Best Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Lemon Crinkle Cookies are soft, chewy, and absolutely bursting with bright citrus flavor! These irresistible cookies have that signature cracked appearance with a sweet powdered sugar coating that makes them look like little snow-dusted gems. With fresh lemon juice, zesty lemon peel, and the perfect tender texture, these cookies are pure sunshine in every bite!

Love More Crinkle Cookies? Try My Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies or this Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

They’re incredibly soft and chewy (not cakey!), packed with real lemon flavor that’s tangy but not overpowering, and they look absolutely stunning with their beautiful crinkled tops. Plus, they’re surprisingly easy to make – just mix, chill, roll, and bake.

Print

Ingredient List

Dry Stuff

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour (I just scoop and level – none of that fancy weighing for me)
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Wet Stuff / Flavor

• ¾ cup unsalted butter (leave it out for an hour so it’s squishy)
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 big egg (room temp too)
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest (pack it in there)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For Rolling Around

• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar (this step’s optional but I always do it)
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Don’t have cornstarch? Skip it – your cookies will still taste amazing, just a bit different texture-wise. Bottled lemon juice works if that’s what you’ve got, but fresh really makes a difference.

Why These Ingredients Work

Here’s what I learned after way too many test batches: that cornstarch is doing some serious magic. Makes these cookies so soft they almost fall apart in your mouth – but don’t worry, they hold together when you eat them. The baking soda makes them puff up and then crack in all the right places.

Fresh lemon juice and zest are totally different from the bottled stuff. I tried cutting corners once and regretted it immediately. The fresh gives you this clean, bright taste that doesn’t remind you of cleaning products.

That double sugar thing – rolling in granulated first, then powdered – keeps the white coating from disappearing in the oven. Skip the granulated roll and you’ll wonder where all your powdered sugar went after baking.

Essential Tools and Equipment

You need a mixer – doesn’t matter if it’s the fancy stand mixer or just a hand mixer. Couple of bowls for mixing. A whisk. Cookie scoop makes everything easier but you can use a spoon. Baking sheets and parchment paper. Wire rack for cooling. Two small bowls for the sugar rolling – trust me, you don’t want to do this over your counter like I did the first time. What a mess.

How To Make Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Step 1: Mix the Dry Ingredients

Throw flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and whisk it around. Nothing complicated. Just don’t want any lumps of baking soda hiding in there.

Step 2: Cream Butter and Sugar

Beat the butter and sugar for 3 minutes until it’s light and fluffy. This part actually matters – don’t rush it. It’s what makes these cookies soft instead of dense.

Step 3: Add Wet Ingredients

Add your egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix it up good. It’s gonna look really weird and curdled because of all that lemon juice. Mine always looks like it’s broken. It’s fine.

Step 4: Combine Everything

Add the flour mixture slowly while mixing on low. Stop when it’s just mixed – don’t beat the life out of it. The dough will be sticky and thick.

Step 5: Chill the Dough

Cover this sticky mess and stick it in the fridge for at least 3 hours. I know it’s annoying to wait, but you’ll get flat pancake cookies if you don’t. I ruined my first batch trying to skip this step.

Step 6: Get Ready to Bake

Heat oven to 350°F. Put parchment paper on your baking sheets. I always do two sheets because I’m impatient and want to bake more at once.

Step 7: Roll the Dough

Scoop out about a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball. Roll it in the granulated sugar first, then roll it around in the powdered sugar. Don’t be stingy with the powdered sugar – really coat these things.

Step 8: Bake Them

Put the balls about 3 inches apart on your sheets. Bake for 12-13 minutes. The edges should look set but the middles still soft. If they’re not spreading much by 9 minutes, take the pan out and bang it on the counter once, then put it back in.

Step 9: Let Them Cool

Leave them on the pan for 5 minutes, then move to a cooling rack. They’ll sink down a bit while cooling and get those wrinkly tops.

You Must Know

Here’s what messed up my first batch: I got impatient and didn’t chill the dough long enough. This stuff is super sticky from all that lemon juice. Without cold dough, you get flat sad cookies instead of puffy crinkly ones.

My weird habit: I roll each ball in powdered sugar three times. Sounds crazy but it makes that white coating thick enough to stay visible after baking. Most people do it once and wonder why their cookies don’t look white enough.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

Get your butter and egg out of the fridge about an hour before you start. I used to think close enough was fine, but cold ingredients don’t mix right and you end up with dense cookies.

Don’t bake these until they look totally done – they should still be soft in the middle when you take them out. They keep cooking on the hot pan. I used to wait until they looked perfect and ended up with hard cookies.

That counter-tap thing works great when cookies are being stubborn about spreading. Just one good bang and they flatten out. Learned this from watching too many baking videos.

Measure your flour by spooning it into the cup and leveling it off. Don’t pack it down or scoop directly from the bag. Too much flour makes tough cookies and nobody wants that.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Want to change things up? Swap the lemon for orange – my kids like these better actually. Or try lime with some coconut. Really good in summer.

My sister loves super lemony things, so I add extra lemon extract for her. Half a teaspoon on top of everything else. It’s pretty strong though.

Been playing around with a tiny bit of lavender – just a pinch. It’s weird but good. Make sure you get the cooking kind, not from the garden center.

Or forget the sugar coating completely and drizzle lemon glaze on after they cool. Different look but tastes great.

Make-Ahead Options

The dough gets better after sitting in the fridge for a day. I usually make it Sunday and bake all week when I want something sweet.

You can roll balls and freeze them on trays, then bag them up once they’re solid. They keep for months. Bake straight from frozen – just add a minute or two.

Fresh dough lasts 3 days in the fridge. After that the lemon juice gets weird.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

The cornstarch makes these super tender by messing with how the flour works. Without it they’re still good, just not as soft.

Baking soda does two jobs – makes them spread and creates the cracks when they puff up and settle back down. Kind of cool what happens in the oven.

Serving Suggestions

I bring these to book club because they look fancy but aren’t messy to eat while we argue about character motivation. Great for cookie swaps too – that white coating screams winter holidays.

Keep them in a jar on the counter if they last that long. Good with coffee in the morning or tea in the afternoon. Or just grab one when you walk through the kitchen.

Really good with vanilla ice cream if you want to get fancy. The cold ice cream with warm cookie is perfect.

These have become the thing I’m known for making. Perfect balance of tart and sweet, and they look great in pictures if you’re into that.

How to Store Your Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Keep them covered on the counter and they’ll stay soft for about a week. Actually taste better after a day.

Baked cookies freeze great for months in a container. Raw dough balls freeze too – just don’t coat them in sugar until you’re ready to bake.

Raw dough keeps in the fridge for 3 days max. After that it gets weird from the lemon juice.

They’re perfect at room temperature. But 10 seconds in the microwave makes them taste fresh-baked.

Allergy Information

These have wheat, butter, and eggs, so they won’t work if you’re allergic to any of that.

For gluten-free, try the 1:1 baking flour. Add some xanthan gum if it’s not already in there. Vegan butter might work for dairy-free as long as it’s soft.

Never tried egg-free but maybe that flax egg thing would work – tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons water, let it sit until it gets thick.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I skip the chilling step to save time?

No way! I know you want cookies now, but this dough is too sticky to work with when it’s warm. You’ll get flat pancake things instead of puffy cookies. I ruined a whole batch trying to skip this. Just plan ahead.

My cookies didn’t crack – what went wrong?

Probably not cold enough or your oven runs hot. Chill for the full 3 hours. Get an oven thermometer – most ovens are off. That counter-bang thing helps too if they’re not spreading.

Can I use bottled lemon juice instead of fresh?

You can but it won’t taste as good. Bottled tastes flat compared to fresh. If that’s all you have, add extra lemon extract. But the zest has to be fresh.

Why are my cookies flat after baking?

Temperature problem. Either your dough got warm while you were rolling or it didn’t chill long enough. Try putting the shaped balls back in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking. Work fast so the dough stays cold.

How do I get the powdered sugar to stay thick?

Roll them hard in a deep bowl of powdered sugar. I do it multiple times until they look like snowballs. Don’t do it with warm dough or the sugar melts off.

💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! I’d love to hear how your Lemon Crinkle Cookies turned out!