Lemon Sugar Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why do sugar cookies taste lemony? ›

In the first step, adding lemon zest with the sugar and butter ensures that the mixing process will work on the zest to release those citrusy lemon flavors. Fresh lemon juice is also added in a later step with the vanilla and egg.

A teaspoon or two of extracts will noticeably boost flavor when blended into your sugar cookie mix. Vanilla is the obvious choice. For a more intriguing flavor, add both vanilla and almond extracts. Rum, maple and anise are other delicious varieties to consider.

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.

you can add extracts. for example peppermint or almond or you can add chocolate chips or dried fruit. Every time I make sugar cookies, regardless of the recipe, the dough always turns out way too crumbly to roll into a ball. I always end up adding a lot more butter than is called for.

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.

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.

Lemon juice naturally contains citric acid which quickly reacts with the base present in the baking powder producing CO2 and sodium citrate. This may lead to undesirable flavors and poor crust color due to lower pH of the product after baking.

Benefits of Butter

This is what gives you a cookie with just the right amount of crispness and richness. It's packed full of natural flavor (as opposed to shortening, which has no flavor)--which is key for things like sugar cookies and shortbread. Butter also gives cookies that “melt-in-your-mouth” texture we all love.

Should you refrigerate sugar cookie dough? ›

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.

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.