Lemon Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why do sugar cookies taste lemony? ›

Lemon Sugar Cookie Dough

Fresh lemon juice is also added in a later step with the vanilla and egg. Both the lemon juice and lemon zest in the cookie dough help to amplify the lemon flavor in the cookies.

As lemon extract has a much more concentrated flavor, you'll need to use double the amount of lemon juice as lemon extract.

The very best sugar cookies are soft and tender. → Follow this tip: One of the keys to great sugar cookies is mixing the dry ingredients only until they're just incorporated, and not a second longer. Once the dry ingredients are added, less mixing equals more tender cookies.

The ingredients you used could be the culprit – using different sugars, melted butter, baking powder or baking soda can alter a cookie's texture and taste.

Take plain sugar cookies up a notch with exciting mix-ins like chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, toasted chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit or M&M's. Add these after blending your butter and egg into the sugar cookie mix.

Creamed butter and sugar provide the base of the cookie dough. Egg is the cookie's structure and vanilla extract adds flavor. I almost always add a touch of almond extract for additional flavor and highly recommend that you try it too!

When baking powder is mixed with lemon juice, bubbles formed because of evolution of carbon dioxide gas. This is a chemical change, because in this reaction new substances are formed.

However, if you've ever tasted bottled lemon juice, you'll notice that the flavour is a little off – not bright and lemony like the real stuff. This is because bottled lemon juice usually contains additives and preservatives such as Sodium Metabisulphite (E223) or Potassium Metabisulphite (E224).

To balance flavors: Lemon juice can play a great balancing role in baked goods. We sometimes use it in our cookies to balance out a sweet flavor profile. For instance, our CAVA Apricot Cookies contain a small amount of lemon juice to balance the sweetness of the honey-flavored cookie dough.

Should you refrigerate sugar cookie dough before baking? ›

Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer. Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies.

Which One Should I Use in Cookies? Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren't as flavorful.

Sugar cookies baked on shiny heavy gauge aluminum pans will come out soft and chewy, with a slight golden color bottom and pale top. Chef Eddy also recommends using parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to prevent sticking and for easy cleanup.

Bake Club claims that over-baking, or even baking shortbread on too high a heat, can cause the butter to burn, leading to a sour or pungent aftertaste in the cookies.

What do they taste like? These Sugar Cookies are buttery and sweet (but not too sweet), and they have a lovely melt-in-your-mouth texture. They taste similar to shortbread but with a strong vanilla flavour.

Remember also that too much baking soda in a recipe and not enough acid will still result in a soapy, metallic taste in the baked good. Thus, getting the right amount of baking soda in your baking is important, we don't want soapy tasting cakes!

Baking powder and baking soda, on their own, do have a weird taste. They are chemical leavening agents after all. A cake recipe takes this into account and uses the quantity necessary for leavening without going overboard. Also flavourings are added.