It’s still citrus season, and is it just me or does the coming of Spring scream CITRUS DESSERT TIME? Lemon, orange, grapefruit, and lime. All of those fruits peak during the cold season here in North America, but they’ll forever remind me of Spring and Summer; after all, I didn’t even know that winter was citrus season until I started food blogging. Anyway, these Soft Iced Lemon Cookies are the perfect (seasonally appropriate!) dessert to take us into warmer weather. A sweet, chewy sugar cookie flavored with fresh lemon zest and then topped with a tangy lemon icing with lots of lemon juice. So good. And if you’re going to cheat on chocolate, it might as well be with these gems.
This cookie dough is my favorite dough for any and all chewy sugar cookies, and this version is quick and so easy – no refrigeration required! Plus the icing is a simple, 4-ingredient mix! Basically, if you want lemon cookies to eat right now, or you don’t have a lot of time to bake, then this recipe is for you! These cookies also save really well, so if you want to make them the day before an event, they’ll still be soft and chewy the next day. In fact, I like them even better after given a day to set/rest.
Soft Iced Lemon Cookies
Soft and chewy lemon sugar cookies topped with a sweet, tangy lemon icing. The perfect quick and easy cookie for any citrus lover!
Ingredients
Lemon Cookies
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
- 2/3 cup granulated cane sugar
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla extract)
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest (from ~3 large lemons or ~5 small lemons)
Lemon Icing
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- Juice from 1-2 lemons
- Zest from 1 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk, sugar, oil, and almond extract; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the liquid ingredients and use a large wooden spoon to work the ingredients together - the dough may seem dry at first but keep mixing. Finally, mix in the lemon zest.
- Roll dough balls 1 1/2 Tbsp in size and bake six at a time on your prepared baking sheet at 350°F for 5-6 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack. Continue until all cookies are baked.
- Once your cookies are totally cool, you can make the icing. In a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar, almond extract, and 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Mix until combined. Then add more lemon juice, 1 tsp at a time, until you've got a thick glaze - when you drizzle the glaze on itself, it should take 2 or 3 seconds for the ribbons to disappear. Mix in the lemon zest.
- Spoon the glaze/icing onto each cookie, using the back of your spoon to spread the icing over the cookie surfaces.
- Allow icing to set before storing. Once set, store the cookies in a single layer in an airtight container.
Notes
- Feel free to use any kind of plain granulated cane sugar for the cookie dough: white granulated sugar, unrefined granulated sugar, raw sugar, etc. I used an unrefined cane sugar.
- You can add however much (or little) lemon zest you like to both the cookie dough and icing. 1 Tbsp of fresh zest will give a mild lemon taste to the cookies. The lemon juice in the icing is where the tangy lemon flavor comes from, so if you choose to forgo the icing, you may want to add more zest to your cookie dough.
- I don't include nutrition information for recipes where you may not use all of the icing.
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More citrus recipes:
Orange Loaf with Almond Buttercream (vegan option)
Glazed Orange Almond Muffins (vegan option)
Orange Iced Ginger Molasses Cookies (dairy-free)
Soft & Chewy Orange Sugar Cookies (dairy-free)
Made these yesterday and they turned out AMAZING! Couple things I did different – instead of 1tsp either almond or vanilla extract, I did 1/2tsp of each. I also found they stayed pretty puffy/ rounded after baking, so I just did a looser glaze over the top. Next time: 1/2tsp of vanilla + 1/2tsp lemon extract for extra lemony goodness. I’ll probably also flatten the cookies out a little bit pre-bake so I can get that cute icing puddle on top!
Thanks for sharing your tips, Katie! I’m glad you enjoyed these cookies as much as I have 🙂
These are delicious, I’ve made them twice this week so far! Thank you!
So happy to hear that, Mandy! I have some extra lemons (and extra lemon glaze in the fridge!), and I just may need to bake these again 🙂
Hello mam can you tell me the substitute of egg in lemon cookies?
Hello! I haven’t baked these cookies with any egg substitutes. You can try a vegan egg replacer like the one from Bob’s Red Mill.
Can you substitute another oil in place of the olive oil?
Hello! If you’re still interested in making these, you can try avocado oil. Or melted plant-based butter. Regular melted butter will probably work, but I haven’t tried it!