Soft Frosted Lemon Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies Recipe

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Frosted Lemon Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies combine a soft, soda shop style cookie (hello, Swig sugar cookies!) with tangy lemon cream cheese frosting. These cookies single handedly turned my husband from a lemon hater to a lemon fan. This recipe uses fresh lemon zest and lemon juice to fulfill all of your lemon dessert dreams - If you love a soft sugar cookie, this recipe is for you. These soft, thick cookies are perfect for baby showers, weddings, birthday parties, potlucks, or a family dessert. So, my fellow lemon lovers, strap on your apron and let's make these deliciously chewy lemon sugar cookies. 

Ingredients 

To make your new favorite cookies,  you will need:

Wet Ingredients For Frosted Lemon Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies:

• The zest of 1 large lemon
• Fresh juice of 1 large lemon - you will end up with one zested, un-juiced lemon. You can squeeze the juice of this lemon into water for a tasty beverage while you bake. 
• Granulated sugar (white sugar)
• Unsalted butter, softened
• Vegetable oil, or any neutral oil (canola oil, for example)
• Vanilla extract
• Sour cream
• Two large eggs
• All purpose flour

Dry Ingredients

• All purpose flour
• Baking soda
• Fine sea salt

For Pressing The Cookies:

• Three or four Tablespoons of additional granulated sugar
• Regular baking spray

For The Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• Unsalted butter, softened
• One block of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• A little bit of heavy whipping cream
• Vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 large lemon - in addition to the one used for the cookie dough
• Powdered sugar 
• A pinch of salt
• Fresh juice of 1 large lemon - you will end up with one zested, un-juiced lemon. You can squeeze the juice of this lemon into water for a tasty beverage while you bake. I do not recommend using reconstituted lemon juice for this recipe. It does not have the floral or sweet notes of fresh lemon juice. I also recommend fresh lemon juice over lemon extract. 

exact measurements are given in the recipe card at the end of this post. 

A very important note about the lemon cream cheese frosting: This frosting recipe makes enough for a double batch of cookies (6 dozen). If you have frosting left over, you can freeze it in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the fridge about a day before you want to use it. If your mixer handles small batches well, you can halve the frosting recipe, the measurements are just kind of awkward. 

Equipment For Frosted Lemon Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

• An electric mixer - either a stand mixer or a hand mixer would work. I prefer a stand mixer.
• Measuring cups and measuring spoons
• Lemon zester (I like the ones from Microplane)
• Medium mixing bowl
• Two rimmed baking sheets (half sheet pans)
• Parchment paper or two silicone baking mats
• Medium cookie scoop (#40) - usually I say this is an optional but nice piece of equipment, but it makes scooping this cookie dough balls way way way easier. This dough has a texture similar to Play-Doh, and scooping it with a spoon or two spoons is going to lead to cookies of drastically different sizes. Also, the dough balls are pressed into shape, so they need to start out round-ish. Also please be careful not to pinch your hand in the cookie scoop as you squeeze it.
• A small bowl with a flat bottom
• A flat-bottomed drinking glass for shaping the cookies
• Two wire cooling racks

How To Make The Perfect Cookie 

For The Soft Lemon Cookies:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line 2 rimmed cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
3. Add the granulated sugar and the zest of one large lemon to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or into a large mixing bowl if you're using a hand mixer. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds so the lemon zest can release its delicious oils into the sugar. 
4. Add the butter, oil, and vanilla, to the granulated sugar and lemon zest mixture. Beat until very creamy. This takes a few minutes. You want the mixture to be almost white.
5. Add the eggs and sour cream. Mix until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl if needed. 
6. In a medium bowl, combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt). I just stir them together with a measuring spoon. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in one addition. 
7. Mix on low speed until combined, about 15 to 20 seconds. If your mixer has a lid or a shield, use it. If not , cover the bowl lightly with a kitchen towel to keep flour from going everywhere. Be extremely careful not to get your fingers anywhere near the mixing mechanism. The dough will be thick, kind of like Play-Doh.

Shaping The Cookies:

1. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, use a medium cookie scoop to scoop level dough balls. You can get four rows of five cookies on each sheet. Leave about an inch and a half of space in all directions between the cookies.
2. Scoop 3 or 4 Tablespoons of granulated sugar into a small, flat-bottomed bowl. 
3. Spray the bottom of your flat-bottomed drinking glass with cooking spray. Stamp the glass into the sugar, and then lightly press the first dough ball until it is a little less than ½ inch thick. Repeat with all the dough balls, stamping the glass in sugar in between each one. This is very fun, and a great job for older kids. 

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. We want the texture of the cookies to be soft, so for best results do not overbake. You will not see any browning, just a matte finish on the top of the cookie. Let the baked cookies set for a minute, and then transfer them from the baking tray to a wire rack to cool.

Make The Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

1. Add the softened butter and cream cheese, vanilla extract, and zest of one lemon in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl if using an electric hand mixer. Mix on low to medium speed until combined and smooth. 
2. Add the heavy cream and mix on medium speed until smooth and thoroughly combined.
3. Add the salt and powdered sugar. Beat on medium speed until very smooth and voluminous, about 5 minutes. 
4. Add the juice of one medium to large lemon and mix to combine. 

Frost The Cookies

Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, frost each cookie once they are completely cooled with a generous dollop of lemon cream cheese frosting. These lemony, soft cookies can sit out at room temperature for a couple of hours. To store them, I like to freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and then put them into a gallon sized zip top freezer bag  or another airtight container once they are frozen solid. Take out as many as you need and thaw them at room temperature in a single layer when ready to serve. You can also store them covered in a single layer in the fridge for a couple of days Frosted Lemon Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies will last about 3 months in the freezer. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can this cookie dough be frozen or refrigerated?

I would not recommend it. This sugar cookie dough is fairly dry, and I think the chilled dough would dry out too much and be hard or impossible to work with. Scoop and bake these cookies right away, and then the baked cookies can be frozen with or without the frosting. 

2. Can I use another citrus fruit instead of lemons?

Sure! Meyer lemons would be extra delicious when they're in season. I imagine blood orange would be tasty too. If you try a different citrus, let me know how it goes in the comments!

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Leave A Review!

Lemon is one of my favorite flavors, and these chewy cookies pack a punch. When you make them, will be you please leave the recipe a 5 star rating and tell me how it went in the comments? I love to hear from you! 

Happy Cooking!

Carli