I absolutely love all things lemon! So these vegan lemon cookies are right up my street.
There’s something about the tanginess and light and refreshing taste of lemon that just goes so well with sweet desserts (like lemon cupcakes, lemon cake and lemon pound cake, ooooh yes!).
And these cookies are soft and buttery with just enough lemon flavor to really pop!
This is a simple 8-ingredient recipe for the cookies and an even simpler 3-ingredient recipe for the glaze.
The glaze is totally optional, but recommended, it really makes that lemon flavor shine!
You start off by creaming together some vegan butter and sugar and then adding in some lemon extract.
Then you add some flour, baking soda and salt and mix in until very crumbly. Add in some lemon zest. Then you add some soy milk and mix again. At this point it will feel like this will never make a cookie dough, it will feel way too dry. But get in there with your hands and next thing you have a nice big ball of dough.
The dough is dry, but don’t worry the cookies are definitely not!
Break off pieces of dough and roll them into balls and then flatten them. You can flatten them with a fork, or by placing a square of parchment paper on top of the balls and then pressing down on it with the base of a glass.
I tried it both ways and the end result looked identical.
And then you bake them for 12 minutes!
When they come out of the oven they will be very lightly browned on top but still very soft in the middle. Let them cool on the tray and as they cool they will firm up.
When they’re completely cool, then drizzle on the delicious lemon glaze. And there you have it, delicious vegan lemon cookies!
So I hope you’ll love these vegan lemon cookies for all the reasons I do! They’re:
- Tangy
- Fresh
- Soft
- Buttery
- Deliciously lemony
- Super easy!
Keep them stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days or in the fridge for up to a week.
So please let us know what you think of these vegan lemon cookies in the comments and please rate the recipe too!
For more divine vegan cookie recipes, check out these awesome options:
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
And heaps more!
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Vegan Lemon Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 20
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Vegan lemon cookies with a deliciously tangy and fresh lemon flavor and a soft and buttery texture. Super easy recipe with perfect results.
Ingredients
For the Lemon Cookies:
- 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
- 3/4 cups (150g) White Sugar
- 2 tsp Lemon Extract
- 2 cups (250g) All purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Zest*
- 2 Tbsp Soy Milk*
For the Lemon Glaze:
- 1 cup (120g) Powdered Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice (Freshly Squeezed)
- 1/8 tsp Lemon Extract
Instructions
- Add the vegan butter and white sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and cream them together. Add in the lemon extract and mix in well.
- Add the flour, baking soda and salt to a bowl and mix together. Then add the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and mix in by hand (don’t use the electric mixer for this part). Mix until crumbly.
- Add in the lemon zest and mix in.
- Then add in the soy milk and mix in very well. It will seem like it is too dry to form a dough, but get in there with your hands until it does. Only add more soy milk if you absolutely have to.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Break off pieces of the big ball of dough and roll them into balls and place onto a parchment lined baking tray. Aim to get 20 balls.
- Then flatten the balls either with a fork or by placing a square of parchment paper over a ball and flattening with the base of a glass.
- Place into the oven to bake for 12 minutes.
- When they are done they will be lightly browned on top but still very soft in the middle. Allow to cool on the tray and they will firm up as they cool.
- Prepare your lemon glaze by adding the ingredients to a bowl and mixing in with a spoon.
- When the cookies are completely cool, use a teaspoon to drizzle the glaze over the cookies.
Notes
*1 Tbsp of lemon zest is roughly what you’d get from 1 lemon.
*You can substitute a different non-dairy milk such as almond milk if you prefer.
- Category: Baking, Dessert, Cookies
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie (of 20)
- Calories: 133
- Sugar: 13.4g
- Sodium: 113mg
- Fat: 3.5g
- Saturated Fat: 1.3g
- Carbohydrates: 23.2g
- Fiber: 0.3g
- Protein: 1.3g
Keywords: vegan lemon cookies
Anna Andrews says
August 24, 2018 at 12:54 pmThe lemon flavour adds a special flavour to these cookies!
★★★★★
Jennifer says
August 24, 2018 at 2:38 pmCan’t go wrong with LEMON! And these look award-winning to me! YUM!
Alison Andrews says
August 24, 2018 at 4:09 pmWhy thank you! 🙂 And yes you’re too right, can’t go wrong with lemon flavored desserts! 🙂
Shantan says
August 24, 2018 at 3:38 pmHi Alison,
Just curious. Is it possible to replace the lemon extract in the recipe with lemon juice and what would the proportion be? I am curious if you have tried this or have any experience doing it.
Thanks 🙂
Alison Andrews says
August 24, 2018 at 3:52 pmHi! I haven’t tried that, I think you would lose a little of the lemon flavor as the lemon extract is concentrated, but I definitely think it would still be delicious. You could try replacing the soy milk and the extract with lemon juice (same proportions), but like I say I haven’t tried this so can’t be 100% sure but I think that might work well too. All the best and let us know if you try it like that! 🙂
Jo Hall says
August 26, 2018 at 1:57 pmAnother great cookie recipe from you, really delicious and simple to make.
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
August 27, 2018 at 7:27 amYay! Thanks Jo! ?
Patricia Campbell says
August 27, 2018 at 10:57 pmYou do not have mention bringing the vegan butter to room temperature first. is this a step that you recommend or find necessary? Thank you!!
Alison Andrews says
August 28, 2018 at 6:48 amHi Patricia, I don’t do it, I am usually too impatient for that so just use it straight out the fridge, just cream it very well and that takes care of that. 🙂
Selene says
August 30, 2018 at 4:16 amCan I substitute vegan butter for half cacao butter + Half coconut oil ? 🙂
Alison Andrews says
August 30, 2018 at 8:33 amCoconut oil would likely be okay, I have no idea about cacao butter for this, but I would be hesitant to try. Others have substituted coconut oil for vegan butter in our cookie recipes and been successful so that should be fine. You could also try making a coconut oil based homemade vegan butter we have a recipe that works great for cookies!
Sue says
September 12, 2018 at 3:04 pmHello Allison,
I did make these last night and they are yummy. Thank you very much for your wonderful recipes!
Pat says
September 17, 2018 at 3:24 pmCan I substitute the white sugar to coconut sugar?
Alison Andrews says
September 18, 2018 at 8:07 amYou probably can! That being said though substitutions can be risky when they haven’t been tested and I haven’t tested it like that. But in theory it’s also granulated sugar so should be fine. 🙂
Naya123 says
September 20, 2018 at 7:55 pmI just made this cookies and they are great! I didn’t have any lemon extract, so i used fresh lemon juice instead of the milk and I reduced the sugar by 30 grams. They are perfect
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
September 21, 2018 at 7:08 amFantastic! 🙂
Cynthia Dunning-Lazaroff says
September 24, 2018 at 11:08 amcan you sub gluten free flour for regular?
Alison Andrews says
September 25, 2018 at 7:42 amI haven’t tried it! But if you do try it use an all purpose gluten-free flour blend. 🙂
Cynthia Dunning-Lazaroff says
September 26, 2018 at 10:57 amTHANKS! I will let you know!!!
Revathi says
September 26, 2018 at 12:12 pmThis looks yummy! Will surely try out! It would be great if you could post the vegan butter recipe too! Thanks
Revathi
Alison Andrews says
September 26, 2018 at 3:50 pmHi! Our vegan butter recipe is here. 🙂
Emily says
April 19, 2019 at 6:43 pmThese are AMAZING!!! All of my non-vegan family members (even the ones who never eat anything that I make just because it’s ‘vegan’) loooooved them. These will be my new go-to cookies for events. 🙂
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
April 20, 2019 at 9:28 amAwesome! So happy to hear that Emily, thanks for the awesome review. xo
Teresa says
April 30, 2019 at 4:51 amHello!
I haven’t tried these yet but they look amazing – and so easy! I’m wondering if Limoncello liqueur would work as a replacement for the lemon juice. Thoughts?
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
April 30, 2019 at 6:00 amHi Teresa, it might! I’m not sure. So far I haven’t had the best success in baking with alcohol, it turns out more crumbly. But that was with a cake, maybe cookies would be different. If you try it let us know how it goes! All the best! 🙂
Michelle says
May 3, 2019 at 10:22 amYummy Yummy Yummy 🙂 🙂
★★★★★
Lanetra says
May 16, 2019 at 3:45 amJust made these, and they are awesome and everyone in my house devoured them. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
May 16, 2019 at 8:45 amFantastic! Thanks so much for the wonderful review. xo