Lemon Butter Cookies (Dairy Free Option)
With just a few ingredients, these butter-less lemon butter cookies are full of flavor and make a perfectly sweet dairy free treat. Makes about 30 cookies.
What I love about these lemon butter cookies
- The butter flavor really shines through in these cookies, and the lemon plays the role of sidekick – making a perfect pair. The cookies aren’t overly sweet, but the powdered sugar coating is up to you.
- Sprinkle them with as much as you want to suit your taste. Personally, I love the texture of the dry powdered sugar against the buttery cookie so I do a few coatings. Don’t worry about adding extra. I won’t tell anyone…
Here’s what you’ll need to make them
How to make butter cookies without butter
I’ve updated this lemon butter cookie recipe to make it dairy free by swapping the butter for some vegan butter. You can also use vegetable shortening. Feel free to use the same amount butter if you don’t need to make them dairy free.
Now that our oven is working again, I’m ready for some Christmas baking. Last week, I made a batch of thumbprint cookies for our little Christmas party, and this week I thought I would try my hand a new, but very similar cookie.
I took a basic thumbprint cookie recipe, tweaked it a little and added some lemon juice and zest to make a simple and buttery cookies.
Everything you need to know about lemon butter cookies
Butter cookies and shortbread cookies are different in a few ways. First, butter cookies will have more ingredients than a shortbread cookies. Butter cookies will include an egg or eggs, plus usually a flavoring such as vanilla, lemon or almond – while shortbread usually contains minimal ingredients like sugar, flour and butter. Their texture is also different also, shortbread cookies will be dense and crumbly, while butter cookies are often light and airy, with a crispy exterior.
Butter adds a lot of rich flavor as well as affecting the texture of a cookie and how it bakes. This can vary quite a bit, depending on how you are incorporating your butter. Room temperature butter, when creamed with sugar properly can create a light and fluffy texture that bakes into a beautiful, slightly crispy cookie. You can achieve practically identical results using a vegan butter or a butter flavored shortening.
If you’re looking for a few more Christmas cookie ideas, check out some of these recipes
PrintLemon Butter Cookies
This easy, lemon butter cookies recipe makes the best, melt in your mouth cookies. They’re a dairy free version of an old fashioned buttery, shortbread cookie. They’re perfect for the holidays or any time of year. Top with a sprinkle of powdered sugar for a simple alternative to icing.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 30 cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegan butter or vegetable shortening
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C).
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy.
- Beat in the egg.
- Add lemon zest and lemon juice.
- Gradually mix in the flour until incorporated.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Using the tines of a fork, cross marks in the cookies to slightly flatten them (as pictured).
- Bake cookies for 15 minutes or until cookies are set on top and slightly golden on bottom.
- Transfer to cooling rack and immediately dust with powdered sugar (sugar will melt into cookies from the remaining heat).
- Once completely cool, dust cookies again with powdered sugar.
Notes
*Optional: Add 1 teaspoon lemon extract for a little extra lemon flavor.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 100
- Sugar: 8.4 g
- Sodium: 61.4 mg
- Fat: 3.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 16.6 g
- Fiber: 0.3 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 6.2 mg
Published: December 20, 2013. Updated: October 26, 2023.
This post contains affiliate links. I may earn commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. I will never recommend a product I don’t use or trust.