GLAZED LEMON COOKIES

Lemon Glazed Cookies are butter cookies topped with a fresh lemon glaze that’s irresistible! They’re the perfect amount of sweet and tart and the best to make in Spring!

These little lemon cookies are favorites of mine. We start with a buttery sugar cookie dough and infuse bright lemon flavor with both fresh lemon zest and lemon juice. The cookies are soft inside with crisp outer edges. We finish them with a lovely sweet lemon glaze that I just want to eat by the spoonful!

Ingredients needed for Lemon Glazed Cookies

Here’s what you’ll need to make these lemon cookies:

–Butter: We use 1 cup of butter in the cookie dough; that’s 2 sticks.

—Lemon: 1 fresh lemon will yield enough lemon juice & lemon zest

—Eggs: 2 large eggs are needed

—Sugars: You’ll need both granulated sugar and brown sugar to get that perfect balance of sweetness.

—Dry Ingredients: You’ll need 2 ½ cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt

—Vanilla: add 1 tsp to the cookie dough

—Powdered Sugar: we use 1 cup to make the glaze that tops the lemon cookies

How to make Iced Lemon Cookies

It’s so easy to make these lemon cookies! With a hand mixer, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs, lemon juice, zest and vanilla and mix until combined. Add in baking soda, salt, and flour and mix once again.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls (I use a cookie scoop!) onto parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350ºF for 7-9 minutes.

Cool completely and spoon glaze onto each cookie.

How to make Lemon Icing

To make the simple lemon icing, you just whisk together 1 cup of powdered sugar, 2 TBSP softened butter, 1 TBSP lemon juice and 1 tsp lemon zest until smooth. Then you just spoon onto each cookie!

Can I use Lemon Extract Instead of Lemon Zest or Juice?

I prefer to use lemon juice and lemon zest instead of lemon extract because the fresh lemon instills a much more authentic flavor than the extract. I use other extracts in baking, but lemon just tastes terrible to me! I just taste an alcohol flavor instead of lemon flavor. If you really, really don’t want to use fresh lemon, a Lemon Emulsion has better flavor than an extract.

How to Store Lemon Glazed Cookies

Make sure you let the icing set before storing the cookies in an airtight container on the countertop. Once the icing is set, the cookies will stack just fine, but if you’re nervous about it, you can put a piece of parchment between the layers.

Can you freeze Glazed Lemon Butter Cookies?

Yes! Even iced cookies freeze well. An airtight container works the best, but you can freeze them in 2 layers in a gallon sized bag with a piece of parchment paper between the layers.

How to juice a lemon

I often use bottled lemon juice in this recipe, but it’s very easy to get fresh lemon juice if you prefer! To get the juice from a lemon, I just cut the lemon in half and squeeze it really hard. You can also use a citrus press like this one to get all the juice out of the lemon.

How to zest a lemon

You can also add a little more lemon flavor to the recipe by adding some lemon zest to the icing.

Don’t be intimidated about getting the zest from a lemon – it’s really easy! And fresh lemon zest adds such an amazing lemon flavor to recipes!

Lemon zest is just tiny pieces of the outside of the peel of a lemon. I use the small side of a regular cheese grater – as long as the holes are tiny, it will work just fine. You can also use a citrus zester like this one if you prefer! Either way, make sure to just grate the darker yellow outer layer of the lemon peel. Once you have revealed the lighter part of the peel underneath, rotate the lemon and start grating another part of the outer layer.

How do I soften butter?

The traditional way of softening butter is leaving however much you need for a recipe out at room temperature for long enough to soften. However, there are some other, quicker ways to soften butter such as: cutting up the butter, pounding the butter, beating the butter and if it comes to it, microwaving the butter. If microwaving, use the defrost setting for only about 15 seconds. You don’t want your butter to melt!

More Lemon Cookies to Bake

• We used pudding mix in the dough of these White Chocolate Lemon Cookies that gives them lovely flavor and a soft texture. Pudding mix is used as well in these Lemon Cream Pie Cookies, who can resist them?!
• Don’t feel like baking? These Lemon Oatmeal Cookies are made on the stove in minutes!
• Our gorgeous Frosted Lemon Sugar Cookies are topped with a rosette of heavenly lemon buttercream.
• Add fresh lemons to the grocery list and make these Lemon Thumbprint Cookies that are topped with a luscious smooth & tangy lemon curd that we eat by the spoonful!
• Skip a few steps and use a lemon cake mix to make these Easy Lemon Oreos!

Glazed Lemon Cookies are a sweet frosted lemon butter cookie made with fresh lemons. This delicious lemon cookie recipe is the perfect amount of sweet and tart.