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…
If you like this recipe, you have to try this snowball cookies and this no bake oatmeal delights and this super soft sugar cookies.
Searching for more lemon desserts? You will love these lemon curd cookies, strawberry lemonade cupcakes, or these mini lemon bundt cakes. Plus, these lemon rosemary olive oil cookies have the beautiful, aromatic flavor of rosemary infused into the cookies.
Ingredients & substitutions
- Lemon – These cookies use lemon juice and lemon zest for the lemon flavor. If you want to make these cookies extra lemony, you can add a teaspoon of lemon extract.
- Vegan butter – This recipe will work great with vegan butter or a butter flavored shortening, whichever you prefer. Feel free to use the same amount butter if you don’t need to make them dairy free.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make butter cookies without butter
Mix the dough. Using an electric mixer, beat the vegan butter with sugar until it gets fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated, then add the lemon juice and extract. Gradually add the flour to the mixing bowl, continuing to mix until all of the flour is incorporated.
Form the cookies. When everything is well mixed, you can begin to roll out 1 inch dough balls and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. With the dough balls formed on the baking sheet, take a fork and press into the cookies to flatten.
Bake the cookies. Pop the cookies into a 350˚F, preheated oven for 15 minutes. When the cookies are set on top and golden on the bottom edges, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool before transferring them to a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar when the cookies are fully cooled.
Everything you need to know about lemon butter cookies
Lemon Butter Cookies
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
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I like the cookies, a sweet tooth I am.
One stick of butter is. a half cup not one cup, can you let us know which? Thanks
I’m so sorry. It’s 1 cup.
You don’t specify where to use the egg in your instructions…??
Add the egg after you cream the butter and sugar! Thanks for pointing that out 🙂
That was what I assumed and did.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe. Myself and my children found them deliciously refreshing. I doubled the lemon zest and added a bit more juice as we love a big lemon kick and they were perfect. Definitely a keeper.
Hi I made the cookies last night and they were great! I made some slight modifications, I used less zest and more juice and I added white chocolate chips to the mix. I made them for my sons classes and they were a hit! I also had some for breakfast and I was able to taste the butter and lemon and it was really delicious. Tonight I am making more for my coworkers. Thanks for this recipe. x
How many calories are in this?
I’m sorry, but I’m not really able to provide nutritional information for my recipes. It’s not that I don’t want to, but I wouldn’t want to provide information that may not be completely accurate.
Melissa, can this recipe be rolled into a log, wrapped and frozen until needed?
I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure. You can definitely freeze it and cook them later, but would roll them into balls first.
Roughly, per cookie (in a 30-cookie batch): Calories 116. Fat: 16g. Carbohydrates: 12.5g. Sugar: 5.2g. Protein: 1.3g
Sorry, that’s Fat: 6.9g
I just made these. I think I should have bumped up the lemon juice, not enough of a lemon taste for me. I also wonder if I should use a touch more flour as mine didn’t hold their shape like yours. Maybe it’s because I use a baking stone to cook them on and not a metal cookie sheet. I will try them again.
These came out wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
I have never used all purpose flour where I didn’t add at least salt and baking powder or soda. Just wanted to make sure before I do make these. They look delicious and I am a lemon recipe junkie!
You’re right you don’t need baking powder or soda for this recipe! I hope you like them 🙂
I tried this recipe last night. The dough (after adding the flour) was INCREDIBLY thick. My KitchenAid electric mixer (which is practically brand new) struggled to mix the flour in (even on the highest setting).
Once I had baked the cookies, they looked delicious but all I tasted was flour. I ended up throwing them all out. 🙁 I double & triple checked to make sure I added the appropriate amounts of everything (I’m pretty meticulous…) & I did.
Are they meant to be that “floury”? I was SO hoping for these to turn out & was bummed when they ended up in the trash.
Mine came out great with 2 and 1/4 cups of flour. I added 1.75 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice and still thought they could have used more lemon flavor. Next time I’ll add 3 tablespoons.
mine tasted like flour too and it needs way more lemon…well always make more tomorrow