Based on my vegan classic sugar cookie recipe, with an added intense fresh lemon flavor! With real lemons in both the dough and a tangy lemon glaze, no lemon extract is needed here!
🧾 Ingredients
Here's everything you need to make this lemon sugar cookie recipe:
Ingredient Notes
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Fresh Lemon Zest: If possible, use organic and unwaxed lemons, and wash and dry them well before zesting.
- Vegan Block Butter: Make sure you go for unsalted butter and don't use margarine from a tub, it won't work!
- Greek-Style Yogurt: Any thick vegan yogurt or vegan sour cream will work here. This acts as an egg replacer, binding the ingredients while adding a hint of tangy flavor.
- Homemade Vegan Lemon Curd: You can prep this up to 2 days ahead and keep it in the fridge. It's packed with fresh lemon juice and zest!
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Adds depth and enhances the buttery flavor.
- Powdered Sugar: This is also labeled as icing sugar or confectioner's sugar.
- Aquafaba: This is the thick liquid found in a can or jar of chickpeas, also known as chickpea brine. For vegan royal icing, it serves as a substitute for egg whites, which are typically used in traditional royal icing. This ingredient helps the icing set and dry to a firm consistency.
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🔪 Instructions
These step-by-step images are here to help give you a visual of how to make these easy vegan lemon sugar cookies. When you're ready to make the recipe, make sure you refer to the detailed printable recipe card at the end of this page for full measurements and written instructions:
Step 1: In a large bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar using your fingertips. This releases the natural lemon oils, making the cookies super fragrant!
Step 2: Add the softened vegan butter to the lemon sugar and cream until fluffy with a hand mixer or stand mixer. Mix in the wet ingredients (yogurt and vanilla).
Step 3: Sift in the dry ingredients (plain flour, corn starch, baking soda, and salt) and fold with a rubber spatula to form a cookie dough consistency.
Step 4: Roll the dough into a ball and flatten it into a disc, cover with plastic wrap, and chill (chill time in the freezer: 1.5-2 hours, or in the fridge: overnight).
Step 5: Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies and place them on a parchment paper-lined baking tray. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven until they are lightly golden brown.
Step 6: Let them cool completely before outlining a lemon cross-section with thick royal icing. Let the icing dry slightly between each coat.
Step 7: Flood the lemon segments with the slightly runnier lemon icing, and use a toothpick to work the icing into all the corners.
Step 8: Pipe little dots of lemon curd into the lemon icing before it dries, to make them look like juicy lemon segments! Finally, draw a circle of lemon curd around the design to resemble the lemon skin.
💭 Top Tips
Make a full batch of lemon curd. This is the key to so many lemon desserts, so you can use the leftover curd in recipes like vegan lemon cake, lemon tiramisu, lemon crumb cake, lemon ice cream, and lemon cheesecake (to name but a few!).
Don't skip the chilling step. This prevents the cookies from spreading (we don't want them to spread much for this recipe). It also gives the flavors a chance to mingle and intensify!
Double outline when decorating. Rather than adding one super-thick layer, add two thinner layers on top of each other. This way, you will create a nice tall well to hold the lemon filling, and the thinner layers will dry faster.
Let the cookies set before storing. While you can eat them before the icing sets, make sure you let the icing dry and harden before transferring the cookies to a sealed container for storage.
💬 FAQs
Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the fridge for up to 7 days.
While I don't recommend freezing the baked and iced cookies, you can freeze the cookie dough in a ziplock bag for up to a month. Let it sit at room temperature for an hour before rolling it out.
After outlining your cookies, you can fill them in or 'flood' them with icing to achieve a smooth, even surface. This flooding icing is typically thinner than the one used for outlining, making it easier to get a nice smooth finish.
🍪 More Vegan Cookies
📖 Recipe
Iced Vegan Lemon Soft Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- Zest of 2 large lemons *note 1
- 150 g (¾ cup) granulated sugar
- 150 g vegan butter softened *note 2
- 4 teaspoons vegan Greek-style yogurt *note 3
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250 g (2 cups + 3 teaspoons) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
White Royal Icing
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) powdered sugar
- 4 teaspoons aquafaba
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Lemon Curd Icing
- 145 g (¼ batch) vegan lemon curd prep ahead option *note 4
- 60 g (½ cup) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons aquafaba
Instructions
- Flavor the sugar: Add the lemon zest and sugar to a large mixing bowl and use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar crystals feel "wet".
- Cream the sugar and butter: Add the softened butter to the lemon sugar and whisk with a hand mixer or stand mixer for 2-3 minutes until light and airy. Add the vegan yogurt and vanilla, and whisk again to combine.
- Add dry ingredients: Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Bring the mixture together with a rubber spatula to form a dough ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and flatten it into a disc.
- Chill the dough: Place the dough in the covered freezer for 1.5-2 hours. Alternatively, you can refrigerate the dough overnight. Meanwhile, make the vegan lemon curd.
- Prep for baking: Preheat your oven to fan-forced 160°C/320°F or conventional 180°C/356°F. Line 1 large or 2 medium cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll out the cookies: Lightly flour your countertop and roll the dough to approximately ½ cm high. Cut out the cookies with a 2.5-inch cookie cutter and place them on the lined tray. Reroll and repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake: Bake for 11 minutes until the cookies are very slightly browned. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes. Next, carefully slide the sheet of parchment paper with the cookies onto a cooling rack. Cool for another 15-20 minutes until they reach room temperature before icing.
- Royal Icing (cookie outline): Whisk the ingredients in a bowl until smooth, and transfer to a piping bag.
- Lemon curd icing (flood icing): Whisk 60g of the lemon curd with powdered sugar and aquafaba, transfer to a piping bag. Transfer the remaining 85g of lemon curd to another piping bag for the detailed designs later.
- Decorate (outline): Draw a thin circle and segments on the cookies. Let dry for 10 minutes, then go over the lines a second time to make them thick, dry for another 10 minutes.Flood icing: Fill in (flood) the lemon segments with lemon curd icing, and use a toothpick to spread the icing into the corners. Let them dry slightly for 10-15 minutes.Details: With the remaining lemon curd, pipe little dots into the lemon segments and lastly, pipe around the outer white circle to resemble the lemon skin.
- Storage: Place the iced cookies back on a cooling rack to allow the icing to dry completely for a few hours before storing them in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- Lemon Zest: Use organic or unwaxed lemons and wash and dry them thoroughly before use.
- Vegan Butter: Block-style butter, not margarine.
- Greek-Style Yogurt: Sub with vegan sour cream, vegan skyr, or very thick coconut yogurt.
- Vegan Lemon Curd: Prep up to 2 days in advance and store in the fridge. The full recipe and instructions are linked in the pink text.
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