Lemon Sugar Cookies

I made these lemon sugar cookies a while back and everyone liked them.  They're just a classic sugar cookie with lemon flavor, so nothing super unusual, but very tasty and way more interesting than plain sugar cookies.  They have the perfect sugar cookie texture- soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside with nice contrast from the turbinado sugar sprinkled on top- and the 3 sources of lemon flavor (zest, juice, and extract) make them so bright and cheery!

 

The original recipe is from Taste of Home.  I added lemon extract and vanilla extract, made most of the cookies smaller, did NOT flatten them because some of the reviews said they were very thin (the thickness is completely normal if you don't flatten them), and sprinkled extra turbinado sugar on them when they came out of the oven.  

 

The original calls for you to make giant cookies.  I did make two great big ones with the last of the cookie dough.  They were very good!  Plenty of soft, chewy center and crunchy rim and there's something so appealing about an enormous cookie, even if you don't eat the entire thing in one go.  The smaller ones are more practical for sure since the jumbos are way more than one serving each, but if you want to make big ones, go for it!   Just make dough balls with 1/3 C dough, place them about 6 inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, sprinkle with turbinado sugar, bake until just barely turning golden (about 12 minutes for mine), then sprinkle with more turbinado sugar.

 

Lemon Sugar Cookies

 

1 C salted butter, softened

1 1/2 C granulated sugar

1/2 C dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp lemon extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

2 Tbsp lemon juice

3 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

turbinado sugar (for topping)

 

Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

 

Cream together butter and sugar.  Mix in eggs, extract, zest, and lemon juice.  

 

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.  Add to butter mixture and mix just until completely combined.  The dough will be rather soft.

 

Use a 1 1/2 Tbsp capacity cookie scoop (or roll the dough into 1 1/2 Tbsp balls) and place 3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.  Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.  

 

Bake until ever so slightly beginning to turn golden, about 12 minutes.

 

When cookies are done baking, immediately sprinkle the tops with a little more turbinado sugar.

 

Cool on the cookie sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling.  Store in an airtight container.

 

Yield:  about 40 normal sized cookies, maybe 10 or so if you make jumbos.