Vegan lemon cookies with a deliciously tangy and fresh lemon flavor and a soft and buttery texture. Super easy recipe with perfect results.
I absolutely love all things lemon! So these vegan lemon cookies are right up my street.
There’s something about the tanginess and light and refreshing taste of lemon that just goes so well with sweet desserts (like our vegan lemon cupcakes, vegan lemon cake and vegan lemon pound cake, ooooh yes!).
And these cookies are soft and buttery with just enough lemon flavor to really pop.
How To Make Vegan Lemon Cookies
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
This is a simple 8-ingredient recipe for the cookies and an even simpler 3-ingredient recipe for the glaze.
The glaze is totally optional, but recommended, it really makes that lemon flavor shine!
You start off by adding vegan butter and sugar to your stand mixer and creaming them together. Then you add lemon extract and mix it in.
Add all purpose flour, baking soda and salt to a separate bowl and mix together.
Then add the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix in until very crumbly. Add the lemon zest.
Now add the non-dairy milk and mix again.
TIP: We used soy milk but you can use any non-dairy milk.
At this point it will feel like this will never make a cookie dough, it will feel way too dry. But get in there with your hands and the next thing you know you have a nice big ball of dough.
The dough is dry, but don’t worry the cookies are definitely not!
Break off pieces of the dough and roll them into balls.
And then flatten the balls. You can flatten them with a fork, or by placing a square of parchment paper on top of the balls and then pressing down on it with the base of a glass.
I tried it both ways and the end result after baking looked identical.
Bake them at 350°F for 12 minutes.
When they come out of the oven they will be very lightly browned on top but still very soft in the middle. Let them cool on the tray and as they cool they will firm up.
The Lemon Glaze
When they’re completely cool, then drizzle on the delicious lemon glaze. It’s a simple mix of powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon extract.
And there you have it, delicious vegan lemon cookies with glaze!
Storing and Freezing
Keep them stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
They are also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Lemon Cookies
Ingredients
For the Lemon Cookies:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- ¾ cups White Granulated Sugar (150g)
- 2 tsp Lemon Extract
- 2 cups All purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Zest
- 2 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
For the Lemon Glaze:
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar (120g)
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice scant*
- ⅛ tsp Lemon Extract
Instructions
- Add the vegan butter and white sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and cream them together. Add in the lemon extract and mix in well.
- Add the flour, baking soda and salt to a bowl and mix together. Then add the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and mix in by hand (don’t use the electric mixer for this part). Mix until crumbly.
- Add in the lemon zest and mix in.
- Then add in the soy milk and mix in very well. It will seem like it is too dry to form a dough, but get in there with your hands until it does. Only add more soy milk if you absolutely have to.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Break off pieces of the big ball of dough and roll them into balls and place onto a parchment lined baking tray. Aim to get 20 balls.
- Then flatten the balls either with a fork or by placing a square of parchment paper over a ball and flattening with the base of a glass.
- Place into the oven to bake for 12 minutes.
- When they are done they will be lightly browned on top but still very soft in the middle. Allow to cool on the tray and they will firm up as they cool.
- Prepare your lemon glaze by adding the ingredients to a bowl and mixing in with a spoon.
- When the cookies are completely cool, use a teaspoon to drizzle the glaze over the cookies.
Notes
- Lemon zest. 1 Tbsp of lemon zest is roughly what you’d get from 1 small to medium lemon.
- Lemon glaze. When you’re making the glaze the tablespoons should be filled to just before the top, not all the way to the top. If you glaze your first cookie and realize that the glaze is just running off the cookie completely, then your glaze is too thin. Add a bit more powdered sugar.
- Storing. Keep your cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Great recipe! I wasn’t super confident making vegan cookies but I pulled it off. Don’t overmix the dough in the beginning…it’ll be like after you’ve cut butter into a crumbly pie crust. I personally used crisco because it’s what I had lying around. Use the heat from your hands to shape and flatten the dough balls. I used a little more almond milk and little more zest than the recipe called for and mine turned out great! After a few bakes I found I like about a 15 g cookie. They will look pale and underdone (very light golden on the bottom) but once they cool they will be tender. I think I’m going to try a citrus trio with orange and lime and maybe play around with coloring the dough or icing! Haver fun y’all. 🙂
My future daughter in law is vegan and loves lemon. I made these for her shower. They are absolutely delicious. I sifted the flour and spooned it into the measuring cup to make sure I didn’t overdo it. The vegan butter I used had salt so I didn’t add any. Also I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk as that’s all I had on hand. I finally tasted one without the glaze. They are yummy. Thank you for making me look good.
So happy to hear your family enjoyed them! And thank you so much for your excellent review!
This is my favorite go-to cookie recipe!
That’s great Autumn! Thanks for your review!
I lowered the sugar content as I don’t like the fact we all eat too much sugar.
I also substituted 50g flour for ground almonds.
The biscuits were delicious as they were, without any extra coating of more sugar
Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review!
I have made this recipe multiple times! It is easy and these cookies are beloved. People request them for parties and birthdays all the time. This is prob one of my fav recipes and a delightful treat during the summer. Desserts at non-vegan parties can be hit or miss but this is always a hit!
So glad to hear you enjoy the recipe and thanks for your great review Allie!
I followed the recipe exactly 🙂 yum! My fave is still your Snowball cookie recipe but this was a fresh and delightful change.
Thank you so much Janelle! So glad you enjoy the recipes! 🙂
Thank you! Love this recipe 😋
Glad you enjoyed it Rebecca!
Loved this recipe! How did you get your cookies to be so yellow? Mine were pale using GF flour.
These are my most favorite cookies ever. The texture is perfect, lemon isn’t too sweet. Very well done!!!
Thanks so much Katie!
This recipe is just the right amount of sweet and citrusy! I substituted the 1/2 cup vegan butter for 1/4 cup oil, as that was the only thing I had on hand. And to keep it natural for me I added lemon juice instead of extract for a 2 to 1 ratio. It’s a lighter taste but oh so good with the semi sweet glaze. I made these cookies for my Vegan Mother and she absolutely loved them.
Awesome Dana! Thanks for the great review.
I loved the actual cookies, but for some reason it was super crumbly. I tried putting in more milk, but that didn’t work either. Is it supposed to be like that?
No, it’s more shorbready, so it’s not crumbly. It’s possible you used too much flour if you needed more milk. I highly recommend weighing the flour. If you don’t have a food scale then the spoon and level method is essential. Spoon the flour into a cup and level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop, don’t pack it into the cup.