Soft and chewy lemon sugar cookies are a light and refreshing cookie! The best part, these are the easiest cookie you can make. No cookie cutters, no making individual cookie dough balls. These bake as one big rectangular cookie, then you use a pizza cutter to slice the baked cookie into these little squares!
Recipe at a Glance
Prep time: About 10 minutes
Bake time: 12 minutes
Notes: Baked as one big cookie then sliced into individual cookie squares with a pizza cutter.
The cookies are perfect for spring! The lemon extract and the lemon sugar topping make these light and refreshing, not a heavy or dense cookie. Imagine sitting outside after dinner and setting out a plate of these. You won’t feel weighed down by snacking on a few of these. Bring them to a pool party or cookout and be the hero of the dessert table!
How to make lemon sugar
So when I first set out to make this recipe originally I had thought about topping them with yellow sprinkles. But the first time I tested them since I didn’t have sprinkles yet I decided to make a lemon sugar instead. The lemon zest gives the yellow color I was looking for, and in a natural way! Once I tried these I knew I had a winner. It’s the perfect amount of lemony topping with the natural yellow tint.What you’ll need to make lemon sugar:
What you’ll need to make lemon sugar:
- 1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon of white sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
Combine the white sugar and lemon zest in a bowl until combined. That’s it! So easy and vibrantly lemony.
As I mentioned above, the lemon sugar cookies are literally the easiest cookie you can make. It uses a really unique baking hack! You don’t need to make individual cookie dough balls, and you don’t need cookie cutters! So, how do you make these cookies? Well, what you do is you pour all of the cookie dough onto your large baking sheet. Then, you smooth it out into a large rectangle, mine measures about 9″ high by 10″ across. Take a little at this recipe here for an image of what this cookie rectangle will look like.
You bake this big cookie rectangle! Yes, the cookie dough as one big rectangle is what you pop into the oven. After it bakes, remove it from the oven then use a pizza cutter to slice this rectangle into the little squares!
It really doesn’t get much easier than this. This gives new meaning to slice and bake cookies!
If you make these let me know! I love hearing from you.
Soft Lemon Sugar Cookies
Soft lemon sugar cookies are an easy cookie that’s soft, chewy, and packed with lemon flavors. Topped with a lemon sugar, these are light and refreshing!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
5 tablespoons Crisco shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons lemon extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 egg
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the Lemon Sugar Topping
1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Instructions
1. Heat oven to 375. In a large bowl cream together the shortening and the 3/4 cup sugar. Add in the oil, egg, milk, lemon extract, and lemon zest and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually blend in the flour, baking powder, and salt at low speed. Spread onto an ungreased baking pan. Mixture will not cover the entire pan, spread until about 1/4″ thick. Mine measured 9×10.
3. To make the lemon sugar, in a small bowl combine the white sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon zest.
4. Sprinkle the lemon sugar over the top of the cookie dough. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, sprinkle with a little more white sugar, then slice with a pizza cutter into squares to the desired cookie size.
Keywords: lemon sugar cookies
Can you use butter instead of crisco shortening?
I don’t think it will come out the same so I’d be worried to give that a try. Maybe something I need to test soon!