Softbatch Glazed Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies — 🍋🙌🏻 Big, bold lemon flavor packed into super soft cookies thanks to the cream cheese! Tangy-sweet perfection! Lemon lovers are going to adore these easy cookies!
Table of Contents
My daughter adores lemon desserts and I surprised her with these super soft, very lemony cookies.
The cookies are topped with a lemon glaze that adds to the pucker-up power and we couldn’t get enough of them.
Between the soft, slightly chewy cookies that are perfectly thick and ridiculously tender without being cakey courtesy of the cornstarch, and the wonderfully tangy-sweet glaze, the cookies are boldly lemony and lemon fans are going to be in lemon love.
Ingredients You’ll Need
To make the lemon cream cheese cookies, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Cream cheese
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Lemon extract
- Yellow food coloring
- Lemon zest
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Salt
And to make the lemon glaze for the cookies, you’ll need:
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Fresh lemon juice and zest
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies
Making soft lemon glazed cookies with cream cheese is quick and easy! Follow these basic steps:
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, make the lemon cookie dough.
- Once the cookie dough comes together, form approximately 18 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly. (You can use a large cookie scoop of a 1/4 cup measuring cup for this.)
- Place the cookie dough balls on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
- Place the cookie dough balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven.
- Once the cookies are done baking, let them cool completely before you drizzle over the lemon glaze.
LOVE these! Super tangy especially the glaze. I painted on the glaze with a basting brush and that worked better than drizzling for me. Also unlike most recipes these are generous size cookies so I think 1 batch could yield 24 instead of 18.
Kay
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you MUST chill the cookie dough. Do not bake with unchilled dough because the lemon cream cheese cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
Yes, you’re welcome to omit the food coloring if you don’t have any on hand or prefer not to use it. Just note that your lemon cream cheese cookies won’t be as vibrantly yellow as mine.
You need to use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese in this recipe. Low-fat or whipped cream cheese won’t result in the correct taste or texture.
Cream cheese keeps the lemon cookies soft, moist, tender, and ironically it doesn’t make them taste like cream cheese. Rather it makes them taste more buttery.
Rather than adding lemon juice to the dough for lemon flavor, I use lemon extract and lemon zest. I’ve learned through trial and error that you get a bolder lemon flavor with extract, you don’t thin out or water down the batter, and without the possible complications that can come from incorporating a hefty dose of an acidic ingredient like lemon juice into sensitive dough.
However, I am a fan of lemon juice in glazes because it brings a bold intensity of flavor. The soft lemon cookies have a nice pop of lemon flavor on their own, but the lemon glaze and finishing sprinkle of lemon zest take them over the lemon edge.
Yes, you can make these lemon cheesecake cookies without the glaze, if desired. The cookies themselves are plenty lemony enough without the glaze!
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Softbatch Glazed Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup cream cheese, softened (use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese not ‘spreadable’ or whipped cream cheese)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon lemon extract, do not substitute with lemon juice
- yellow food coloring, optional and as desired
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest, or 2 tablespoons if you want cookies very lemony
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, or as necessary for consistency
- lemon zest, for garnishing
Instructions
- Make the Cookies
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) add the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, light, fluffy, and well combined, about 3 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, lemon extract, and beat on medium-high speed until well combined, about 2 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and optionally add the yellow food coloring (as many drops as necessary until desired shade is achieved), the lemon zest, and beat on medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute; don’t overmix.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop or your hands, form approximately 18 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly.
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 8 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake or undersides could become too browned. Cookies firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before glazing. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
- Make the Glaze
- To a medium bowl, add the confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and whisk until smooth and combined. Depending on preference and desired glaze consistency, you may have to play with the sugar and lemon juice ratios slightly.
- Using a small spoon, drizzle about 1 tablespoon of glaze over each cookie, and spread glazeout using the back of the spoon. Repeat until all cookies are glazed.
- Sprinkle a small pinch of lemon zest over all cookies before the glaze sets and before serving.
Video
Notes
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Originally posted June 12, 2015 and reposted March 26, 2021 with updated text.
I made these according to the recipe but rolled the chilled dough in icing sugar. It was missing that lemony flavor even though I used all the zest of one lemon. I made a glaze of icing sugar and the juice of 1/2 lemon. It picked it up very nicely. Will make again.
I’m glad that you were able to get the punch of lemon flavor that you wanted with your extra stop.
You could also try adding extra lemon extract to the dough. That may perk it up for your taste buds as well.
Made exactly as directed and they turned out beautifully! I left off the icing so they could be packaged for Easter goody bags. Great lemony recipe!
Made exactly as directed and they turned out beautifully! I left off the icing so they could be packaged for Easter goody bags. Great lemony recipe!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad they turned out beautifully! I am glad you were able to put them into goodie bags – how nice of you!
Made these lemon beauties tonight, and yum yum! They didn’t look pudgy like yours, but didn’t really care. Still tender, moist, and my family was impressed. I think I need to add a little more lemon extract to the cookie dough next time, but the glaze with the zest gave them a nice fresh taste. This is another winner, thank you!!!!
I made these with 1 to 1 gluten free flour and lemon juice instead of lemon extract and they turned out beautifully. I didn’t press the cookies down and they naturally flatten slightly. I’ll definitely make again.
Glad to hear that they worked well with both GF flour 1:1 as well as lemon juice vs. extract and that you’ll make them again.
Hello,
I am super excited to try to bake these, lemon is one of my favorite flavors! I am entering a 4-H drop cookie competition and I wanted to make these cookies. however I only have a half hour to prepare them to get them in the oven, could I cook them without chilling the cookie dough?
I would experiment at home first and see how it goes without chilling the dough. Good luck!
I love lemon desserts and am always looking for new ones. These cookies had good texture but had a strangely medicinal taste which I assume is from the 1 Tbsp of lemon extract. It was really strong and I could not enjoy the cookies for this reason.
You can cut down on the amt of extract or switch brands in the future. Some are more potent than others. Thanks for trying the recipe.
I made these a few weeks ago for my son (who may have been switched at birth, since he is somehow not a chocolate fan – his 4 year old words!) when he requested lemon blueberry cookies. I made a few plain lemon then added blueberries in to the rest. I liked the plain lemon better, but used small wild blueberries (thawed from frozen). I think if I made them again I would stick with plain lemon or use fresh big juicy blueberries. But they were definitely delicious and easy (and fine subbing gluten free flour). Thanks, I wasn’t even sure where to start with a lemon blueberry cookie request, then realized you had to have something! (And I saw how similar this was to the soft batch cream cheese chocolate chip cookies and knew it could handle some mix ins.)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Nice touch with the blueberries and glad that you were able to make them GF as well!
I made these today and they taste like nail polish remover! My lemon extract must be bad – it smells like nail polish remover – wish I would have paid attention to the smell before I wasted all of these ingredients! Has anyone ever had an extract go bad? It is not very old and it is Watkins brand. I will try this recipe again – the cookies look amazing – but I’ll replace the extract first :)
Yes extracts, like anything, can go bad. If it smelled like nail polish, there was definitely something wrong with it. Best of luck re-trying with another product!
I made the batter (delicious) and formed them into shapes and then froze them for a couple days to bake on Easter Sunday – do you think I should I bake them from frozen or let them thaw first?
I do it either way – if baking from straight frozen, add a minute or two to the baking time. Enjoy!
They turned out wonderful and delicious – I baked them from frozen for about 10 minutes. Thanks!
Glad they came out great – and that baking straight from frozen worked just fine!
I would like to make these for my daughters spring wedding. Could you please tell me if the store well? Maybe a few days in the fridge or longer in the freezer?
Considering you’d be making them for such an extremely special event, I highly recommend doing a test batch and then see how the storage works out and what you’re comfortable with as I wouldn’t want to tell you one thing and you think another. Any other event than a wedding, I’d be more casual in my reply but that’s a huge event! Good luck and best wishes!
They look delicious! I can’t wait to try them,thanks for sharing the recipe! ☺
Those lemon cream cheese cookies look so good!
Thanks, Kevin! Have a great weekend!
I made these gorgeous, delicious cookies last week. They are excellent! I love lemon ANYTHING and these were great. Thanks for the recipe. I also love your Starbuck’s Copycat Lemon Loaf. I’ve made that several times since you posted it. I really like the use of lemon extract – seems to work really well. I am a huge fan of a lemon poppyseed combo – loaf, muffins, cake. I’ve even made lemon poppyseed biscotti. I think poppy seeds might be a nice addition to these cookies – suggestions for quantity? 1- 2 tbsp would probably be enough.
Thanks for trying this recipe and the Starbucks Copycat Lemon Loaf I’m glad both came out great for you! I would start with 1-2 tbsp of poppy seeds, stir them in, and see how it looks…and if you need more, you can always sprinkle in a few more. Enjoy!
Wow, these cookies look right up my alley!! The chewy lemon cookie with that glaze!! Especially in this nasty summer heat I don’t know about SD but damn the OC is getting so hot so fast :( And just in time for my oven to actually start working again ;) Making a cheesecake tonight but with my leftover cream cheese I see these in my future!! Hope you are well :)
Hope you’re doing great, too! Leave it to Mother Nature to heat up only as your oven is working again. I bet your cheesecake will be amazing!!
I’m yet to make cream cheese cookies. These look amazing! :)