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July 11, 2020 By Brandy Leave a Comment

Home » Recipes » Dessert Recipes » Cookie Recipes

The BEST Lemon Sugar Cookies (Video)

Filed Under: Cookie Recipes

Lemon sugar cookies with creamy lemon frosting and an added boost of tang from the tiniest slice of lemon on top of each cookie. These are literally the BEST lemon sugar cookies. A delicious twist on our tried and true bakery style sugar cookie recipe. 

Watch our step by step video!

My bakery style sugar cookies are my all time favorite cookie. I wasn’t sure if they could get any better until I loaded them up with fresh lemon zest and juice—BAM. If you love lemon as much as I do, these will completely hit the spot. PROMISE!

frosted cookies on cooling rack

We start out with a light and buttery sugar cookie, flavored with lemon zest. Then we spread a delicious and tangy buttercream frosting over the cookie and top it with a TINY slice of lemon.

The lemon slice is optional, but adds such great flavor that you should try making the cookies with the lemon slices at least once. The little slice doesn’t make the cookie soggy. It sits above on the frosting.

hand holding lemon sugar cookie

If you aren’t planning on eating these the same day that you make them, store cookies in a air tight container or freezer and frost before serving. This batch makes 3 dozen perfectly sweet and tangy sugar cookies.

How To Shape Sugar Cookies

balls of lemon sugar cookie dough on baking sheet

Scoop cookies, using a medium cookie scoop, onto ungreased baking sheets. Roll each scoop of cookie dough into a perfect ball using your hands.

hand pressing glass onto ball of cookie dough to flatten

Dip a glass in sugar and press down on each cookie dough ball to flatten.

sugar cookies pressed flat before baking

These cookies will puff when baked, so make sure to really press down. I like pressing down until the edges come up over the side of the jar. See video for a great visual.

These lemon sugar cookies bake up in just 10 minutes. Let them rest on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

frosted lemon sugar cookie

Make a batch of lemon buttercream while the cookies cool, and spoon a small amount over each cookie. If you like lots of frosting on your sugar cookies, feel free to make a double batch. It’s so delicious and won’t go to waste.

hand adding lemon slice to top of cookie

Finally, add a tiny slice of lemon to the top of each cookie.

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The BEST Lemon Sugar Cookies

The BEST Lemon Sugar Cookies

lemon sugar cookies on cooling rack

Lemon sugar cookies with creamy lemon frosting and an added boost of tang from the tiniest slice of lemon on top of each cookie. These are literally the BEST lemon sugar cookies.

Cookie Dough

  • 1 cup butter (softened)
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • zest from 1 lemon
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 cup corn starch
  • 3 cups all purpose flour

Lemon Frosting

  • 1/2 cup butter (softened)
  • 3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3-4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • zest from 1 lemon
  • 1 lemon (cut into small slices)

Cookies

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  2. In a large mixing bowl combine butter, shortening and sugar. Beat until fluffy.

  3. Turn mixer down and add egg, vanilla and lemon zest. Add baking powder. Sift in and flour and cornstarch until mixed thoroughly (1-2 minutes).

  4. Scoop dough, using a medium cookie scoop, onto ungreased baking sheets. Roll each scoop of dough into a ball.

  5. Press a glass into each cookie dough ball to flatten. Dip glass in sugar to keep the glass from sticking to the cookie dough.

  6. Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Allow to cool on pan 3-5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

  7. Allow cookies to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

  1. Mix frosting ingredients with electric mixer. Spread over cookies.

  2. Cut a lemon into tiny slices. Place one slice of lemon on each cookie.

You will need 3 lemons for this recipe.

If using salted butter, no additional salt is necessary for the cookie dough. If using unsalted butter, add 1 teaspoon of salt with the dry ingredients in the cookie dough.

Cookies can sit be left out at room temperature for 24 hours or so. If storing longer, wrap cookies, and refrigerate to keep lemon slices fresh. 

lemon sugar cookies on cooling rack

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About Brandy

Welcome! I'm Brandy, mother to 5 darling kiddos and a cute black lab named Toby. My husband is in the Coast Guard so we've lived all over the place, turning each house into a home. I love baking, sewing, making cute things with my kids, and sharing what I've learned with all of you!

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About the Author

Welcome! I'm Brandy, mother to 5 darling kiddos and a cute black lab named Toby. My husband is in the Coast Guard so we've lived all over the place, turning each house into a home. I love baking, sewing, making cute things with my kids, and sharing what I've learned with all of you! Learn More About The Author

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I don’t think this will ever get old. I think th I don’t think this will ever get old. I think the cream eggs from our leghorn mixes are my favorite! #nelsonsbackyardchickens
I don’t decorate for Valentine’s Day (still re I don’t decorate for Valentine’s Day (still recovering from Christmas 😂), but I always have holiday candy on hand! This year I filled the jar with petite sour hearts after hearing how amazing they are from @triedandtruemoms. They were right, we are all fans over here! Maybe more places will stock them now that they are in such demand. I ordered mine from @candynationusa (don’t waste your time looking on Amazon. They are charging twice as much for less candy).
These are the real deal, and are easy to make usin These are the real deal, and are easy to make using a cake mix and marshmallow fluff! We may have made them two days in a row after giving quite a few away to friends. 🙌🏻 Recipe is on the blog!
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Actually, there’s always something to see. These birds are hilarious. #nelsonsbackyardchickens #step2 @thestep2company
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Tip: when buying produce, buy extra to freeze. I buy an extra pineapple, an extra package of grapes, an extra bunch of bananas and an extra bag of spinach and freeze them for smoothies. I slice everything up and freeze it on baking sheets then bag it up. It makes it easy to grab a handful to toss into a blender. You can freeze entire bags of spinach too and add a handful to smoothies. I always blend my spinach and water first then add the rest of the fruit. No little spinach chunks in the smoothie that way. 🙌🏻 
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