These soft and chewy cookies are bursting with lemon flavor. It’s no wonder they’re award winning!
First, I should say that I did not receive an award for these Award Winning Lemon Crinkle Cookies cookies, but someone did, and I can definitely see why!
These cheerful cookies, with their fresh lemon flavor, have spring written all over them. Of course, that shouldn’t stop you from making them any time of year, because they’re absolutely delicious.
I have a lemon cookie recipe that uses a cake mix, but these are so much better! And it really doesn’t take much more time to make them from scratch.
I’m a soft and chewy cookie person, so I love that these cookies stay soft for several days.
My youngest son isn’t a fan of rich, chocolate-like desserts, but he loves anything lemon, and these cookies are one of his favorites. Which means I can usually enlist his help in the kitchen when I make them.
We recently baked a big batch of these cookies to share with neighbors and everyone raved! I mean, these cookies just make people happy!
Just don’t skip the step of rolling the cookies in powdered sugar, and don’t be afraid to be generous with the powdered sugar either. It helps create that crackly top you’re looking for.
These Award Winning Lemon Crinkle Cookies are one of the easiest, tastiest cookie recipes I’ve tried, and a nice change from the chocolate and chocolate chip varieties I usually make. You really should bake up a batch right away!
Be sure to save this Potato Chip Crusted Grilled Corn recipe to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Here’s what you’ll need to make Award Winning Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Butter
- Sugar
- Vanilla
- Eggs
- Lemons
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Flour
- Powdered sugar
Award Winning Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again.
- Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Refrigerate dough for one hour.
- Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are cracked on top. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Video
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Nutrition
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Who Dished It Up First: This cookie won first place in the Best Cookie Contest at LDS Living Magazine.
55 comments
Kathy Witte
Had this cookie recipe in kitchen for at least two years. Lemon is my favorite flavor but somehow I must have missed it. . The cookies were wonderful, so lemony and soft on the inside. I think I made the cookies a little to large as I got only 18. Oops, maybe I tasted too much of the dough – just kidding but will make them a little smaller next time. powered sugar ended up in spots all over the cookies Wis and the cookies did not crinkle. Obviously some mistake I made but don’t know what. I will absolutely try again because the flavor was perfect! Maybe you can add a video the recipe so I can see where I went wrong with the powdered sugar.
Lori
The cookies are delicious, but your prep time said 25 minutes. Maybe include the one hour of refrigeration in that?
Dee Murphy
Ok, so I made them.
I followed the recipe too. The . Letter.
No crackle . Very disappointed in the aesthetic of this cookie .
I made sure to be extremely generous with the powdered sugar, because I was really excited about the crackle look.
The powdered sugar simply dissolved into the cookie and disappeared…
As far as the “tart too sweet” ratio. They could be a little more tart for my taste. I felt the lemon taste was lackluster.
I’m extremely disappointed with this recipe.
Given the cost of ingredients at this moment… March 2023, in Canada, we are paying over six dollars a pound for butter… My disappointment is at an all-time high .
🙁
I have no clue how this recipe want any kind of award. I’m glad that the original poster of this recipe is not the creator, so I do not feel like I am insulting her in anyway.
❤️
Betty Baker
Same experience. Followed the recipe exactly and everything went well until they were in the oven. Then all the sugar on the outside dissolved into the dough. They tasted pretty good, but zero crinkle on top. I tried rolling the second half of the batch in granulated sugar in case that would be better, but it wasn’t. Both were edible, but this is a crinkle recipe and there wasn’t any crinkle.
Dee Murphy
*won ( not want )
Deneen Murphy
I AM going to try these tomorrow morning, with some trepidation…. I’ve scrolled through quite a few of of the reviews and to my disappointment, I notice a pattern.
The negative reviews have absolutely No responses from the publisher of the recipe.
I find that to be slightly disappointing, because I do like to see if there are any answers to the negative comments. I find them to be helpful ( not to mention professional looking )
In any case, I’m going to give it a go.
Hannah
I loved these cookies! I chilled mine for 2 hours instead of 1 and the dough was not sticky at all. They baked perfectly and the sweet to tart ratio is amazing. Adding these to my cookie recipes!
Leah
Note: this recipe does NOT work with almond flour the cookies look like pancakes and don’t hold together. Guess I’ll have to try with regular flour as the good recipe intends!
K Store
Great article you shared, Thanks for sharing such type of precious article.
Randee A Tavarez
I have yet to make these, as the dough is the freezer getting cold.
However…WHY do you say Preheat oven to 350 at the top of recipe when later
the recipe calls for refrigerating the dough for 1 hr before baking?
There needs to be a preface!
“This recipe calls for the dough to be refrigerated for 1 hr prior to baking.
After 45 minutes turn oven on to 350* to preheat.”
Like some others, I didn’t read thru the whole recipe and didn’t see the
part about putting the dough in the fridge for an hour.
But I did turn the oven on when I started!
If I ever make these again I will know that.
Sue
Really delicious. Mine did not crinkle and I followed the recipe exactly. The powdered sugar melted into the cookie. I will make them smaller next time, to see if that helps. But the flavor was fantastic.
Ken Devlin
I’m in the midst of making these right now. Not sure where the failures came into play as mine are coming out wonderfully. I actually forgot about the dough in the frig last night, so it chilled all night. I used a 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop to get them all the same size. Baked them on parchment and increased the bake time to 15 min due to their size. Crispy and only lightly browned on the bottom. Nice and chewy on the inside. I also splashed in some lemon flavoring as I love lemons.
They are delicious.
Can someone tell me who the original chef/creator is? I’m an aspiring online cooking show host and would like permission to use the recipe.
Thanks and happy cooking!
Ken of DaddyK’s Kitchen
Cheryl
First of all, the title on Pinterest says “no butter or oil & only 4 ingredients! I made the cookies and I agree with above comment…failure. The spread into each other, and have barely any powdered sugar left on them. Nothing at all the the picture… even after chilling the dough forever!!
Andrea E Drever
These came out PERFECT! I baked them for 12 minutes (smaller cookies) 14 minutes (next batch larger cookies). Smaller are better, as they seem to retain more powdered sugar, thus are “crinklier.” As good as they look, they taste even better! Love that you can make them using only one bowl. I added a bit more lemon juice, and cooked them on parchment paper. The bottoms didn’t get brown, which wasn’t a problem as the texture was perfect. Slightly crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. Thanks for the great and EASY recipe!!! (My only mishap, several balls went rolling off the cookie sheet into the bottom of the oven and smoked up my house for half an hour, lesson learned!) 😉
Tim
How many cookies does your award winning lemon crinkle cookies recipe make?
Danelle
2-3 dozen.
Trisha
Do I use salt or unsalted butter?
Danelle
I use unsalted
susan s
sorry this is a zero. these spread into one giant mess. i make chocolate crinkles all the time and they’re perfect. huge disappointment especially because they were for a coworker’s birthday.
Julie L
Light and crispy outside, moist and delicious on the inside, my new favourite cookie! I didn’t wait an hour in the fridge, I used my cookie scoop and scooped the ball of cookie dough right into the powdered sugar, they came out beautifully. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Bonnie
Wow! What a disappointment! Made with all fresh ingredients and followed the recipe exactly. Lemon flavor was almost non-existent. Sorry but won’t be using recipes from this site again.
Camryn Gillespie
I love lemon anything so these were a huge hit for me!!! These cookies were absolutely mouth-watering
Danelle
Thank you!!!
Shirley Hercules
The dough was very hard to work with. Even after refrigeration, it was difficult to measure heaping tsp fulls because the dough became too soft to work with and very difficult to roll in pwdr sugar. I had to cut dough into about 1 cup sized portions and refrigerate, taking out one at a time to roll into balls. Then I refrigerated the balls as I made them. and took them out sequentially to roll in sugar and bake. The cookies were really tasty. Just very difficult dough.
Because at 350 degrees, the bottoms got very brown before done, I reduced the temp to 325 and lengthened baking time to 12 minutes. Much better. Cookies came out with lightly browned bottoms that were not visible around the edges.
Mary Back
OMG! I wanted a recipe that I could take to a lunch I’m attending at the end of this week…needless to say, I will have to make more cookies. They are delicious but not overwhelming lemony. Thank you. Mary B
Roberta
I made these today and my tops didn’t crinkle. I left the next batch in longer but they didn’t either. What fifth I do wrong? I followed the recipe.
Danelle
The powdered sugar is what makes them crinkle, so if you rolled them in the powdered sugar and they still didn’t crinkle, I’m not sure what the issue was.
Katie
I made these cookies once and that was all it took for my family to insist I make them all the time. And so I do. They are the best. And they freeze very well.
Diana
Made these cookies & are wonderful. Drizzled icing on top, so GOOD! Chewy savory & easily made…and I’m not a great cook. Thanks so much for recipe. It’s a keeper!
Danelle
Thanks so much!
Angie
I have made these and they are so delicious!! I plan to make them again this week.
Danelle
Thanks so much Angie!
Krysta Browning
I just made these for my father’s birthday, he loves anything lemon! They were absolutely delicious and now his favorite. Thank you for the recipe!
Danelle
Thanks so much Krysta! 🙂
Jacqueline
Made these tonight, not much of a lemon taste at all and I added an extra tablespoon of lemon, they are way too sweet too
Isadora
I have baked cookies for 55 years and I have never experienced such a disappointing failure. The dough was too dry and I had to add a little water to get them to roll in a ball. Then the dough was too sticky I had to chill them, but it didn’t help enough. The cookies ran together while baking and they didn’t hold their shape. The taste was wonderful, but the texture and shape were terrible. Would never make these again. Still looking for a crisper lemony cookie.
Curious Chris
Hi Isadora,
I am new to baking and I have a few questions. I wonder, if you’ve been baking cookies for so long, why you didn’t modify as you went along? Could you not anticipate that the recipe would be “a disappointing failure” when you read the ingredients and instructions, before you made them? Curious why so many others had success.
Were you successful in finding a satisfactory lemon crinkle cookie recipe? What were the differences?
Kindly,
Curious Chris
lori
Chris, it could be that Isadora read the positive reviews and wouldn’t find it necessary to modify anything. Slight changes to any cookie recipe may cause it to fail. I’ve made numerous recipes that have failed me and have no idea why. I’ve also had numerous recipes that failed and after reading reviews either found others had the same issue or found out what i may have done wrong. Baking often is a learning process.
DDsmartie
I made these and refrigerated them for two hours. Dough was still sticky and cookies turned out flat as well. Added more four to second set, and they look better. Not sure the 1/2 C butter to 1and 1/2 cup flour worked for me. I’ll add more flour next time. Flavor is good. I don’t like the artificial taste of the box mix recipes.
Isabel Thomas
These cookies are amazing! I cooked them for 12 minutes and they came out perfectly. These are definitely part of my cookie repertoire from now on. These cookies are bursting with flavour and have a distint hint of tartness still there!
Yay! 🙂
Jay
Hi,
I’m was looking for a Lemon Crinkel Cookie Recipe and found this site. I’m wondering if the dough needs to be kept in the fridge for a few hours before make the cookies? I assume not because it was written in the post, But I’m asking because other crinkel recipes I have tell you to chill the dough before baking?
Jim Thomas
It’s says to refrigerate for 1 hour
Hermain Saleem
Hii
I had a bit of a lemon craving and I found your recipe.I’ve just prepared the dough but mine was too sticky to roll properly so I decided to refrigerate it for about half an hour.Will let you know how they turned out once I bake em
Yours look incredibly mouth- watering 😀
Jim Thomas
You’re supposed to scoop the dough
whirley
Delicious. Make certain to use cool baking sheet for each batch.
Amy
Just made them and I love them! It is a welcome change from the chocolate ones or the ginger ones I usually make, and the zest gives them a lot of lemon flavour, mmm. They are soft but I can’t tell if they stay soft for days: they were gone too fast 😉
Simona
Hello, i’m writing from Italy. I tasted your lemon crinkle cookies, and they are delicious! I then made a little change to your recipe and got these…Simo LoveCooking – Lemon crinkle cookies
Cheers!
DONNA K
They spread all over the cookie sheet . I’m thinking more flour ? Even after an hour in the fridge the dough was pretty wet. However the taste is wonderful.
Sue J
Made these for a cookie bake off at work. They were a great hit. I drizzled lemon icing over them. Delicious!!!!
Natalie
i have a request for a lemon dessert for a wedding…think these would freeze well?
Candice at Picture Perfect Parties
I was recently given some lemons from a friend’s garden and didn’t know what to make with them. So I started looking up some recipes on Pinterest and came across this recipe. Tonight, I made them and they are absolutely fabulous! Can’t wait to share them with friends! Thanks for sharing the recipe!!
Mom to Many
Looks yummy! :o)
Cheryl
Sunshine
Mmmmm….they look delish! Happy Spring!
http://www.cancerinthcity.com
Ih928
Hi! Could you help me understand why you’re using butter instead of oil in this recipe? I’ve used oil in other crinkle cookies recipes. Thanks!
Debbi Does Dinner Healthy
The sound wonderful and perfect for spring! Thanks!