These Meltaway Lemon Cookies will be your new go-to cookie recipe made with cream cheese they are tender, light as air, and literally, melt in your mouth.
These Meltaway Lemon Cookies are absolutely delicious, one cookie that we will make over and over again without any hesitation. No one complains when they see these around.
The base of these meltaway cookies come from cream cheese cookies. Cream cheese cookies are made with a mixture of cream cheese, of course, and butter.
The addition of cream cheese in these easy lemon cookies makes them extremely tender and moist. Resulting in soft lemon cookies.
I’m a sucker for any soft cookie, especially if it contains lemon as that is one of my favorite dessert flavors ever, so there is nothing bad I could ever say about these.
They are tasty, soft, delicious and absolutely addictive. All the qualities that I look for in a good cookie recipe.
Some of our other favorite lemon desserts we have on our site include Lemon Blueberry Poke Cake, Lemon Lime Angel Food Cupcakes and Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake Bars!
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With easy to find pantry staple ingredients these are easy to make.
- You can double the recipe easily to share with friends and family.
- This uses lemon extract and lemon zest, really giving you that punch of flavor!
I just can’t get over how amazingly delicious these are! Pillow-like from scratch cookies bursting with that tart lemon brightness we love in desserts!
Jeremy absolutely LOVES lemon in desserts! He fell in love with this lemon cookie recipe instantly! I mean how could you not, I might be bias but seriously, trust me on this one.
These are the perfect cookies to have during breakfast or brunch or dessert, honestly I’m down for cookies any time of day so I’m not goin got say when is the perfect time..
HOW TO MAKE MELTAWAY LEMON COOKIES:
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In a large bowl with a hand or stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth, one minute. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until fully mixed, scrape down the sides as needed.
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Add in the egg, baking powder, vanilla, lemon extract, lemon zest, and salt. Mix to combine. Slowly add in the flour a little at a time until fully incorporated, scrape down the sides as needed. Add food coloring to the color you would like to achieve (they will slightly darken in color while the dough rests, keep that in mind), optional. Cover with plastic wrap, place in the fridge for one hour to rest.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place granulated sugar in a small bowl. Roll cookie dough into 1 tablespoon sized balls, the dough will be sticky*. Roll into the sugar and place on a parchment lined sheet tray 2 inches apart.
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Bake** for 8-9 minutes until the cookies are just set. You know they are ready when they puff up and when touched they hold their shape but are still slightly soft, and the bottoms will be very lightly golden brown (however, you won’t be able to tell until you pick them up). Let cool on the sheet tray for 10 minutes, transfer cookies to sit on a wired rack directly to cool completely.
Just look at these Meltaway Lemon Cookies, please tell me I’m not the only one who they are screaming eat me to?!?
HOW TO STORE?
Usually baked goods containing cream cheese need to stored in the refrigerator however these can be stored at room temperature in a ziptop bag for up to two days.
Any longer than that then I would place in the refrigerator, if you don’t feel like you can consume all of these cookies in one sitting.
You can also freeze these Meltaway Lemon Cookies. Place cooled cookies on a sheet tray in a single layer, place in the freezer for one hour.
Place frozen cookies into freezer bags or in an air-tight container, place back in the fridge until ready to use
To defrost, place cookies on the counter to come to room temperature.
If you want to add another layer of flavor to these Meltaway Lemon Cookies, I suggest making this vanilla lemon glaze to go on top!
- In a small bowl, add 1 cup powdered sugar. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract. Add 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, optional.
- Whisk until combined. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more lemon juice. Pour over cookies on a wired rack or dip the cookies into the glaze.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- These cookies contain lemon extract, I do not suggest substituting lemon juice as it won’t has as potent of flavor.
- You can easily double this batch to make more to share, give away or save for later!
- These can be frozen, see my tips above for that.
- You can substitute the vanilla bean past with vanilla extract 1:1.
- These are a lighter color initially but we use some yellow food color to set off that lemon appearance, this is absolutely optional
- Make sure that you refrigerate these cookies before baking as the dough is sticky.
If you are looking for that perfectly lemony treat that everyone will love then you need to make a batch of these Meltaway Lemon Cookies!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried these MELTAWAY LEMON COOKIES let me know in the comments how it turned out! You can follow me over on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM OR FACEBOOK to find some more of our mouthwatering recipes!
Meltaway Lemon Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened (1 stick)
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons pure lemon extract
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest about 1 lemon
- pinch kosher salt
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- yellow food coloring optional
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl with a hand or stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth, one minute. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until fully mixed, scrape down the sides as needed.
- Add in the egg, baking powder, vanilla, lemon extract, lemon zest, and salt. Mix to combine. Slowly add in the flour a little at a time until fully incorporated, scrape down the sides as needed. Add food coloring to the color you would like to achieve (they will slightly darken in color while the dough rests, keep that in mind), optional. Cover with plastic wrap, place in the fridge for one hour to rest.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place granulated sugar in a small bowl. Roll cookie dough into 1 tablespoon sized balls, the dough will be sticky*. Roll into the sugar and place on a parchment lined sheet tray 2 inches apart.
- Bake** for 8-9 minutes until the cookies are just set. You know they are ready when they puff up and when touched they hold their shape but are still slightly soft, and the bottoms will be very lightly golden brown (however, you won't be able to tell until you pick them up). Let cool on the sheet tray for 10 minutes, transfer cookies to sit on a wired rack directly to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- The dough is very sticky, resulting in soft, moist cookies but will make rolling them into balls difficult. I suggest using a 1 tablespoon sized cookie scoop and scooping the cookie dough and placing it directly into the sugar, then roll the ball in the sugar, then place on the sheet tray.
- It is very important that the dough stays cold or else the cookies will spread. When you have one sheet tray in the oven baking, store the cookie dough in the fridge until the next batch is ready to be rolled.
- These cookies contain lemon extract, I do not suggest substituting lemon juice as it won't has as potent of flavor.
- You can easily double this batch to make more to share, give away or save for later!
- These can be frozen, see my tips above for that.
- You can substitute the vanilla bean past with vanilla extract 1:1.
- These are a lighter color initially but we use some yellow food color to set off that lemon appearance, this is absolutely optional
- Make sure that you refrigerate these cookies before baking as the dough is sticky.
Comments & Reviews
Danise says
This looks so good. How many days can this cookies last in room temperature?
Susan says
Very good cookies! Just made them. I did some with lemon glaze. I did not have fresh lemon juice for the glaze so I used extract. I cut powdered sugar down to 1 1/4 cups in cookies. Still nice and sweet May even cut back a but more on next batch. I found my hubby very amusing. He said you know we really don’t need to eat too many sweets…that said after he had eaten 6-8 of them back to back!! Of course, I told him I did not make them as a full course meal! Just a little snack. Ha!! 🤔 😋.
Susan Bawarski says
Does the dough taste awful? I just put them in the refrigerator. I weighed all my ingredients and followed the recipe to a T . I hate to bake them and waste more time.Hoping you read this with the hour!Thankd!
Dana DeVolk says
I’m not sure what you are asking. No…. they are good cookies??