Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:1½ dozen cookies
- 1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
- ½teaspoon baking soda
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- 6tablespoons/85 grams unsalted butter (¾ stick), at room temperature
- 4ounces/105 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- 1lemon, zested and juiced (about 4 teaspoons zest and 2 tablespoons juice)
- 1large egg
- 3tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 1½tablespoons milk, plus more, as needed
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (18 servings)
149 calories; 6 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 21 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 13 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 100 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium, beat together the butter and half the cream cheese until combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in the granulated sugar and 4 teaspoons lemon zest until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes more. Beat in the egg until combined. Add flour mixture and beat until combined.
- Step 2
Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Portion the dough into 2-tablespoon scoops and arrange them on the sheets at least 1½ inches apart.
- Step 3
Bake, rotating halfway through baking, until the cookies are puffed and set and just beginning to turn golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks until cookies are completely cooled.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, prepare the optional glaze: Whisk together the remaining cream cheese with the confectioners’ sugar, milk and 1½ tablespoons lemon juice until smooth. Add additional lemon juice or milk until mixture forms the proper consistency for a glaze. Drizzle over cooled cookies. Let cookies stand at room temperature until the glaze has set. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week or in the freezer for a month.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Marcia Gregorio
My daughter taught me to use a fork to drizzle glaze on cookies instead of a spoon. You don't get globs of icing, just a beautiful series of random lines. Such an easy hack!
Sara G
Lovely recipe as is. Cookie is just a good soft sugar cookie really, not a strong lemon flavor—that’s provided by the glaze here. I made the cookies into ice cream sandwiches using Tillamook Sea Salt and Honeycomb Toffee ice cream. Insanely good! Cardamom in the glaze would be groovy too. Thanks for the solid recipe!
Fredericktibbetts
For a slightly spicier take on this cookie, add a pinch of ground ginger or ground coriander (or both) to the dough.
Gregg Weiler
Easy and very tasty. I zested an entire lemon, had some left over based on the recipe’s quantities. I used a silicon basting brush to apply a thick layer of glaze, then used the remaining zest as a small decoration in the center of each cookie. Nice, and very delicious! (Next time I think I’ll add all of the zest to the batter.)
Bern
I followed the recipe and used 2 scoops of a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop- they were huge and underdone. Second batch I used a heaping 1 tablespoon- much more reasonable size and baking time.
Michael
I have been using Mascarpone in place of cream cheese and forgot I had no cream cheese. I also started this and had no lemon, so I substituted a blood orange for zest and juice. I made the cookies for musicians during a session. They raised their glasses before I left.
Sooz
Anyone tried with GF flour?
McKenzie Bourque
I misread the recipe and accidentally mixed in all of the cream cheese in the batter. Still came out fine. I also added 2tbsp of lemon juice to the icing, which was very good! If you add lemon juice to the icing then reduce the amount of milk.
Dori
Day 2 update - these are so good the next day! So chewy and perfect. Glazing with a simple powdered sugar lemon juice was the way to go, instead of the glaze in this recipe which tasted weird and was chunky like cottage cheese.
Kim
I always read reviews for tips when making a recipe, some freaked me out about the icing curdling. Didn’t want to waste so I made simple glaze with 1 cup of powdered sugar whisked with 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Poured into a ziploc bag and snipped corner, iced cookies like a pro. Delicious would make again. Made the cookie exactly as directed in the recipe.
Leila
Yes, I did too! The ingredients list should say “divided” after the cream cheese. They are still tasty but I’ll have to make them again using the right proportions.
Heidi Menocal
I wish recipes with a glaze would list the ingredients separately or say divided. I read and reread recipes. I still manage to add ingredients for the glaze.
Juliet
Tried to make these cookies more lemony by putting the remainder of the lemon juice into the cookie batter. Don’t do what I did! Follow the recipe!! These cookies turned out more like little fluffy cakes because of chemistry or something. But still delicious, especially with the glaze.
seldon1
The recipe says 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, with 1 1/2 in glaze. Where does the other 1/2 go? The dough? If so it should say that.
Karat McC
The extra is to add if needed to get the glaze the right consistency.
Sunny
Used a full fat plain yogurt instead of the cream cheese. Reduced sugar to 3/4 cup. It still tasted great.
alice
Delicious cookies. I used a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop and got 37 cookies. I did not add the glaze and they were great. Thank you
Sunny
Used whole fat yogurt instead of cream cheese and it was still delicious!
jimmy
Made those several times. Easy and really good. Suggest adding 1.5x zest, and using simple lemon juice/powdered sugar glaze. Better the day after they’re made.
JA
Cookies did not spread out. Instead smashed them down with a fork. Delicious in any case. Reminded me of scones. Will make again.
wonderful!
I’ve learned that it’s best if I read the comments before making and this time was no exception! Turns out I didn’t have a lemon on hand, but I did have a navel orange so Orange cream cheese cookies they became and wow!! Fabulous. As others have noted even though I read the whole recipe and all the commenters who said they dumped all 4 oz of cream cheese into the dough, I did the same by mistake but when I realized it, I wasn’t concerned. They were still fabulous.
changes
Only good literally day of, otherwise don’t bother
Rachel
Not very good instructions. In terms of rotating at 10 or 12 minutes, is that meant to be at 5 minutes and bake for a whole 10 min? The exact bake time is not there. There is also not enough cream cheese in the recipe, mine turned out flat and the taste of the cream cheese is lacking. Although the lemon flavor is great.
Elise
Curdled icing, as in some comments, seemed too scary so I just used melted white chocolate chips with a drop or two of lemon extract as a drizzle. My adult kids agreed that it was the best cookie this year.
LP
I also accidentally put all the cream cheese in the batter, plus I misread 4tbsp for 4tsp when it came to the zest. I don't like overly sweet things, so I did made no icing, but the cookies turned out *beautifully*—will be making again and again with the same mistakes!
Aaron H
Glaze recipe didn't set up and was gummy and sticky. Opt out of the glaze.
The Glaze
Alright, we struggled with the glaze but finally got the consistency we were looking for once we heated the cream cheese separate and then added the confectioners' sugar. Once those two were creamed together, we added the milk and the lemon juice. The juice seems to clot the glaze, so add slowly and mix well.
Nina
These were tasty and I had the same experience as Bern - cooked as directed they were huge and undone. Also - the glaze was very thin. I will make them smaller next time and play around with the glaze prep.
chef
Yes, the Ingredients list for this recipe should note that the cream cheese should be DIVIDED. That is recipe writing 101. Similarly, the ingredients for the Glaze should be separate from the Cookie ingredients list, in general, but especially here since there is discussion about skipping the glaze altogether (and therefor one would be gathering ingredients one doesn't need).
Hael
Do the glaze on these. I usually skip glazes on cookies but it adds a lot of flavor and moisture that I miss on the part of the batch I left plain. Also highly recommend storing them in the freezer and eating them cold. They stay soft!
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