Description
Learn how to make the perfect Lemon Crinkle Cookies with this foolproof recipe. These soft, chewy cookies feature fresh lemon juice and zest with a beautiful powdered sugar coating that creates gorgeous cracks. Complete with expert tips, storage instructions, and troubleshooting guide.
Ingredients
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
Instructions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Notes
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.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes + Chill Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American