Easy No Chill Lemon Sugar Cookies

These lemon sugar cookies are the easiest sugar cookies to make because they don’t require any rolling, cutting, or chill time. Also, because of a short bake time, they can be ready in just 20 minutes! The texture is soft and chewy with a coarse sugary coating. Fresh lemon zest and juice is used for flavor but you can also use lemon extract. These flavorful lemon cookies are perfect to make for weekend baking or a quick midnight snack!

If theres one way to make a sugar cookie better in my opinion, it’s to add lemon to it. I’m a huge sucker for lemon desserts like lemon shortbread cookies, or lemon curd cookies. And after making classic soft and chewy vanilla sugar cookies, and then a cozy cinnamon sugar cookie recipe, lemon was my next stop.

What makes this a standout lemon cookie is the way you combine the lemon and sugar.

Instead of just adding lemon zest into the cookie batter, you’ll mix together the lemon zest and sugar first so that it soaks up all the essential oils and adds a ton more flavor. This is called lemon sugar.

As a trained pastry chef, one of my ‘secret’ tricks is always zesting lemons directly over sugar. If you zest into a bowl first and then transfer it, you’ll lose so much lemon flavor in the process. So now anytime you need to zest a lemon, remember to do it over food!

These lemon sugar cookies have so many good things going for them, let me count the ways!

1. They are drop cookies, so no rolling or cutting out.
2. They require no chill time so they can be done in 20 minutes! A huge win during the busy holiday season.
3. The lemon sugar takes the flavor over the top with lemon in every bite.
4. They can easily be doubled or frozen.

Grab a fresh lemon and let’s get to cookie making!

Make the lemon sugar

Add the sugar to the bowl that you’ll be using to make the cookie dough. This can be a stand mixer bowl or a regular bowl to make the cookies by hand.

Using a microplane (This is the best thing to zest lemons!) zest the lemon over the bowl of sugar. Mix the zest into the sugar, its best to use your hands to really combine it. You want to kind of pinch the lemon and sugar together as if you were making a streusel. This makes sure the flavor gets really infused.

You’ll need most of this lemon sugar for the cookie dough, but remember to take out 1/4 cup to roll the cookies in before baking.

Sometimes the lemon sugar can clump up, thats ok! Just mix it with a fork to loosen it up again.

Make the cookie dough

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Take out 1/4 cup of the lemon sugar and set aside in a shallow bowl. Add the butter to the remaining lemon sugar and cream on medium speed for 1 minute until light and fluffy. If you’re making this by hand like I did here, use a good wooden spoon to cream well.

Add in the fresh lemon juice, 1 whole egg and just the yolk of another egg, and mix well again for 30 seconds until combined.

Now for the dry ingredients! Add in the flour, corn starch, baking soda, and kosher salt. Mix well until a soft dough forms.

Scooping and rolling the cookies

Using a cookie scoop, 1-2tbsp in size, scoop out cookie dough and roll into a ball. Roll the cookie in the left-aside lemon sugar then place on the prepped parchment sheet.

Repeat this process until there is no more cookie dough. You will need to re use the cookie sheets.

Baking and perfecting

Bake the cookies 1-2 inches apart, 6-8 to a sheet for just 10 minutes. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, use a larger round cookie cutter or a large round glass and place it over a cookie. Move your hand in a fast circular motion. This is called scooting and makes the cookies perfectly round.

It only works if the cookies are still really hot because they are still malleable. Once they cool even a little bit, it wont work!

Sprinkle more leftover lemon sugar on top while still wam if you’d like. It makes them extra pretty.

Using corn starch in cookies

I like to use corn starch in no chill cookie recipes because it keeps the cookies from spreading too much. You know how corn starch is used to make sauces thick?

Well it does the same thing here, it absorbs leftover moisture which makes the cookies spread less, AND makes them super soft and chewy

Thats a cookie win!

Storing and freezing tips

For cookies to stay fresh, store them in an airtight container for up to 5 days. A zip top bag also works but might crush them a bit.

If you want to freeze them you can freeze them in a freezer safe bag taking care not to crush the cookies. Squeeze out as much air as possible and freeze for 2-3 months.

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