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 made these today and they are delicious! I am going to make them again tomorrow and use lime zest and juice and another batch with orange zest and juice. I just love the citrus flavor in them. Very refreshing compared to a lot of cookies that I make during the holidays that are either chocolate or mint or a little more heavy. These will be a wonderful addition to my gift baskets for coworkers this year! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Happy baking!!
I’m so glad you liked them! Happy baking to you too!
I would recommend adding lemon extract. I did this and it really made them taste great although it’s uo to you. Also I’m guessing you meant dairy free butter because it wasn’t specified lol. Overall amazing recipe 🙂
This recipe is actually super old, from before we went dairy free. I have made it with dairy free butter, but I never updated the recipe! I should probably update it to reflect that though.
Just made them. They are awesome. Used 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and zest of two whole lemons. My daughter and husband can’t stop eating them! Thank you
I loved this recipe…
I wanted to try a different variation of butter cookies, and since I love lemon I looked up lemon butter cookies. After going over the large variety of recipes, I chose this one and my family loved it. Definitely will be making this more often.
Thank you
I just made these. They’re very similar to a kind my grandmother used to make, but she rolled hers in sugar and smooshed them with a glass before baking. I did that instead of the criss cross because I’m making peanut butter cookies today, too. These came out great!
I was disappointed in these cookies. After reading the other comments I did increase the lemon juice and also added some almond extract but still didn’t find them to be very flavorful and didn’t get that hit of lemon that I would have liked. I can see why a couple of people mentioned they tasted more like flour.
I just made these cookies and they turned out great! I added a little more lemon juice to mine. I also made an icing glaze to put on top of mine (just using icing sugar and milk). Thanks for a good, easy recipe!