Glazed Lemon Cookies

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.

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.

Recipe Ingredients

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

How to Make Glazed Lemon Cookies

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 to the butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated. 

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

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

Like this. 

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.

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

Bake those at 400 for about 8 minutes.

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.

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

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

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)

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