These Vegan Lemon Cookies are soft, chewy, buttery and deliciously fragrant. They melt in your mouth! 1-bowl cookies, made with staple ingredients and ready in under 25 minutes! A quick and super easy recipe that leads to perfect cookies every time.
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WHY MAKE THESE COOKIES
It requires only 1 bowl. One bowl, a whisk and a spatula is all you need to make this vegan lemon cookies. If you have an electric mixer, it will help you with the butter-sugar creaming, but it’s not indispensable for this recipe.
Only 9 staple ingredients needed. This is an uncomplicated recipe that requires basic pantry staples for your ingredients. Check out the recipe card below.
No chilling required. Refrigerating the cookie dough is not required, which means you can make the dough and have your first batch in the oven in no time.
Oh, if you like easy and fun recipes, check these out: Vegan Gingerbread Cookies, Vegan Sugar Cookies and Vegan Linzer Cookies.
RECIPE INGREDIENTS
INGREDIENTS NOTES AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Plant based butter. I normally use Earth Balance. Make these vegan lemon cookies with your favourite vegan butter, this is a thick dough so the cookies will keep their shape.
Sugar. I’ve used organic cane sugar. Brown sugar or white granulated sugar works fine here too.
Applesauce. It’s a great substitute for the eggs in vegan baking. It doesn’t add any lift, but it helps with binding. You can either use Homemade Applesauce or store-bought.
Flour. Regular All-Purpose Flour is the one you need for this recipe.
Lemon juice. This recipe calls for fresh ingredients, like lemon juice and lemon zest, but feel free to use bottled lemon juice.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS
- To make the cookies: preheat oven to 350ºF / 175ºC. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place butter and sugar into a mixing bowl.
- Beat until soft and creamy.
- Add applesauce, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- Sift in the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Stir until the dough is well combined.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough. Place each cookie scoop onto the lined baking sheet. Leave one inch between each one.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
RECIPE FAQs
These vegan lemon cookies can last for up to a week in an airtight container, at room temperature. Place them in layers separated by a sheet of parchment paper to keep them from sticking together.
Sure! Lemon extract is much more concentrated so I would start using just ½ teaspoon instead of 1 teaspoon lemon juice. If you’re also going to substitute the lemon zest, then add 1 teaspoon of lemon extract to the dough.
There are several substitutes for applesauce in this recipe. Pureed apples, mashed bananas or vegan yogurt are some of the best alternatives. They have a similar consistency than applesauce. Substitute in a 1 to 1 ratio, except for the mashed bananas, in that case add ½ tablespoon of water or plant based milk to the dough.
MORE COOKIES TO TRY
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RECIPE
Vegan Lemon Cookies
Equipment
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- Mixing bowl
- Silicone spatula
- Cookie scoop (scoop diameter: 1.5 inch/3.9 cm)
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- ½ cup plant based butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons organic cane sugar
- 2 tablespoons applesauce, homemade or store-bought
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF / 175ºC, then line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. You can also use a hand mixer or beat it by hand.
- Add the applesauce, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla. Mix well to ensure all the ingredients are combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Then, add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined, about 15 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and mix until dough comes together, about 15 seconds.
- Use a cookie scoop (ice cream scoop) to scoop the cookie dough out into balls, or roll de dough into 12 medium balls (2 tablespoons each). Place them on the lined cookie sheet, at least 1 inch apart from each other.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies look barely golden but still soft. DO NOT OVERBAKE.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for a week, at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
I love anything lemony for dessert and sometimes as a breakfast treat, especially cookies. Your recipe is terrific—extra points for being vegan. Thanks so much!
That is great to hear Jenny! I am so glad that you love my recipe that much!
These cookies are so soft, chewy, and delicious!
I am so excited to make this at home!
Yes, they are super soft and chewy Amy. Happy baking!
Love love love anything lemon! I made these for one of my vegan personal chef clients (and had 1 for myself). They were amazing!
Hi Brandi. thank you! I’m so glad that you guys loved the cookies! I make them all the time!
I am still pretty new to the vegan world. Lemon cookies sound delicious! Excited to give these a try! Thanks for the recipe share!
Hi Ann, I’m sure you’ll love them. They’re made in no time!
Oh my, these Vegan Lemon Cookies look amazingly delicious! Its chewy texture and fragrance make this so enticing and very appealing! It’s a super easy recipe for everyone to try and only needs 25 minutes to have this! Loved it already!
Thank you, Jamie, for your feedback and review! I’m really glad you love the cookies!
These are my new favorite cookies! It was so easy to make them and they taste amazing! I will definitely make this again.
Thank you for sharing your review and comments! I’m glad you love the cookies!
Vegan, really? Never would’ve guessed. Just the right amount of lemon flavor with hints of apple, Yum!
Hi, Mikayla! Thank you so much! I am beyond happy to read your positive review.
My cookie jar is almost empty, so this recipe is so timely! Fantastic instructions – super easy to follow 😉
Hi Elaine, I know you will love these cookies! Let me know how they turned out for you!
These cookies were so delicious and I love how they are vegan! I love lemon and these are perfect for snacking on!
Hi Kathryn. I’m so glad you are loving these cookies! Thanks for sharing your review and comments!
Anything lemon is my favorite and these were no exception. I did use regular butter and they came out deliciously soft and oh so lemony. I will def be making these again.
Hi Linda, thanks for the tip. I haven’t tried them with non-vegan butter, good to know it works too.