Lemon Raspberry Cookies

Lemon raspberry cookies are soft, bursting with bright citrus flavor, and loaded with juicy raspberries in every single bite! These easy-to-make treats combine the perfect balance of tangy lemon and sweet raspberries, creating cookies that are absolutely impossible to resist. With simple pantry ingredients and fresh berries, you’ll have a batch of bakery-quality cookies ready in just 25 minutes!

Love More Cookies? Try My Raspberry Linzer Cookies or this Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

The bright, zesty lemon flavor paired with bursts of sweet-tart raspberries creates the most incredible flavor combination. They’re soft and chewy with just the right amount of tang, and the best part? They’re ridiculously easy to make with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.

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Ingredient List

Wet Stuff:

• ½ cup butter (make sure it’s soft or you’ll hate your life)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg (room temp – cold eggs are weird in batter)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 lemon’s worth of zest and juice

Dry Stuff:

• 1½ cups flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

The Good Stuff:

• 1½ cups raspberries (fresh or frozen, whatever)

If You Don’t Have This:

• No fresh lemon? Bottled works but tastes kinda meh
• Salted butter? Use it but cut the salt in half
• Frozen berries work great, maybe even better than fresh

Why These Ingredients Work

Okay, so here’s the thing about butter – it’s gotta be soft but not melted, like you can press your finger into it but it doesn’t squish everywhere. That’s what makes these cookies chewy instead of flat pancakes. The lemon zest is where all the good stuff lives – way better than just juice alone. And those raspberries? They’re basically little water balloons of sweetness that pop when you bite them.

Essential Tools and Equipment

• Mixer (hand or stand, whatever you got)
• Two bowls
• Cookie scoop (saves your sanity)
• Two cookie sheets
• Parchment paper (don’t be a hero, use it)
• Cooling rack
• Sieve for the flour stuff

How To Make Lemon Raspberry Cookies

1. Prep Your Workspace

Preheat your oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Don’t skip the parchment – learned that the hard way when I spent 20 minutes scraping cookies off the pan.

2. Cream Butter and Sugar

Beat that butter and sugar for a full 3 minutes until it looks like fluffy clouds. I used to rush this step and my cookies came out flat. Now I set a timer because apparently my idea of 3 minutes is actually 30 seconds.

3. Add Wet Ingredients

Toss in the vanilla, egg, salt, lemon zest, and juice on low speed. It might look weird and curdled when you add the lemon juice – that freaked me out the first time, but it’s totally normal. Just keep mixing until it comes together.

4. Mix the Dry Stuff

Sift your flour, baking powder, and baking soda together in another bowl. Yeah, sifting’s annoying but it stops your cookies from getting weird lumps.

5. Combine Everything

Dump the flour mixture into the wet stuff slowly while the mixer’s on low. Stop as soon as it looks combined – nobody wants tough cookies.

6. Fold in Raspberries

This is where you gotta be gentle – like you’re tucking a baby into bed. Stir those raspberries in with a spoon, not the mixer. I made the mistake of using the mixer once and ended up with pink cookie dough and raspberry mush.

7. Scoop and Bake

Use a cookie scoop if you have one – the dough’s gonna be sticky as heck and will drive you crazy if you try spooning it out. I learned this after making the first batch look like abstract art blobs.

8. Bake These Bad Boys

Stick them in for 14-16 minutes. They’re done when the tops aren’t shiny anymore and the edges look kinda golden. Don’t wait for them to look fully baked or you’ll get sad, crunchy cookies.

9. Let Them Chill

Let them sit on the pan for 10 minutes before moving them. Trust me on this – hot cookies fall apart and you’ll be eating cookie crumbs off the floor like some kind of animal.

You Must Know

Critical Tip: Your butter needs to be soft like Play-Doh, not melted like soup. Room temp butter creams properly – melted butter makes flat, sad cookies that spread everywhere.

Personal Secret: Keep those raspberries in the freezer until you’re literally about to fold them in. I discovered this trick after ruining three batches with mushy, pink cookie dough. Frozen berries stay intact and don’t bleed everywhere.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

• Stop the Spread: If your dough gets too mushy while you’re working, stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Learned this after batch number two spread into one giant cookie sheet pancake.
• Even Browning: Spin those pans halfway through baking. My oven’s wonky and the back always cooks faster.
• Scoop Hack: Wet your cookie scoop between uses – keeps the sticky dough from clinging to it like glue.
• Don’t Overbake: Pull them when they look set but still soft. They keep cooking on the hot pan, so better slightly underdone than hockey pucks.
• Biggest Mistake: Don’t overmix after adding flour. I did this once and got cookies that could double as doorstops.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

• White Chocolate: Throw in some white chocolate chips with the berries – tastes like fancy bakery cookies
• Different Berries: Mix it up with blueberries or blackberries
• Lime Instead: Swap the lemon for lime if you’re feeling wild
• Almond Vibes: Add a tiny bit of almond extract for that bakery smell
• Glaze It: Drizzle some powdered sugar mixed with lemon juice on top when they’re cool

Make-Ahead Options

You can totally make these ahead. Scoop the dough, freeze the raw balls on a tray, then toss them in a bag. Bake straight from frozen and add a couple extra minutes. The finished cookies keep for days in a container, or freeze them for months if you’re one of those organized people.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

The secret is getting that lemon-raspberry balance right without one overpowering the other. If your berries are super tart, add more sugar. The dough’s gonna be stickier than normal cookie dough because of all the juice and fruit, but that’s what makes them soft and chewy instead of crunchy.

Serving Suggestions

These cookies are bomb with a tall glass of cold milk – like dunking them is basically mandatory. My mom always serves them with tea when her book club comes over, and they go crazy for them. For something fancy, throw a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

How to Store Your Lemon Raspberry Cookies

Stick them in a container with a lid for 3-4 days on the counter. For longer, freeze them in bags for months. If they get a little stale, warm them up in a low oven for a couple minutes. But honestly, they taste fine straight from the container.

Allergy Information

Has: Wheat, eggs, dairy Can’t Have Those?

• Gluten-free flour works fine, use the 1:1 stuff
• Vegan butter instead of regular butter
• Flax eggs work too (mix 1 tablespoon ground flax with 3 tablespoons water, let it sit)

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I use frozen raspberries instead of fresh?

Yeah, frozen ones actually work better sometimes because they don’t get mushy. Just don’t thaw them out first – use them straight from the freezer.

My cookies spread too much – what happened?

Your butter was probably too warm or the dough got too soft. Butter should be soft like Play-Doh, not melted. If the dough feels warm, stick it in the fridge for a bit.

Why did my raspberries sink to the bottom?

They were probably too wet or your dough was too thin. Pat fresh berries dry with a paper towel and keep frozen ones frozen until the last second.

Can I add other mix-ins?

Go for it! White chocolate chips, chopped nuts, other berries – just don’t go crazy or the cookies won’t hold together. About 1½ cups total mix-ins is the limit.

💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! I’d love to hear how your lemon raspberry cookies turned out!