Lemon Crinkle Cookie Recipe with Cream Cheese

This homemade lemon crinkle cookies with cream cheese recipe is quite easy to make. Homemade citrus dessert that looks pretty covered in powdered sugar and tastes delicious, or opt for Cake Mix Cookies with Cream Cheese with lemon boxed mix.

Lemon Cookies Recipe Easy

You can use bottled lemon juice if need be but if you have ever made anything like homemade lemonade you know how much better freshly squeezed citrus is. There really isn’t a comparison. Add more for a tarter flavor or keep it more mild. That is the great part about baking yourself, you can adjust away.

Cake Mix Lemon Crinkle Cookies

These are homemade but we also have a recipe for easy cake mix crinkle cookies too! Those can use any cake mix you want and can be colored red and green for Christmas time too quite easily. But everything from scratch is just better right? If you do have a bit more time I would highly recommend trying these. They’ll be a hit!

If you have seen these at a restaurant or a friends house and thought about making them yourself, they are easier than you’d think. We made lemon here but other citrus flavors with a bit of zest are terrific too. Want to make these for Christmas? Add peppermint extract instead with some crushed candy canes, or make red velvet crinkle cookies too. 😉

The base is quite simple, adding lemon gives it the bold flavor. If you wanted to use something else you totally could. They could become lime, orange, or use some other flavor like coconut extract instead for a more tropical taste.

Ingredients

1. Room temperature butter and cream cheese
2. Use white ganulated sugar
3. Eggs should be left out just for a bit so they aren’t as cold
4. All purpose flour
5. Cornstarch
6. Baking soda
7. Fresh lemon juice and zest, add yellow food coloring if you want to enhance the color

Whether you make lemon cookies from cake mix or like this homemade, you want the dough easier to handle and roll chill the dough for about an hour in the fridge, then scoop. Powdered or confectioners sugar some call it will go on the outside and give it that cool look once it bakes in the oven. You see as they bake and rise the powder cracks and thus gives it “that look” that is oh so cool.

I like to use a small cookie scoop to make them all the same size and it is a bit easier to get things done faster. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, use a silpat mat or spray the cookie sheet with some non stick spray before adding the dough too. Here’s a brief step by step.

How to Make Lemon Crinkle Cookies with Cream Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray or line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl beat together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy.
3. Then add lemon zest, lemon juice, and then eggs one at a time.
4. In another large bowl mix together all dry ingredients, then slowly incorporate it with the cream cheese mixture. Could add small pieces of dried fruit too like our lemon blueberry cookies.
5. Pour powdered sugar into a bowl. Use a small cookie scoop to scoop up your cookie dough.
6. Form into a ball and roll the dough into the powdered sugar until they are completely coated.
7. Place on baking sheets with some space in between them so they can spread just a bit and not touch.
8. You could gently press a divot on the top to fill later like one of our lemon curd desserts.

How Long to Bake Chewy Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Bake for 10-13 minutes until edges are lightly browned and middle is no longer wet looking. You do not want to over-bake these so they dry out at all. Under is a bit better than too much heat. One way to prevent this is to take our right when edges are browned and tops are crinkled.

Remove each one from your hot sheet pan after about 10 minutes once they have solidified a bit more and place on a cooling rack instead. This will give you a chewy texture inside as they continue to cool and get to room temperature.

You really do not need a stand mixer for this. If you do everything with yours then go ahead and use a paddle attachment to combine it all into a light and fluffy texture. For stiffer dough refrigerate 60 minutes before transferring to bowl to coat in powdered sugar.

You could sprinkle with some sugar and lemon zest on top before baking too for a stronger lemon flavor. I mean even a bit of crushed white chocolate chips might be great too. Think outside of the box and you might think of another goodie to try. There is a printable recipe card at the bottom for this post with nutritional information, saturated fat content etc…. if you’d like.

Print it out and keep it in your roladex of recipes or just come back when you want to make these babies again and again. Mix them up with different flavors if you are serving a crowd and want to offer a variety of goodies to them. It is easy to add a different zest, fruit juice or extract for flavoring. Let us know what you try in the future and send us a note!

How do you preserve leftover cookies?

The key is keeping these and your favorite lemon bars with cake mix really moist right? There are a few tips you should follow to do just that. First off you always want to make sure they are completely cooled before storing them. If you have a few you can get away with using a freezer bag. Lay them in one layer, flat, zip closed with ALL the air sucked out, on the countertop. The fridge will dry them out.

If you have quite a few I would recommend using a sealed container with a lid. Once again you want the least amount of air trapped in there so use a container about the size you need, not a lot larger. For more than one layer use a piece of parchment paper or wax in between. You don’t want them to stick together so separate them.

When you take one out eliminate the air once again if you can. They will stay pretty fresh and moist for a few days this way. I don’t think it is necessary to warm this variety but you could for 15 seconds in the microwave or so. It isn’t necessary to store in the refrigerator and in fact the cold air will harden them more than you’d want.

Can you freeze cookies that are already cooked?

Yes you can but it takes a bit more work to prepare them for their dunk in the freezer. It is best if you wrap each one individually in plastic wrap to keep them moist. Once again they need to be completely cooled before doing so. Foil could be used instead if you wanted.

Once they are all wrapped slide them into a freezer bag, they can be stacked this way since they’re already wrapped tight. Store flat in your freezer for a few months, then you can remove one at a time to enjoy again. You’ll want to leave it out on the countertop for 30 minutes to an hour to thaw out when you’re ready.

You can heat to speed up the process but that will dry them out so I wouldn’t. This works surprisingly well to keep them nice and chewy, almost like the consistency of day old cookies.

How do you reheat crinkle cookies?

If you do want to warm one or a few up you don’t want to use a lot of time in the microwave. 10-15 seconds once thawed out will do it. A bit of warmth will help to soften it up once again like you initially had it right out of the oven but too much will make them crispy instead. It’s a fine balance but a great way to make “new” once again.