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!
True butter cookies have no baking soda and baking pwrd. If you had Italian butter cookies that crumbled in your mouth, that is the real butter cookies supposed taste like. Few ingredients big on flavor .
The dough is thick, even when I added 6TBSP lemon juice and 6 drops of lemon essential oil to it, but the taste was great!! Ramp up the lemon flavor. I think you’ll like them better.
These taste “flat”. I’m going to make them again but will add a little salt and a bit more lemon.
i just finished making these tonight for a baby shower this weekend. i started out following the recipe exactly BUT made some changes as i went along. i used almost all the juce of one lemon…maybe 4 tsps total. i also ended up adding 2 pinches of salt to it as well. when it was time to make the marks with the fork I wet the tines in lemon juice water. figured it would add a little something. I’ve got them in a tupperware and I’m going to freeze them till saturday and then thaw them out for the shower.
i do like the flavor of the cookie and if i make them again l’ll find another way to really punch up the lemon flavor. but i do like them 🙂
I made the lemon cookie today for my Grandchildren, they loved them. I found the recipe easy to follow, I did add extra lemon juice, and they turned out great. I will make them again in the future. Thank you for a great recipe.
I made these for my Grandchildren and the only thing I did different was add more lemon juice than called for. Really easy and good. Thank you for three recipe,
Here in Colorado it’s especially important not to let your butter get too warm. I barely let mine sit for a few minutes before I start creaming it and once I have one cookie sheet in the dough goes in the fridge until I am ready to do another sheet.
I’ve also seen a recommendation to increase the temp by 20° F and reduce cooking time.
Hi Sarah! Thanks so much for the tips. I know baking can be so fickle, especially depending on where you live, so it’s always good to hear tips like that. 🙂
I’d love to try this recipe , but I only have salted butter in the house. Any idea what will happen if I make them using the salted butter?
These are delicious. I made a double batch, gave some to a neighbor and used the rest to make raspberry lemon ice cream sandwiches. Lovely!
That is a fantastic idea! I bet they were delicious!
These were really great! I added some cardamom and it works well with lemon in these cookies 🙂 thank you for the recipe!
Oh! Cardamom is a great idea 🙂 I will have to try that next time!