Vegan lemon cookies with a deliciously tangy and fresh lemon flavor and a soft and buttery texture. Super easy recipe with perfect results.
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 our vegan lemon cupcakes, vegan lemon cake and vegan lemon pound cake, ooooh yes!).
And these cookies are soft and buttery with just enough lemon flavor to really pop!
How to make Vegan Lemon Cookies
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 non-dairy milk and mix again.
TIP: We used soy milk but you can use any non-dairy milk.
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.
The Lemon Glaze
When they’re completely cool, then drizzle on the delicious lemon glaze. It’s a simple mix of powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon extract.
And there you have it, delicious vegan lemon cookies with glaze!
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.
More Vegan Cookies!
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
And heaps more!
So please let us know what you think of these vegan lemon cookies in the comments and please rate the recipe too!
Sign up to our email list for a fabulous (and free!) dinner recipes ebook containing 10 awesome recipes and to stay updated with all our latest recipes posted to the blog.
Vegan Lemon Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 20
Description
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: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- 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
ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!!! Thank you Alison for yet another wonderful recipe.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much Barbara!
Do you have to use milk in the recipe?
If you don’t seem to need it, then no.
Your lemon cookie recipe is AMAZING!! I made the cookies yesterday, and I was a bit skeptical because I recently tried two other vegan lemon cookie receipes that were a bust. 🙁 This is the absolute BEST vegan lemon cookie recipe, and I am a picky eater!! Even my husband who does not necessarily like lemon goods enjoyed the cookies to the fullest! Thanks for sharing this recipe, Alison – God bless you!!
★★★★★
Yay! Thanks so much Sass! 🙂
Easy tasty recipe. Only my second time making biscuits of any kind and this was foolproof. Didn’t have lemon extract so just used lemon juice in place and it worked out fine. Another great recipe thanks
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks so much Emma!
Hi, may I ask if I can substitute vegan butter with coconut oil and if I can, how much coconut oil should I use? Thanks
You can try that, it would be in the same quantity as the vegan butter. Alternatively you can make your own vegan butter.
I’ve made this recipe once before and want to make it again but what would I need to change to add some poppyseed? Will it stay the same or do I need to add extra butter ? Thank you!
★★★★★
Hi Morgan, I don’t think you would need to change anything, just add in a couple of tablespoons to your cookie dough before rolling them into balls. All the best! 🙂
Hi! Can you sub the all purpose flour for almond/oat etc.? Thank you!
Hi Emily, I don’t think so! If you want it to be gluten-free, then a gluten-free all purpose blend will be the best bet!
The cookies turned out amazing!!
I am not a vegan so I substituted vegan ingredients with dairy products .I replaced extract with lemon juice. The cookies came out delicious.
Thank you 😊
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing Sahana!
The cookies turned out amazing!!
Thank you 😊
★★★★★
Can the lemon extract be replaced with something else? We don’t really get this in Greece – though we do have lots of lemons 🙂
Extra lemon juice. 🙂
Great! – thanks x
This recipe saved the day! I make half lemon half strawberry cookies every Easter. It started as a way to talk about salvation with my kids when they were little. Lemon representing the bitter/sour experience of the cross and the strawberry the sweetness of the resurrection. Anyway, I would make them using a box cake mix. When I went to the store this week all the cake mixes were gone. Apparently toilet tissue isn’t the only thing people are hoarding. Everyone was bummed because they look forward to these cookies every Easter. I decided to try your recipe. For the strawberry I used strawberry extract and 3 Tblsp of chopped up fresh strawberries in place of the zest. The dough was a little sticky so I could have probably cut back on the almond milk since the strawberries were juicy but they still turned out great. I rolled them in powder sugar instead of doing the icing before flattening them. I also added some food coloring to brighten them up like the cake mix. They are delicious! Taste better than the usual way I make them. I will be making them this way from now on. Thank you for the recipe!! I would post a picture if I could.
★★★★★
Awesome, thanks for sharing Lori!
Very buttery and the icing adds just the perfect amount of lemon. Definitely thought they’d be too dry but they turned out perfectly
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks so much Sarah!
Wow!! Absolutely exquisite and quick to make! I will definitely make them again!
★★★★★
Thanks Teresa! 🙂
Super delicious. God bless you 🙏
★★★★★
Thanks Elena!
These were so yummy and easy to make!! The glaze is phenomenal and the cookies were soft, my friends who are not vegan loved them too. 🙂
★★★★★
Fantastic! So happy to hear that Kylie!
Wonderful recipe! Disclaimer- I am not a vegan or vegetarian. I was asked by my hubby to make a Vegan lemon cookie for a coworker. So down the rabbit hole I went. I started searching for recipes and yours had the best reviews. Now the ingredients, what in the world is vegan butter??? Not so bad, available at most stores, mediocre reviews at best. That won’t do! Without quality ingredients the cookies won’t be as good. So I made my own “butter” using the recipe from A Virtual Vegan. The only substitute made was cashew milk for the soy. I added 1/2 the flour mixture and all the zest mixed with a mixer. Mixed the remainder flour by hand until it resembled course crumbs. Then added and worked the milk in. This process was just like making pie crust. Very tasty recipe! If I’m asked to make more, think I’ll modify this and make almond cookies. Thank you.
★★★★★
Thanks for sharing Betty Sue! So glad they worked out well!
Made these for my sister and daughter. They loved them thank you full of flavour lovely and soft will be making them again and maybe experiment with different flavours any suggestions?
★★★★★
So glad they were a success! I think other citrusy flavors would also work, like orange or lime! 🙂