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.
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.
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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.