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Lemon Crinkle Cookies – Crispy outsides, soft middles, and a big dose of fresh lemon flavor. These easy cookies are gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and vegan.
Fresh lemon flavor bursting in every crispy, fluffy bite!
These cookies have a nice crisp exterior and soft fluffy middles. It’s the perfect mix of textures.
Just a few simple ingredients are needed and it’s easily mixed by hand in a mixing bowl.
What are you waiting for? Go make a batch!
How To Make Vegan Lemon Cookies
With just 8 ingredients, these flavorful cookies are super easy.
First, make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature. This recipe calls for melted coconut oil and it will seize up if it comes in contact with cold ingredients.
Next, whisk all the dry ingredients together. Then, whisk all the wet ingredients. Add the dry to the wet and stir until a smooth dough forms.
Let the dough rest for 10 minutes to let it firm up.
Finally, scoop up some dough and form it into a ball, tossing it in sugar to coat if desired, and bake!
The Best Gluten Free Flour for Baking Cookies
I tested these cookies with several different gluten free flour blends.
You definitely want to use a blend that is designed to be a 1:1 replacement for traditional all-purpose flour. I found Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Baking Flour to be the best. It’s fine texture lent the best results for texture.
I also tested these Lemon Crinkle Cookies with Krusteaz Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. They turned out great, but we still preferred the Bob’s Red Mill version.
I do not recommend Trader Joe’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. The cookies using the Trader Joe’s flour were definitely grittier and crumbled easily.
How to Make the Most Flavorful Lemon Sugar Cookies
Fresh lemon juice is important to get the best flavor for these cookies. You’ll also need the zest of one lemon, so be sure to zest the lemon before you juice it.
Just a touch of pure vanilla extract balances out the bitterness of the lemon nicely.
We also love rolling the cookie dough in extra sugar before placing them on the cookie sheets to bake. This, of course, was my kids’ favorite part!
If you love lemon, don’t miss these other delicious lemon recipes:
- Strawberry Lemonade Ice Cream Cake
- Tart Cherry Sparkling Lemonade
- Lemon Artichoke Vegan Pasta Salad
- Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes
How To Store Homemade Cookies
Be sure to cool the cookies completely before transferring them to a storage container.
When ready to store them, choose an air-tight container.
You can place sheets of parchment in between layers if you’re worried the cookies might stick to each other, but I don’t find it necessary with this particular recipe.
The cookies should last a week or more if stored properly.
Love cookies as much as we do? Try our other favorite gluten free cookies:
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
I hope you love these Lemon Crinkle Cookies as much as we do! If you try them, please come back and leave me a comment below with your feedback and star rating.
You can also find me on social media. Be sure to tag @veggie_inspired and #veggieinspired so I’m sure to see it!
Enjoy!
Lemon Crinkle Cookies (Vegan, Gluten Free)
Lemon Crinkle Cookies - Crispy outsides, soft middles, and a big dose of fresh lemon flavor. These easy cookies are gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and vegan.
Ingredients
- 2 cups gluten free flour blend*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice**
- 3/4 cup organic cane sugar (plus extra for rolling the dough in if desired)
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
Instructions
- Be sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature before beginning the recipe.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and coconut oil.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a smooth dough is formed.
- Let the dough sit for 10 minutes to stiffen up.
- Scoop out a heaping tablespoon of dough and mold it into a ball with your hands. Place onto the prepared baking sheet. Optional: roll the dough ball around in the extra sugar to coat before placing on the baking sheet.
- Leaving about 2 inches between each cookie dough ball, repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake 10-12 minutes until the cookies have spread a bit, the bottoms are lightly browned, and the tops have started to crackle.
- Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.***
Notes
*Be sure to use a gluten free flour blend that is designed as a 1:1 replacement for all-purpose flour. I tested these cookies with both Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour Blend and Krusteaz 1:1 Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour and would recommend either of those with Bob's Red Mill being my first choice. I also tested them with Trader Joe's Gluten Free All Purpose Flour and I did NOT like the way they turned out, so don't use that brand!
**An average lemon has about 2 tablespoons of juice inside. I have found some juicier lemons that give a bit more than this. You may need 2 to 3 lemons to get 1/3 cup juice.
***These cookies taste great right out the oven, but the lemon flavor is more pronounced once they have completely cooled.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
18Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 137Total Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 107mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 1gSugar: 11gProtein: 2g
Nutrition facts calculated without optional sugar coating.
Jillian Blogna says
I made these cookies today and they were AMAZING! I will be adding this recipe to my collection of cookie recipes!
Jenn Sebestyen says
Thank you, Jillian! So happy to hear you love them!
Caroline says
Hi Jenn
This recipe Looks fabulous, I absolutely have to try it.
Just two questions: can I replace the gluten free flour by normal one as this is usually what I have at home?
And can the dough be freezed and the Cookies be baked later? I currently have a lot of lemons Iwould like to process but bake at a later time…
Best wishes,
Caroline
Jenn Sebestyen says
Hi, Caroline. An all-purpose flour should work just fine! I haven’t tried freezing the dough yet, so I can’t say for sure. If you try it, let me know!
Caroline says
Thank you, Jenn. I finally made the crinkles but they turned out totally flat… had the same issue with chocolate crinkle cookies last christmas, no idea what could be the cause. Is it possible that 175C (350F) is too hot?
Best wishes,
Caroline
Jenn Sebestyen says
I’m sorry you had trouble with these. Did you make any substitutions? And are you sure you baking powder was fresh? It is true that a too hot oven will flatten cookies, but 350 works great for me for these…is it possible that your oven isn’t calibrated correctly? Hopefully the flavor turned out ok. And the chocolate cookies you are referring to…do you mean my Chocolate Almond Cookies? If so, those are supposed to be flatter chewy cookies, not soft middles like these.
Caroline says
Hi Jenn
I did not make any subsitutions, just took regular flour instead of glutenfree. The baking powder should not have been an issue I guess. As I’m a frequent baker it never get’s old 😉 The flavor was a bit too sweet and chewy for me, but I will give it another try sooner or later. Sorry for confusion, the chocolate crinkle cookie wasn’t a recipe of yours, but I had exactly the same issue, they came out flat…
Best wishes, Caroline
Judy Stone says
These are incredible! Crispy outside, light and lemony inside. I made a blend of 1 cup oat flour, 1/3 cup each Teff flour, Garbanzo flour and Potato Starch. I used Coconut sugar (halved the amount) and half the maple syrup. They are darker then your pic but one of the best cookies I’ve made. We couldn’t wait until they cooled–no problem–still fantastic!
Jenn Sebestyen says
Fantastic, Judy! Thank you! I’m so glad it worked out with those flour subs too.
Maggie McConnell says
I use Pillsbury gluten-free flour for EVERYTHING (unless I use straight almond flour). I bake cookies and cakes with it. Have you tried Pillsbury? These cookies look like a nice change from my usual almond butter cookies. Thanks for the recipe.
Maggie McConnell says
BTW, do you use VEGAN sugar? Organic isn’t necessarily vegan. Many people don’t know that sugar is “cleansed” through the bones of cows to get it white. To truly be vegan you need to use a vegan sugar like “Morena.”
Jenn Sebestyen says
The sugar I link to in the ingredient list is vegan…Wholesome Sweeteners. But, everyone is free to make their own choice of which brand of sugar to use. It won’t affect the outcome of this recipe.
Stasia C Doster says
Do you have any cookies that are oil-free? We actively avoid oil here and I try to find oil-free recipes whenever I can. Thanks!
Jenn Sebestyen says
I sure do. In fact, most of my cookie recipes are oil-free. In the search bar, search for Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies, Cranberry Pistachio Cookies, Chocolate Almond Cookies, Cinnamon Sugar Cookies, Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Gluten Free Thumbprint Cookies, Chewy Gluten Free Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies, or Crunchy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. I also have an entire category in my recipe index just for oil-free recipes (not just cookies, but all recipes). Enjoy!
Stasia C Doster says
Great! Thank you for letting me know!
Jenn Sebestyen says
Hope you enjoy them!
Brenda Allstun says
Would oat flour work?
Jenn Sebestyen says
Not without adjusting other ingredients. I haven’t tested it with oat flour, so I can’t say how to do that.