Glazed Lemon Cookies

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These easy glazed lemon cookies taste like sunshine and include a tender shortbread cookie topped with a sweet lemon glaze. An old favorite from Grandma’s recipe box and affectionately known as lemon blossom cookies, they’re sure to be a favorite at your house.

Platter of glazed lemon cookies.

You know the expression, when life gives you lemons make lemonade? Well, we all do that, every day. We’re handed a basket of lemons and each day we go to our little lemonade stands and set up shop. Folks come by our stands throughout the day and you’re serving up your own special recipe whether you realize it to not. The cashier at the grocery store, the waitress at the restaurant, your kids at the breakfast table, friends who call, and people who read your Facebook status. You serve them your lemonade all day long.

Here is another great thing you can do with those lemons life hands you, make my Mama’s glazed lemon cookies, which we always called lemon blossom cookies. With spring right here, these cookies are the perfect way to have a taste of sunshine!

Fortunately, the lemon cookie recipe is super easy to make. It takes just a few simple steps to make the cookie batter with kitchen essentials like flour, butter, sugar, and of course, lemon juice for that zesty lemon flavor. They only need to bake for less than 10 minutes and then you pop on the lemon glaze, which looks like sunshine thanks to a couple of drops of yellow food coloring. 

These cookies have a deliciously tender shortbread texture and the sweet glaze is the perfect compliment. They’re just going to melt in your mouth. I hope you make a batch for friends and family today to put a little spring in their step!

If you want my recipe for lemonade, click here.

Ingredients for Glazed Lemon Cookies

Recipe Ingredients

  • Bottled or fresh lemon juice
  • Granulated sugar
  • Baking soda
  • Baking powder
  • Kosher salt
  • Flour
  • Unsalted butter

How to Make Glazed Lemon Cookies

Mixing together softened butter and sugar.

Place your softened butter in a mixing bowl with your sugar. Mix well with an electric mixer until fluffy and well combined.

Add lemon juice and mix well.

Add lemon juice to the butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated. 

Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.

In another bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until dough forms.

Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix again until well incorporated and a dough forms.

Glazed lemon cookie dough.

Like this. 

Wrap lemon cookie dough and refrigerate for an hour.

Using your hands, press cookie dough together into a ball and place it in a plastic bag or some other covered container to place in the fridge for an hour.

Place cookie dough in center of floured surface.

Line a countertop or table with waxed paper. Sprinkle with flour or spray lightly with baking spray to prevent dough from sticking. Place chilled dough in the center.

Roll out dough and cut into cookies.

Roll out dough to about 1/4-inch thick or just until you get tired of rolling it out.

How to cut cookie dough in nice round shapes

Cut lemon cookies out with a small cookie cutter or the lid to your baking spray.

For reference, if you use a 1.5-inch circle cutter, it will easily yield about three dozen cookies.

Place lemon cookies on baking sheet.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet about an inch or so apart.

Bake those at 400 for about 8 minutes.

Mix together lemon cookie glaze ingredients.

How to make icing for lemon cookies

In a small bowl, place a cup and a half of the confectioner’s sugar (also known as powdered sugar). Add three tablespoons of lemon juice. Add a few drops of yellow food coloring if you like. Stir until smooth and creamy.

Add glaze to center of each lemon cookie.

Now just spoon a little glaze into the center of each lemon cookie and spread it around a bit.

Let glazed lemon cookies dry for an hour before stacking.

Let lemon blossoms dry for an hour or so and then you can stack them.

Platter filled with glazed lemon cookies.

Here are our beautiful glazed lemon blossom cookies!

Storage

  • Store leftover cookies in an airtight container either at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 5 days (choose the fridge if you kitchen is humid). Place parchment paper between individual cookie layers so they don’t stick together.
  • You can also freeze glazed lemon cookies for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before enjoying.

Recipe Notes

  • For more lemon flavor, add 2 tablespoons of grated lemon zest to the butter/sugar mixture. To really maximize the flavor, rub the sugar and lemon zest together before adding to the butter in the mixing bowl.
  • Speaking of flavor, you can also add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract or almond extract to the cookie dough (mix it in right at the end).
  • Another use for lemon zest is to sprinkle it over the glazed cookies immediately after glazing.
  • Use this recipe to make the cookie flavor of your choice. For example, substitute the lemon juice for lime juice to make glazed lime cookies.
  • For lemon poppyseed cookies, add 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds to the dry ingredients before combining with the butter mixture.
  • To make gluten-free glazed lemon cookies, use gluten-free all-purpose flour instead.
  • On the other hand, for vegan lemon cookies, use a vegan butter alternative.
  • Make sure you let the cookies completely cool before glazing, otherwise it will melt right off! If you’re in a rush, pop them in the freezer for about 15 minutes before glazing.

You may also like these lovely lemon desserts:

Lemon Angel Food Cake Roll

Lemon Chess Pie: A Southern Family Tradition

Impossible Lemon Pie

Lemon Icebox Cake

Lemon Meringue Pie With Condensed Milk and Wafers

Easy Lemon Bar Recipe (With Video Tutorial)

beautiful photo of lemon blossoms

Glazed Lemon Cookies

These easy glazed lemon cookies taste like sunshine and include a tender shortbread cookie topped with a sweet lemon glaze.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 18 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cookies, lemon
Servings: 36 cookies
Calories: 89kcal

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup softened unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup bottled or fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Glaze

  • 1.5 cups confectioner's sugar
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • few drops yellow food coloring optional

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Mix well with an electric mixer until creamy and combined. Add in lemon juice and mix again.
    1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup softened unsalted butter, 1/3 cup bottled or fresh lemon juice
  • In a separate bowl, stir together (with a spoon) the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add this flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat with an electric mixer until well incorporated and a dough forms. Cover or wrap the dough and refrigerate for an hour.
    3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut with a small circle cutter (I used 1.5-inch). Place cookies on ungreased baking sheets and bake at 400 for about 8 minutes. Remove to cool.

To make glaze

  • Combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and stir with a spoon until lumps disappear. Spoon a little bit into the center of each cooled cookie and spread it around with the back of a spoon. Make more glaze if needed. Allow to dry for an hour or so and then stack cookies and store in a cookie jar.
    1.5 cups confectioner's sugar, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, few drops yellow food coloring

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 89kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

This recipe was originally posted in 2011. I updated the photos and post in 2020. 

 

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106 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    We have a meyer lemon tree and, with the exception of this past year, we always have more lemons than we know what to do with them, and end up giving hundreds of them away to friends and neighbors. I have a freezer full of juice. Thank you for a wonderful new recipe to use some of that juice up ! It looks like we will have another bumper crop this year !

  2. 5 stars
    Good Afternoon Everyone ~ I just made these cookies and they are just delightful little things . . . Easy to make and so very good. I did add some lemon zest to the dough but only because my lemons didn’t smell very “lemony” and they came out just perfect. Sweet, lemony and just a cute little bite ~ my husband was out mowing and I offered him some water and a few cookies before they were even glazed and he said, “these are really good ~ just right” !!!!!!! THANKS so much for sharing and Everyone, PLEASE Take GOOD Care, Linda

  3. I had all the ingredients in my kitchen, including some meyer lemons that my son wasnt eating (because he only eats regular lemons, I guess). I made my dough and it smelled AMAZING! Got the lemon blossoms baking in the oven right now. Cant wait to try them. The dough was yummy!

    1. I hope you enjoy the Lemon Blossoms Heather!!! I am curious about this whole lemon thing going on at your house 🙂 How old is the son? Does he eat just the lemons? Does he know the difference between a Meyer lemon and regular lemon?

  4. Christy, you are as bright and sunshiney as these lemon cookies! I love reading your posts so much!!!❤ God has truly blessed you with such a beautiful ministry…..and you are our gift to open every morning! Please continue blessing us as long as you can…. Forever works for me!❤

  5. Hi There Christy! Love your beautiful bouquet of flowers and the yellow bunny cookies too. I will be baking them soon. Thanks Once Again!

  6. Hi Christy, these look lovely and lemon is my fav flavour, there is no print button on this recipe, so am thinking its an orphan!
    However am going to try baking these along with my mother’s sponge cake which she made cup cakes with. So the lemon will be getting a workout with those two.
    We used to be able to get a can of lemonade powder from Real Lemon and she would use that in place of the sugar in the sponge cake recipe, no need to add lemon extract, and no extra liquid to deal with!
    Bet that would make them real lemon flavoured if you added half the sugar as that!

  7. My b-day is 4/30 so I think I’ll be making these to share with family & co-workers. Love that I have all the ingredients & your bouquet is beautiful!

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