These gluten-free lemon crinkle cookies have a tart and bright fresh lemon flavor with perfect texture- a soft and chewy center with crispy outer edges. Featuring gorgeous crinkles with a powdered sugar coating, these cookies are as pretty as they are tasty!
What Makes This Recipe Great
This lemon crinkle cookie recipe is the perfect dessert for Spring and Summer, but the snowy appearance makes them suitable for the winter holiday season too. Made with simple ingredients and a gorgeous crinkle look, these cookies are perfect for lemon lovers any time of year!
Full of lemon flavor and beautiful to look at, these Lemon Crinkle Cookies are soft and chewy and absolutely delicious. I know you will love them as much as I do! Happy Baking!
If you love lemon desserts, try these Gluten-Free Lemon Bars, this Lemon Drizzle Cake, or these No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake Bars.
Watch a Short Video of This Recipe
Ingredient Notes
- gluten-free all-purpose flour: Use a gluten-free flour mixture with xanthan gum – I used Bob’s Red Mill.
- baking powder
- sea salt
butter: Melted and cooled. - large eggs: At room temperature.
- granulated sugar
- fresh lemon juice
- vanilla extract
- fresh lemon zest
- powdered sugar
Step-by-Step Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and sea salt.
- In another large bowl, combine the melted butter, eggs, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Whisk until smooth.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and stir together until a soft dough forms – it will be a runny, batter-like cookie dough.
- Chill the cookie dough for at least 2 hours up to overnight. The dough will firm up more but will still be a bit sticky.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Prepare two shallow bowls, one with granulated white sugar and the other with powdered sugar.
- Shape the dough into balls using a 2 tbsp cookie scoop. You can dust the scoop with some powdered sugar beforehand to keep the dough from sticking.
- Roll each of the cookie dough balls in granulated sugar, then in powdered sugar until fully coated.
- Place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart, working in batches if they don’t all fit (keep any remaining dough not being baked right away in the fridge).
- Bake for 9-12 minutes until they spread a little and get puffy with cracks on top.
- Cool the baked cookies for 10 minutes, then use a spatula to carefully transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. They’ll be soft and delicate but will set as they cool. Enjoy!
Expert Tips
- Make sure to chill the dough before baking. Crinkle cookies, in general, start out as a soft dough. Chilling allows the dough to firm up a bit and prevents it from spreading too thin.
- The dough will be runny when you first mix it, almost like a cake batter. That is normal, it’ll firm up once chilled.
- You can make the dough up to 3 days ahead of time. Just chill in the fridge until you are ready to roll and bake.
- I used a whisk for this recipe, which is all I needed but you can you a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment if desired. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.
Storage Tips
Store any leftover lemon cookies in an airtight container for up to a week. You can also freeze these cookies for up to 3 months. Let them cool completely, then store them in a freezer bag or container in the freezer. Thaw for a few minutes and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
There are a few reasons why your cookies may not have the crinkle appearance. Dough consistency, chilling time, and sugar coating are three key reasons why this happens. Be sure to follow the recipe steps to ensure you have the proper dough consistency, chill the dough for the correct amount of time, and dip in both the white sugar and powdered sugar coating.
More Cookie Recipes
Soft & Chewy Ube Crinkle Cookies
Vegan Salted Caramel Thumbprint Cookies
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Chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe (Gluten-Free)
Video
Ingredients
- 1¾ cup gluten free all-purpose flour with xanthan gum – I used Bob's Red Mill
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 6 tbsp butter melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Zest of 2 lemons or 3 for a stronger lemon flavor
For rolling
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and sea salt.
- In another bowl, combine butter, eggs, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Whisk until smooth.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, stir together until a soft dough forms – it should look runny like cake batter.
- Chill the dough for at least 2 hours to overnight. The dough will firm up more but will still be a bit sticky.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Prepare two shallow bowls, one with granulated sugar and the other with powdered sugar.
- Shape the dough into balls using a 2 tbsp scoop. You can dust the scoop with some powdered sugar beforehand to keep the dough from sticking.
- Roll each dough in granulated sugar, then in powdered sugar until fully coated.
- Place on the baking sheet 2 inches apart, working in batches if they don't all fit (keep any dough that's not being baked right away in the fridge).
- Baking for 9-12 minutes until they spread a little and get puffy with a cracks on top.
- Cool for 10 minutes, then use a spatula to carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. They'll be soft and delicate but will set as they cool. Enjoy!
Notes
Expert Tips
- Make sure to chill the dough before baking. Crinkle cookies, in general, start out as a soft dough. Chilling allows the dough to firm up a bit and prevents it from spreading too thin.
- The dough will be runny when you first mix it, almost like a cake batter. That is normal, it’ll firm up once chilled.
- You can make the dough up to 3 days ahead of time. Just chill in the fridge until you are ready to roll and bake.
- I used a whisk for this recipe, which is all I needed but you can you a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment if desired. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.
Storage Tips
Store any leftover lemon cookies in an airtight container for up to a week. You can also freeze these cookies for up to 3 months. Let them cool completely, then store them in a freezer bag or container in the freezer. Thaw for a few minutes and enjoy!What Great Grandma Ate / Jean Choi is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
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My kids and their nana love it! I like the way to make ball and coating sugar, was fun! Easy method and simple ingredients ❤️ GF❤️
Wonderful!! Thank you so much! I love that your family all got to take part in it. Thank you for taking your time to leave a review!
My cookies didn’t ‘crinkle’ but they were VERY yummy anyway. (I think I didn’t use enough powdered sugar.) I made them for Easter and got big kudos from my mom, so you know they were good!
Yes, you have to make sure they are completely covered in powdered sugar! I’m so glad you enjoyed them anyway. Hope you had a wonderful Easter!