Melt in Your Mouth Soft Vegan Lemon Sugar Cookies with Frosting

Indulge in the citrusy delight of our melt-in-your-mouth soft vegan lemon cookies, a zesty treat that promises to brighten up your day. Each cookie, bursting with the fresh flavors of lemon juice, zest, and extract, offers a tender crumb that simply dissolves on your tongue. Pair these lemony cookies with a luscious swipe of vegan cream cheese frosting or a rich, buttery vegan lemon frosting for a decadent finish. Crafted with the sweetness of powdered sugar and the smoothness of vegan butter, these vegan lemon cookies are a testament to the joy of plant-based baking.

This last holiday season after I made soft vegan vanilla sugar cookies – which, by the way, were absolutely melt-in-your-mouth cookies, I wanted to bring that same tender and soft cookie texture to a zesty lemon cookie. These vegan lemon cookies are made extra luscious with one of my two favorite vegan frostings: velvety vegan cream cheese frosting or this all new (and made especially for this cookie) vegan lemon buttercream frosting.

Sure, vegan baked mac and cheese or a big ol' pot of vegetable lentil soup with a warm loaf of homemade herb bread are considered vegan comfort food. But I'd argue that cookies are vegan comfort food too! A cookie feels like a warm hug for your taste buds, each bite wrapping you in the cozy blanket of homemade sweetness. 

Ingredients needed for vegan lemon cookies

• ground flax seed and lemon juice (you’ll need one large or two medium-sized lemons) for the flax egg – This flax egg is a little bit different from the traditional flax egg in that it uses lemon juice for the liquid rather than water.
• lemon zest – I love this citrus zester for zesting lemons.
• all-purpose flour – Measure the flour accurately for soft light cookies. See the directions below.
• baking soda, cream of tarter, and salt. See the photo below with the rounded quarter teaspoon of salt. We are using generous quarter teaspoon for this recipe.
• powdered sugar – Notice there is no granulated sugar in this recipe. The powdered sugar makes the cookie texture “melt-in-your-mouth” tender.
• vegan butter – Use higher-fat stick vegan butter rather than tub vegan butter.
• agave nectar – Used for a moist texture and for a little sweet flavor
• vanilla extract and lemon extract – Lemon extract is easily found at the grocery store near the vanilla and other extracts. Don’t skimp on the lemon extract – and there is no substitute.
• You’ll also need a mixer, (ideally) two sturdy cookie sheets, parchment paper, and a medium-sized cookie scoop makes it easy to measure out and shape the cookie dough.

Directions for making vegan lemon cookies

The exact ingredients with measurements can be found in the recipe card below along with more concise abbreviated instructions. Read on for more details, tips, and tricks so that you will feel confident making this recipe.

Step 1: Soften the vegan butter

It’s not necessary to preheat the oven yet because the dough will be spending time chilling in the refrigerator. When you do preheat, set the oven to 350℉.

Set the vegan butter out to soften if not already soft. You do NOT want it melted or warm- only softened and still cool. If you poke it with your finger, your finger should go partially in but there will be a little push-back and the vegan butter will still be cool to the touch. If your finger easily pushes through and the vegan butter is warmish or even room temperature then you’ve let it sit out too long

If you have forgotten to take your vegan butter out in time to soften then cut it up into slices and put it in the mixing bowl. It will be soft enough in just a few minutes.

Step 2: Juice and zest the lemon

Juice and zest the lemon -but zest the lemon first! It will be easier to zest a plump full lemon rather than one that has already been squeezed.

You will need three tablespoons of lemon juice and one tablespoon of lemon zest. You might be able to get it all in one big juicy lemon, but plan on purchasing two lemons just in case. Set the zest aside separately. You will be adding that later along with the liquids.

Step 3: Make the flax egg

The flax egg in this recipe is a little bit different than a normal flax egg. Usually you add the ground flax seed to water. In this recipe you add the ground flax seed to the lemon juice and made a nice lemony flax egg. (I do something similar with my vegan red velvet cookie recipe too. I mix the ground flax with plant milk and vinegar to make a buttermilk flax egg.)

Make the flax egg by whisking together the ground flax seed and the lemon juice. Set the flax egg mixture aside while you are measuring and mixing the other ingredients.

Step 4: accurately measure the flour and add the other dry ingredients

Measure and add the other dry ingredients

After accurately measuring the flour into a small mixing bowl, measure and add the other dry ingredients to the flour. Add the baking soda, cream of tarter, and salt. Mix around until everything has been mixed well.

This recipe calls for a generous quarter teaspoon of salt. A quarter teaspoon measured flatly to the level of the measuring spoon will not be enough. Yet a half teaspoon will be too much. Round the quarter teaspoon of salt when you are measuring your ingredients.

Step 5: Cream the vegan butter and powdered sugar and the wet ingredients

In another larger bowl cream together the softened vegan butter with the powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add only one half of the powdered sugar at a time, otherwise you’ll be working in a powdery sugary cloud.

After the vegan butter and powdered sugar have been creamed you can add the wet ingredients. Add the lemony flax egg, agave nectar, vanilla and lemon extracts. Add the lemon zest and mix until everything is incorporated.

Step 6: Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients

Sprinkle the flour mixture on top as you are mixing. You don’t want to over mix. Mix just enough so that the flour mixture has been incorporated. You might need to mix by hand at the end.

Steps 7 and 8: Chilling the lemon cookie dough ball and preheating the oven

When everything has been mixed well, gather the dough together in one large dough ball. I like to transfer my cookie dough to the smaller bowl I used for the dry ingredients for chilling purposes – simply because I don’t have space in my refrigerator for a larger bowl. Cover the dough ball with plastic wrap and set the dough in the fridge to chill for at least an hour.

Sometime during the last thirty minutes or so of the cookie dough chill time, get your oven ready to for baking the cookies. Set your oven rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 350°F.

 Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. (If you have only one baking sheet then make sure it cools thoroughly before baking the second batch.)

Steps 9 -11: Shape and bake the cookies

Use a cookie scoop or a large soup spoon and scoop out the individual cookies. If you are using a large spoon then you’ll need to shape them into ball – about the size of a golf ball before putting them on the cookie sheet. If you are using a medium-sized cookie scoop then the scoop will do the shaping for you.

Place the cookie dough balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, spaced accordingly. They will spread. I use a half-sheet sized baking pan and place 12 cookies on the pan.

Bake at 350℉ for 9-11 minutes. The sides and bottom of the cookies will be lightly golden. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the pan for about ten minutes. Use a spatula to remove the cooled cookies to a wire cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting the vegan lemon cookies

These cookies are soft and flavorful and probably don’t need frosting and will still be a yummy cookie. But why would you do that to yourself?!? These soft lemon cookies will be GREATLY enhanced with your choice of frosting options.

You can just buy a can of frosting at the store. Many brands are accidentally vegan. Read the ingredients label. Add some lemon extract and lemon zest to the vanilla flavored buttercream frosting or if you are using cream cheese frosting then add lemon zest to that. Add yellow food coloring for a lemon-yellow color effect.

BUT! But… I have two absolutely to-die-for vegan frosting recipes that are perfect to frost these lemon cookies. First, I have a vegan cream cheese frosting that tastes one million times better than canned cream cheese frosting. Add about one Tablespoon of lemon zest to the frosting to give it a layer of zesty flavor that still allows the tangy vegan cream cheese to shine through.

Next, I have a divine velvety vegan lemon buttercream frosting that I developed especially for these cookies! This lemon frosting isn’t overpoweringly lemony so it won’t overwhelm the lemon cookie but rather partners perfectly with it.

And don’t forget the sugar sprinkles. Frosted cookies are just so much better with sugar sprinkles!

The printable recipe card