookies themselves don't have a lemon flavor at all. There is a very subtle lemon flavor in the frosting. The recipe was easy to follow. My cookies came out a bit dry, though I took half out earlier than the other half to see the difference. There also isn't any instruction on how to store these cookies, so I'm not sure if they need to be refrigerated or not. I won't be trying this recipe again, as I feel it was a waste of ingredients.
Sorry these weren’t to your liking! They are more of a subtle lemon flavor but they shouldn’t be dry. That can happen if the flour is over measured and/or if you let the dough sit too long causing the melted butter to cool too much. Thanks for giving them a try!
Amazing! These sell like crazy at bake sales, and my boyfriend loves them
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, Ashley! I really appreciate it!
OMG best cookie recipe ever have made several times (i’ve memorised it) and my family love them.
Yay, so happy to hear you and your family love this recipe so much, Ellie! Thank you so much for leaving a review, I really appreciate it!
Soooooo good and easy to make! Everyone loved them!
Thanks for leaving a review, Brittany!
My son and grandsons all time favorite cookie!
I’m a sucker for anything lemon, these were the best hands down!