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
Lemon is my favorite flavor, especially when it comes to desserts. Your vegan lemon cookies were a huge hit last night for dessert. I know I’ll be making these on a regular basis from now on.
Marta, it always makes my day when someone sends me feedback about a recipe and really loved it! So happy you enjoyed the cookies!
This is the perfect cookie to go with my afternoon tea. I love lemon everything. These will be a hit for sure.
I agree!! Enjoying these vegan lemon cookies with a cup of tea would be just fantastic!
So fresh and simple, thanks for the recipe!
You´re welcome Jennifer, happy you like the cookies!
I just made these cookies with some Meyer lemon juice, and zest… these are OMG Amazing! Thank you so much for this delicious recipe. It is definitely a keeper!
I’ll be making these again soon for my grandchildren.
Hi Victoria, this recipe is a beloved favorite here, I make it several times a year. Thank you for sharing your experience. It means the world to me!
These lemon cookies are simply awesome, my kind of recipe. So easy and quick to make bonus point is that these are vegan!
Thank you so much, Hayley! I’m super excited to hear that you love these cookies.
Love this cookie recipe! It packs so much flavor and really satisfies my sweet tooth.
Glad to hear that! Hope you have a chance to make them! Thanks so much, Maren!
These lemon cookies look so amazing! My son is allergic to eggs and recipes like this as such a great way to be able to make him something special that we all can enjoy too!
Glad to hear your son will be able to enjoy these cookies. He will love them, they are lemony but not overly tangy, and super soft! XO
They are vegan AND they have lemon flavor – can cookies get any better than these? 🙂
I know right? It is like icing on a cake. We adore these cookies here too.
you have shared something that holds such deafness in my heart. My father made the most incredible lemon cookies. Everyone that knows us knew these cookies and when he made them, they never lasted long. He would put colorful sprinkles on the kids ones. your vegan take looks wonderful. I just want to reach in and bite one! thanjs for evoking such lovely feelings!
My kind of recipe, easy, quick and a delicious final product! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
This is the perfect recipe when you need a fragrant and chewy lemony treat. Thanks for commenting!
I have a lot of lemon trees at home so we almost always have lemons in our house. I love the sound of this recipe, definitely going to give it a try.
Lucky you! I would love to grow my own lemons, Nart! I know you will love these super flavorful lemon cookies, let me know how they turn out for you! XO
These vegan lemon cookies look fantastaic and sound so easy to make. I just want to make them now! But I have to get some plant butter. I have everything else!
Hi, Jacqueline! If you don’t have plant butter on hand, dairy butter will work too. Hope you love them as much as we do! Thanks so much!
I love lemon cookies and the lemon juice and zest used in this recipe are just the right amounts. So, do good!
Hi, Nart! These are a family favorite too! As you mentioned they’re not bland nor too tangy, they’re just perfect. So happy you like them, thanks for the comment!
I love everything lemony. I’m going to give this recipe a try. I’m amazed they are vegan! Thanks for the recipe and the inspiration!
You’re so welcome, Enriqueta! Glad this recipe inspired you. Happy baking! And thanks for the comment!
Can the lemon zest and juice be substituted for orange zest and juice?
Also, can the applesauce be replaced for pear sauce? I’ve never tried pear in replacement but I imagine the acidic effect should be similar.
Hi again Loli, I haven’t tried pear sauce in cookies either but since the aim of the fruit puree here is to substitute the eggs, and both applesauce and pear sauce have similar consistency, I’m pretty sure using pear sauce will work as well.
Hi Loli, I have never tried making them with orange zest and juice, but I guess it will work just as fine. Both the zest and the juice are what add the flavor to these cookies, so you will get delicious orange cookies instead!
I am a lemon lover. These cookies sound addictively delicious. I would have a hard time eating just one.
I can’t agree more, these lemon cookies are so addictive! And they smell wonderful as they bake. Thanks for commenting!
These were really delicious! I used a gluten-free flour mix and they came out perfect! Thanks for the recipe, my family loved it!
I’m really glad to hear they turned out good with gluten free flour, thanks so much for coming back to comment!