Sourdough Lemon Cookies
Sourdough Lemon cookies are the perfect summer treat! These simple cookies are made with sourdough discard so you can make them the same day!
Why you will love our sourdough lemon cookies recipe
- If you love lemony treats like our sourdough lemon bars, you will absolutely fall in love with these cookies! We love colorful summer treats!
- You make these sourdough Lemon cookies with discard, so no need to feed your starter and wait until your starter is active. We love these simple, same-day sourdough recipes, especially cookies like these.
- Kids love them!! But to be fair, who doens’t love a sweet, lemony cookie?
Ingredient notes
Sourdough discard: Sourdough discard is part of your starter that you dismiss when you feed it. The discard adds a tangy flavor and lots of the sourdough benefits to your cookies!
Flour: To make these crumbly sourdough Lemon cookies, you want to use all-purpose flour. If you use bread flour, your cookies will become much softer, and that’s not the texture we are looking for.
Baking powder: because the discard isn’t active, you need to add a second rising agent to create the melt-in-your-mouth light texture, and the baking powder does just that.
Lemon: To give your cookies their fresh, lemony flavor, you want to use fresh Lemon juice. We also add the zest of your Lemon to the dough, so we like to use organic lemons.
Sugar: For these cookies, caster sugar works best. To extract the most flavor from your lemon, rub the zest into the sugar. For extra flavor, you can also replace the sugar 1:1 with (homemade) lemon sugar!
How to make sourdough lemon cookies
When you make cookies, you always want to start by mixing the dry ingredients separately. You don’t want any gluten to form, and these steps help prevent it.
Next, you add the wet ingredients. Stir them in with a spoon, wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour. This will firm up the dough and prevent the cookies from spreading in the oven.
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it into 18 small balls. Roll the balls into the powdered sugar and place them on a lined baking tray.
If you want a crisper cookie, you can press them flat before placing them in a preheated oven. Bake them for 12-15 minutes, then let them cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Our tips for the best sourdough lemon cookies
- Rub the zest into the sugar. This extracts the oils from the lemon peel, adding tons of extra flavor!
- Use room temperature ingredients. Room-temperature ingredients, especially the eggs, make it much easier to incorporate, giving you a smooth batter without overworking.
- Weigh your ingredients. Weighing your ingredients on a scale gives you a more accurate result and will immediately improve your baking. If you don’t know where to start, don’t hesitate to ask us for help.
- Let the dough ferment overnight to reap all the nutritional benefits of the sourdough. This will add a stronger sourdough flavor, plus the fermenting helps with digestion.
- Don’t a Kip chilling the dough. This is key in creating the best sourdough lemon crinkle cookies. If you prefer the cookies from spreading too much in the oven, let the outsides set quicker while keeping the center soft, resulting in an amazing, chewy cookie.
Frequently asked questions
You can, but the flavor won’t be as good as when you use fresh lemon juice.
Absolutely!! We love the combination of lemon and white chocolate. Do make sure the chocolate you use is suitable for baking.
Storage
If you store your sourdough Lemon cookies in an airtight container, they will stay fresh for about a week. In the freezer, they will last for up to six months. I like to wrap them individually, so I can thaw one or two at a time and leave the rest in the freezer for later.
More of our favorite sourdough cookie recipes
Sourdough Lemon Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1/2 cup sourdough discard
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 egg
For the crinkle layer
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Whisk the dry ingredients for the cookies together in a large bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients and stir hem in with a spoon.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F (180 °C) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and shape it into 18 small balls.
- Roll the balls into the powdered sugar and place them on a lined baking tray. If you want a crispier cookie, you can press them flat before placing them in the oven.
- Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes or until golden.
- Let them cook for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool compeltely.
