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!
Just made these today for the first time. Followed the recipe, except as suggested by others, I added 3 tablespoons of lemon juice to increase the lemon flavor. Kept the same amount of zest. I also found the dough to be a bit sticky and difficult to work with so I put the dough in the fridge for a few hours first. I absolutely love these cookies! A keeper for me! Nice and citrusy and delicious! Would be even better with a citrus glaze on top!
I just shared a recipe for Almond Butter Cookies on my blog and included your Lemon Butter Cookies in a mini round-up of butter cookie recipes at the end. Thanks so much, Melissa!
Can the dough be made an frozen for later use?
Yes! You can definitely freeze this dough.
Thank you for the reply! I’m going to make them tonight. Very excited. 🙂
I have been looking for a good hand-shaped butter cookie recipe, and I think this is it. I was trying to create Naan Berenji, so I replaced the lemon and zest with rose water and cardamom, and I used rice flour instead of wheat flour. I was very pleased with the results.
These look delicious! Can’t wait to try them. I was wondering if you think white chocolate chips would be good in these cookies?
I don’t know. I’ve never tried them, but I think it sounds like it would be good!
Just delcious. Amything lemon, one of my faves this. Thanks .
Simon
Even after following the directions exactly, these did not turn out well. I read all the comments and there was no consistency with the issues or responses for help to solve them. Do you have an answer for when the dough is not able to be formed in a ball because it is too wet/sticky? I never had an issue with it being too thick. Thx as I’d like these to be good.
I haven’t had that problem before, but I would suggest two things. The first would be chilling the dough for about 1 hour. If that doesn’t work, try adding a tiny bit of flour, maybe 1 tablespoon at a time, until it seems better. I hope that works out for you.