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Family-friendly meals made easy!
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
These easy Lemon Crinkle Cookies are a bright citrus twist on classic crinkle cookies. Made with refrigerated Pillsbury™ Sugar Cookie Dough and a few simple additions, they bake into soft, delicate lemon cookies with a signature powdered sugar crinkle coating. Light, citrusy, and simple to make, this lemon crinkle cookie recipe is a refreshing variation on the traditional chocolate crinkle cookie, perfect for holiday baking, Easter treats, or anytime you want a bright, cheerful dessert.
With just a few ingredients, you can make these easy Lemon Crinkle Cookies. Here’s what you need!
Refrigerated Pillsbury™ Sugar Cookie Dough: Our refrigerated dough is the perfect base for this tender cookie.
All-Purpose Flour: Adding flour to the dough helps firm it up so the cookies hold their shape and don’t spread too much in the oven.
Lemon Zest and Juice: We use both lemon juice and zest to get the most robust lemon flavor into each bite. Juice adds freshness and tang, while zest boosts the lemon flavor with aromatic oils.
Yellow Gel Food Color: Just a bit of gel food color makes these crinkle cookies a perfect lemon yellow. We recommend Betty Crocker™ Classic Gel Food Color. If using another brand, you may need more or less to get to your perfect light lemon color.
Granulated and Powdered Sugars: Each type of sugar has a role. Granulated sugar adds a nice crunch to the outside of the cookie, while powdered sugar coats the cookies for that classic snowy, crackled finish.
Here’s a look at how to make these simple lemon crinkles. Follow the recipe for more detail.
Mix the dough with the flour, lemon zest and juice, and gel food color. Cover and chill the dough for 2 hours or longer.
Roll the dough into 24 balls, then roll each ball in the granulated sugar, followed by the powdered sugar.
Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, and bake until just set. Let cool and enjoy!
If you have any leftover cookies, here’s how to store them.
Keep Lemon Crinkle Cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
You can store the cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
For even longer storage, keep cookies in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months.
In a medium bowl, break up cookie dough and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir or knead in flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, and 3 to 5 drops of yellow gel food color, until well mixed and a light yellow color. (DO NOT EAT RAW COOKIE DOUGH AFTER COMBINING WITH FLOUR.) Chill dough, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Adjust oven racks so two shelves are positioned near the center of the oven, leaving enough space between them for air to circulate evenly around both baking sheets. Heat oven to 325°F (or 300°F for nonstick baking sheets). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the granulated sugar in a shallow bowl, and the powdered sugar in a separate shallow bowl.
Shape dough into 24 balls, about 1 tablespoon each. The dough will be very soft. Immediately roll each ball in the granulated sugar, then generously coat in the powdered sugar. Once coated, place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges are set.
Cool cookies 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
There are a few secrets to using lemon zest in baking. We recommend using a fine rasp-style grater or zester and zesting the lemon directly over the bowl. This allows the citrus oils to fall straight into your dough for the best lemon flavor.
This soft, sticky dough bakes into a beautifully delicate, tender cookie, but it needs time in the refrigerator to make it easier to work with. If it still feels too sticky after 2 hours in the refrigerator, you can chill it for a few more hours or even overnight before baking. Just be sure it’s tightly covered.
This recipe was developed and tested with both baking sheets in the oven at the same time, and in most ovens, they should bake evenly without needing to rotate the pans. However, if your oven tends to bake unevenly or has noticeable hot spots, you can rotate the baking sheets halfway through baking by switching the top and bottom pans and turning each sheet 180 degrees to promote more even browning and baking.
