Lemon Crinkle Cookies
I went to the gym yesterday evening. Anyone else ever done that before? Worst decision EVER. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, then you know I usually go in the mornings. Well, we had some snow fall and apparently everything in this little town shuts down because no one knows how to plow. {It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine–cities that are clueless when it comes to snow removal. It started in Idaho and just snowballed from there. Hahaha…..get it? Snowballed? I’m so witty.} Anyways, I couldn’t get to the gym in the morning, so I went to the gym last night. And then I got home and was starving. Like when you’re 4 months pregnant and you just got your appetite back starving. And so I ate cookies. And then I ate some more cookies. And then took some vitamins for good measure. And some water. And then everything was right in the world.
Oh, and just to clear things up, I’m not 4 months pregnant. I’m not pregnant at all. But I do enjoy most food like I should be pregnant. Namely, these cookies.
I think we all can agree that I am a lemon freak. I love love love lemon ridiculously. It’s in the genes. My Mom is the same way. {I also inherited a crazy addiction to mushrooms and a specific way to fold towels and bed sheets. But that’s another story.} Lemon and I are buddies, especially when it comes to desserts– my thighs can prove it. I recently made a Lemon Cream Pie–to die for. Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake Muffins? Oh mama. But these cookies……ohmygoodgravy–they caught me at a moment of weakness and I ate them up. They are soft, but still slightly crunchy, tart, but still really sweet and basically just the essence of what a good cookie should be. Oh, and fresh out of the oven they tasted like lemon bars. Random but so delicious. If I owned a bake shop, I would make and sell these in a heart beat. Seriously.Good.Cookies. Whip up a batch right now. Call in sick to work and make them. I even bet you have all the ingredients too. Easy to make, simple ingredients, done in 30 minutes and they just walk right into your mouth! Pretty incredible.
Run, don’t walk to your kitchen.
Lemon Crinkles
Won a fun little contest with these babies! They are simple and so so yummy!
Yield: 2-3 dozen
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
½ cups Butter, Softened
1 cup Granulated Sugar
½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 whole Egg
1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
⅛ teaspoons Baking Soda
1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
½ cups Powdered Sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip 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. 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 bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
*If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.
Lauren's Latest original recipe! You saw it here first, folks!!
the recipe is correct as written. one and one half cups flour. the people having problems with the cookies staying in balls are either adding too much flour (packing it into the measuing cup or using a liquid measuring cup will give you a stiff dough), using shortening or margarine instead of butter or using too much baking soda or baking powder.
this dough is very soft, use a spoon to scoop a tablespoon or so of dough and drop it into the dish of powdered sugar, the push the dough around in the sugar until it’s coated and gently form it into a ball between your hands. if it’s too soft, chill it for 15-30minutes instead of adding more flour.
nice little refreshing cookies Lauren
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I don’t have any lemon zest on hand, do you think they’d still be good?
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Absolutely delicious! I found my batter was a bit dry, and my cookies also didn’t flatten, so next time I will decrease the flour. But still absolutely de-lish! Thanks for sharing!
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I was already hungry when I found this recipe, so I made it right away. They’re fantastic! Could eat them all!
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I am so making these for the upcoming holidays! I’m going to add some white chocolate chips to them, I think the mix of acidic and sweet will do wonders together… Mmmmmmmmm!
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Can these be frozen successfully?
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Lauren, I just want to tell you how absolutely in love I am with these lemon crinckles. I made a batch of them Saturday night, and this morning on Monday amy cookie jar only had 2 left. Needless to sayhter does know not to leave the cookie jar empty when I have just made a new batch of cookies. I also want you to know that instead of making the single batch as it showed I doubled the recipe how glad I am that I did. I went back to 1 of my lady friends Facebook to find out the post to go back to another website to find the recipe so I wrote it down just a few minutes ago. I want you to know how pleased I am with this recipe and how glad I know that I am NOT the only 1 that ate half a dozen of them coming out of the oven warm
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I literally read this recipe, stopped doing my hw, and made these cookies. And let me tell you, my tummy and my familie’s tummies were very grateful. Very simple and easy to make. Totally worth pushing the homework off! They came out so cute and little. Perfect for a tea party! Thank you for the recipe (:
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I made these tonight and they were delicious —- my husband often prefers raw cookie dough (I know, I know…) to the baked cookie, but not this time. {grin} I made per the instructions, but added 1/2 tsp. real lemon extract in addition to the zest and lemon juice. I love the freshness of lemon!!
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Have you ever made these with lemon extract in addition to or instead of vanilla? If so, how were they?
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Got the link to this from Fervent Foodie’s mention. THESE ARE SO GOOD- I should’ve read the recipe (I bought a bag of lemons when it needed one lemon).
My boyfriend and I loved them.
Thanks for an awesome recipe. I like the yield amount also- not a ton but just enough.
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I was intrigued when I read about this recipe in LDS Living Magazine’s cookie bake-off. I finally had a chance to make them, only I swapped lime for lemon (and doubled both the zest and juice called for in the recipe–when I go for citrus flavor, I like it to come across loud and clear!). Delicious Lime Crinkles! You’re right that the key is to not overbake–take them out of the oven just as soon as they’re cooked enough that they won’t fall apart.
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I made these for a cookie swap with my Supper Club, and they turned out fantastic! These are definitely going to be made again and again in my house. I posted it with a link back to your blog over on mine. Thanks for sharing!!
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Found these yummy cookies on Pinterest! Made them yesterday, and they were so goood! They were gone in a flash!
Thank you for sharing! Donika
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These cookies are just epic!!!Saw the recipe through pinterest and just made them!!!They look just like yours and taste devine!I reduced the sugar a bit and added white chocolate drops!!!Thanks thanks thanks!!!
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Just wanted to let you know that these are my family’s new favorite and most requested cookies! Thank you so much!!
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Hi!
I’ve tried twice making these cookies- I read all the comments, made sure I follow the recipe to a tee- but they still came out in ball shape and did not flatten out like shown in the picture. They taste great though, but they are crunchy… How do they suppose to taste like texture-wise? soft and chewy?
Thanks!
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Lauren — March 6th, 2013 @ 1:05 pm
Try reducing the flour by 2 or 3 tablespoons.
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Jessy! — March 12th, 2013 @ 10:28 pm
Thanks Lauren. I just wanted to know how they are supposed to taste like in terms of texture (soft and chewy or light and crunchy- mine came out latter) so that I get an idea when I play with the amount of flour.
Lauren — March 13th, 2013 @ 10:01 pm
A teeny bit crunchy around the edges with a chewy and soft center. Hope that helps!
Absolutely delicious! Made them with grapefruit instead of lemon and in mini form with grapefruit icing in between. We keep them in the refrigerator because they are so good chilled. Blogged about it here: http://bit.ly/grapefruitcrinklecookies
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I just tried these and they are yummy. Two notes:
1. Make sure to loosen them before they cool and sit on the cookie sheet too long. If you don’t, they are difficult to remove and break apart.
2. I didn’t use anywhere near 1/2 c confectioner’s sugar for the coating, so I decided to coat them a second time after they cooled. Tasty!
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Made your lemon crinkle cookies today!! LOVE them!! My husband and kids (11 & 12 yr.) love them too!! I had to hide them b/c they were eating them all!!
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These came out of the oven about 5 minutes ago. One word: YUM! I only had small lemons on hand (not sure if they are Meyer Lemons) so I used the zest and juice of three. My family really likes their lemon desserts tangy, and this was perfect. Thank you so much Lauren-this recipe is a keeper!
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