Lemon Butter Cookies Recipe: Easy and Buttery Lemon Cookies

Lemon butter cookies are classic, buttery cookies with the addition of lemon zest, lemon juice, or lemon extract. A glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice gives the crispy cookies a sweet coating of tangy lemon flavor.

Butter cookies differ from shortbread cookies in that butter cookies have a higher ratio of sugar to butter, making them less crumbly than shortbread cookies. Butter cookies differ from many other traditional cookies—such as sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies—in that they omit baking powder and baking soda.

Shape a sweet and tangy lemon butter cookie dough like you would traditional cookie dough when it’s at room temperature and, therefore, soft. Alternatively, you can slice it after chilling it. With these two basic methods in mind, here are more specific ways you can shape your own lemon butter cookies:

• Cut thick or thin slices from a cookie dough log. Form the cookie dough into a long cylinder and cover it completely with plastic wrap or parchment paper. Freeze the log for about thirty minutes before slicing the cookie dough into rounds and then baking the cookies.
• Form cookie dough balls with a small scoop or spoon. With the cookie dough at room temperature, scoop doughballs onto a baking sheet you’ve lined with parchment paper. Gently press the balls onto the sheet for a flatter cookie or leave them spherical for a dome effect.
• Pipe the cookie dough through a pastry bag. Scoop the room temperature cookie dough into a pastry bag with a star tip. Pipe circles, hearts, squares, or other shapes onto a cookie sheet you’ve lined with parchment paper.
• Press the cookie dough through a cookie press. A common device necessary for the making of cream cheese cookies and other soft cookies, a cookie press pushes soft cookie dough through a tube with a cutout shape at the end. Press the end of the cookie press onto the parchment paper and squeeze the handle to move the cookie dough through the mold.