If you love a lemon dessert that actually tastes like lemon, these sourdough lemon cookies are about to be your new favorite. Bright, fresh citrus zest meets subtle sourdough tang, creating a cookie that’s vibrant without being overpowering. They bake up with crisp edges, exceptionally chewy centers, and that signature crackled top rolled in sparkling lemon sugar.
And I’m not the only one saying they’re good. 😆 My husband came home announcing that his coworker called this the most perfect lemon cookie he’s ever had in his life! Crispy yet chewy. Sweet but balanced. Lemony without crossing into sharp or sour. After multiple test batches and plenty of willing taste testers, the verdict was unanimous, these are keepers!
Ingredients for sourdough lemon cookies
Here are the 9 ingredients you’ll need for this recipe. If you want to skip ahead, the complete list of ingredients with quantities is in the recipe card at the end of this post, as always.
Notes on key ingredients
- Similar to my sourdough sugar cookies, this is one of the rare sourdough cookie recipes that only uses softened butter and not brown butter, since I want to keep the flavor purely lemon!
- Sourdough discard adds that subtle tang that plays well with lemon here, it also adds moisture. My sourdough discard is always at 100% hydration. You can use ripe sourdough starter as well.
- I recommend using only egg yolk to keep these cookies more chewy. Whole egg will result in more cakey cookies. Removing the egg white also makes room for the extra moisture in the sourdough starter discard.
- Baking soda helps these cookies spread, improves browning and also makes them more chewy.
- Lemon juice is required to react with the baking soda because there are no other acidic ingredients in this cookie dough, like brown sugar in these sourdough matcha cookies, for example. While the sourdough discard is acidic, I notice that it is not enough to fully react with the added baking soda, leaving a bit of an aftertaste in a batch without lemon juice. So don’t skip this!
- Loads of lemon zest are added to the cookie dough as well as to the sugar coating for a powerful flavor punch. The lemons I used were quite large, they were from my neighbor’s tree. Grocery store lemons may not be as large but they tend to be very fragrant, so you may be okay to use the same number of lemons or buy a couple more just in case.
Make sourdough discard lemon cookies with me!
Love seeing each step in photos? Follow along visually as we make this super easy and quick recipe. Otherwise, you can skip ahead, detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.
1. Prepare the lemon sugar
Add lemon zest and sugar to your stand mixer bowl and rub together to release the lemon oil.
2. Cream butter with lemon sugar
Beat softened butter with lemon sugar for about 2 minutes until light and creamy.
3. Incorporate remaining wet ingredients
Add sourdough discard, egg yolk, vanilla, and lemon juice. Beat for another 2 minutes until fluffy and creamy.
4. Make the cookie dough
Incorporate flour, baking soda and salt to make the sourdough lemon cookie dough. You can chill the dough in the mixing bowl for 15 mins if it’s too sticky to divide and roll right away.
5. Form the dough balls
Portion the dough with a 1-½-tbsp cookie scoop and roll into balls. You can chill the dough balls while the oven preheats, but a long chill is not required.
6. Prepare lemon sugar topping
Mix together lemon zest and granulated sugar in a shallow bowl for topping.
7. Roll in sugar
Roll dough balls in lemon sugar just before baking.
8. Bake
Bake 12 to a tray for 12-13 mins at 350°F.
Baker’s tips
- Short chill or no chill is okay – While I pretty much always advocate for chilling cookie dough for flavor development purposes, this recipe is one of the rare ones that chilling is not required. You can always keep the dough refrigerated and bake later if you want, but you can also bake it immediately if you can’t wait.
- Always use a cookie scoop! For this recipe, I use a smaller 1 ½-tablespoon cookie scoop to make smaller snack sized cookies that are perfect for a quick bite.
- Adjust baking time if baking a small batch – If you’re only baking a few cookies and not a full dozen on the baking sheet, reduce the bake time by 30 seconds to 1 minute so they don’t brown too much.
- Option for crinkle cookies – You can roll these in powdered sugar after rolling in granulated sugar to make lemon crinkle cookies. If baking crinkle cookies, you want to bake them from room temp. When I baked these from the fridge with the powdered sugar coating, they kind of exploded and didn’t look so pretty. The spread is more even from room temp. This only happened with the powdered sugar coating for some reason.
Sourdough Lemon Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- Zester
- Stand Mixer
- Baking Sheet
- 1 ½ Tbsp Cookie Scoop
Ingredients
Cookie dough
- Zest from 2 large lemons
- 150 grams (¾ cup) granulated sugar
- 113 grams (4 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 grams (½ teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
- 5 grams (1 teaspoon) lemon juice
- 50 grams sourdough starter discard 100% hydration, < ¼ cup
- 180 grams (1 ⅓ cup) all-purpose flour ~1 ⅓ cup
- 3 grams (½ teaspoon) baking soda
- 2 grams (¼ teaspoon) kosher salt
Topping
- 50 grams (¼ cup) granulated sugar
- Zest from 1 large lemon
Instructions
- Mix sugar with lemon zest – Add sugar and zest from 2 lemons to your stand mixer bowl and rub together to release the lemon oil.Zest from 2 large lemons, 150 grams granulated sugar
- Cream butter with sugar – Add softened butter and beat with the paddle attachment for at least 2 minutes until well incorporated and creamy.113 grams unsalted butter
- Incorporate sourdough starter – Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract, lemon juice, sourdough starter and continue beating for at least another 2 minutes until fluffy and creamy.1 large egg yolk, 3 grams pure vanilla extract, 5 grams lemon juice, 50 grams sourdough starter discard
- Add dry ingredients – Sift flour and baking soda directly into the wet ingredient mixture in the stand mixer bowl, sprinkle salt on top, stir until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes before scooping and rolling if the dough seems too sticky to handle right away.180 grams all-purpose flour, 3 grams baking soda, 2 grams kosher salt
- Scoop and roll – Portion the cookie dough with a 1 ½-tablespoon cookie scoop and place them on a lined baking sheet. Roll into balls. Cover and refrigerate while the oven preheats. You don’t need a long chill for this dough.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Prepare the lemon sugar topping – Mix together granulated sugar and zest from 1 lemon in a shallow bowl.50 grams granulated sugar, Zest from 1 large lemon
- Bake – Roll the dough balls in lemon sugar, place 12 on a half sheet baking sheet, and bake for about 13 minutes, until the edges of the cookies start to turn lightly golden.
- Cool – Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet to finish baking from the residual heat for 10-15 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- The cookie dough can be kept refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 6 months, once portioned.
- If you are planning to keep the dough balls for long term storage, don’t roll them in sugar. Roll in sugar just before baking.
- You can bake frozen dough balls without thawing, simply increase baking time by 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- If you are only baking a few cookies and not a full dozen on the baking sheet, reduce baking time to 12 mins or 12 mins and 30 secs. They brown quicker when baked in a smaller batch.
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for 3-5 days to keep them fresh. For longer storage, you can freeze them for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
