Welcome summertime with these delicious Soft & Thick Lemon Sugar Cookies. They are easy to make and are infused with a refreshing, light lemon flavor!
Ask me 6 months ago if I’d rather have a chocolate or fruit-flavored cookie and I would have hands-down said chocolate. In fact, it wouldn’t have even taken 0.001 to decide. Fast forward to today and I’m not sure if my taste buds have matured or if I’m more open-minded in my old age, but I’m starting to actually like citrusy baked goods. I think it has something to do with the fact that my favorite local cookie bakery has killer orange & lemon cookies, so I have them to thank for this conversion.
So with summer approaching, I thought I’d try my hand at some homemade lemon sugar cookies to bring the lemonade vibes to your backyard barbecues. These cookies are not only thick, but they have the perfect combination of melt-in-your mouth softness with a touch of denseness.
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.
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.
Top each cookie with sprinkles and fun paper toppers and you’re ready for all the lemonade stands and summer barbecues coming your way!
These delicious Soft & Thick Lemon Sugar Cookies are easy to make, infused with a refreshing, light lemon flavor, and topped with thick cream cheese frosting!
- 3/4 cup 1.5 sticks unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter room temperature
- 4 oz cream cheese chilled (ie. straight from the fridge)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small glass bowl, microwave butter until melted. Pour into large mixing bowl.
- Add in white sugar and powdered sugar and mix for 10 seconds.
- Add eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract and mix on medium speed for 20 seconds.
- Turn mixer to low speed, and add baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix for 10 seconds.
- Half cup at a time, add flour and mix until flour is just incorporate (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 degrees 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 under baked.)
- 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 butter and cream cheese 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, lemon juice, lemon extract, and powdered sugar. Once incorporated, turn mixer to high speed and beat for 2 minutes.
- Spread or pipe frosting on cooled cookies and top with sprinkles!
So now I’m curious: If you had to choose between chocolate or a citrus cookie, which would you choose?
Tiffany says
These cookies look amazing. I love the thickness of the sugar cookies. I love citrus but I am 99% of the time always going to pick chocolate! :)