These soft and chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies are easy to make, packed with flavour and the perfect way to satisfy your sweet tooth!
Hiya guys, how are you all? How are you doing with isolation? I’m into week 8 now and it’s certainly a roller coaster. Some days I feel OK, others I can get quite emotional. A lot of it is frustration with how I still see people behaving. Ignoring the rules etc. Yes it’s not nice, but we have to do it. The quicker we all listen and do as we’re told, the quicker we can start having some normality again.
Anyway, let’s talk about these Lemon Crinkle Cookies. I love a crinkle cookie; they are soft and chewy and have an extra little hit of sweet as they’re rolled in icing sugar.
These Lemon Crinkle Cookies are also really easy to make! The dough comes together quickly and after chilling, you just have to roll the balls of dough in icing sugar before baking. There’s nothing fancy about this recipe, it’s just flavourful, tasty and will satisfy your sweet tooth!
I’ve made Crinkle Cookies before and they were a big hit in my house. The other flacours I’ve made are Chocolate and Gingerbread and I knew I needed to make a lemon variety come Spring.
There’s just something comforting about a homemade, warm from the oven cookie, and we could all do with some comfort right now.
There is one positive to this situation, I’m having to get very creative in the kitchen. This recipe may be “normal” but in the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with sized down recipes, egg free ones, ones that use cupboard ingredients. I like a challenge!
This week however, I just wanted cookies. Straight up, sunshine filled lemon cookies. It’s currently raining outside, but whenever it’s Spring, I want lemon everything. I cannot tell you how amazing these Lemon Crinkle Cookies taste.
They’re light, sweet, citrussy and buttery. You can also make them extra chewy or more cakey depending on how long you bake them and what you prefer.
I did a tray of each; I baked one tray for 13 minutes and one for 11 minutes. The 13 minute ones rose more and stayed risen. They are still chewy and soft, but slightly more cakey.
The tray I baked for 11 minutes, flattened out, but have an extra buttery, chewy texture with crisp edges. It’s truly down to personal preference.
Let’s go through how to make these Lemon Crinkle Cookies:
First up, I creamed the lemon zest, butter and sugar together. Then I added one egg and one egg yolk and mixed them in. I added in a little bit of yellow food colouring, just because I really wanted these cookies to stand out and have a beautiful yellow colour. Wilton “lemon yellow” was the colour I used and they really did turn out to be the perfect lemon colour! The last wet ingredient is 2tsp of lemon juice to really ramp up that lemon flavour.
I mixed the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cornflour and salt together in a medium bowl, then added it to the egg and butter mixture. Then I mixed it until a dough formed and then placed it in the bowl I measured the flour in. After chilling it in the fridge for 2 hours, I got my trusty cookie scoop out and divided the dough into 1.5tbsp balls.
The final step is to roll the cookies in icing sugar before baking them. They need no extra decoration when they come out of the oven, so you can dig right in. I would say let them cool, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll be straight in, burnt fingers and all!
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200) caster sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks (170g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Zest of 2 medium sized lemons
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- Yellow food colouring, optional, but does make these cookies look gorgeous! I used Wilton "Lemon Yellow" gel colour
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 1/4 cups (315g) plain/all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup (90g) icing/powdered sugar
Instructions
- No need to preheat the oven yet as this dough needs to chill. Place the sugar, butter and lemon zest into a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Around 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg and egg yolk and mix until well incorporated. Add in the yellow food colouring and mix until the colour is evenly dispersed, I did 3 drops of Wilton gel colour. If you're not happy with the shade after you've added the flour, you can always add more.
- Add in the lemon juice and mix until well combined.
- Place the flour, cornflour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a medium sized bowl and briefly stir to combine. Tip the flour mixture into your egg mix and beat on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Once the dough comes together, turn the speed up to medium and mix until you have one big lump of dough. If the colour isn't the right shade of yellow for you, add a bit more.
- Place your dough into the bowl you mixed the flour in and cover with cling film. Place in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line 2 baking trays with grease proof paper/a slicione mat.
- Place your icing sugar into a shallow bowl. Take a 1.5tbsp cookie scoop and scoop the dough into balls. Roll the dough balls in icing sugar and then place 2 inches apart on your baking tray. Repeat until you've used all the dough. I made 22 cookies from this dough. There's no need to flatten the dough balls at all.
- Place the cookies in the oven for 11-13 minutes. 11 minutes for an extra chewy and buttery cookie, 13 for a slightly more cakey, chewy cookie.
- Leave the cookies to cool on the baking tray completely, before storing in an airtight container. Lemon Crinkle Cookies will keep at room temperature, for 5 days.
Annie is a self-taught baker, recipe developer and food photographer, who has an obsession with dessert and beauty! 
