These tender and chewy lemon poppy seed cookies have the identical vivid and buttery taste as their muffin counterparts! My recipe skips the extracts and synthetic flavors and will get its taste from 100% actual lemons as an alternative. Recipe features a how-to video!

What’s to Love about these Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

• Genuine taste. My recipe makes use of 100% REAL lemons to get a contemporary, tart, and actual lemon taste. That’s proper, no extract, no pudding mixes, no emulsions, simply the real-deal which you could really style.
• Fast & straightforward. The recipe is straightforward and simple with solely half-hour of chilling required.
• Make forward choices. The dough may be made as much as 3 days prematurely.
• Spectacular on any dessert desk. With their vivid lemon-yellow coloration (which, ahem, I’ll point out once more is completely genuine and from the lemons — no meals coloring!) and delicate poppyseed freckles, they’re so fairly and ideal for spring or summer season!

There’s one thing delightfully distinctive in regards to the combo of vivid lemon taste and crisp poppy seeds. Should you’ve loved my lemon poppy seed muffins or scones, you’re in for a deal with! Lemon poppy seed cookies have the identical vivid and sunny taste, however in tender (actually, actually tender!) and chewy cookie kind.

It was crucial to me that these cookies have a good looking lemon taste with out the necessity for extract or synthetic flavors. Additionally vital that they NOT be cakey. Should you’ve adopted my pumpkin cookie or banana cookie saga, you recognize that including moisture (there within the type of pumpkin or banana, right here within the type of lemon juice) can rapidly flip a tender cookie right into a cakey one.

I took some very deliberate steps with right this moment’s recipe to make sure it had all of the traits of an excellent, chewy cookie, beginning with the components.

What You Want

Since we aren’t utilizing any fancy flavors or extracts right here, you’ll doubtless have all of those components readily available already. Don’t you like when that occurs?!

• Softened butter. I exploit unsalted butter and add salt myself, however you may simply use salted butter and skip the extra salt. I’ve a whole put up on why I exploit unsalted butter vs. salted butter, in case you’d like to know the reasoning behind that alternative.
• Lemons. We are going to use contemporary lemon zest and juice (contemporary lemon juice is crucial right here!) for optimum lemon taste. At all times zest your lemons earlier than juicing, and be sure you don’t zest to date that you simply attain the bitter white pith–we solely need the skinny yellow pores and skin! I discover I usually want about two lemons for this recipe. Ensure that they’re contemporary, not ones the place the pores and skin is skinny and drying from sitting in your counter too lengthy.
• Egg yolks. To cut back extra moisture within the dough, particularly since we’re including lemon juice, I made a decision to skip the egg whites and use solely egg yolks (which additionally felt like an applicable nod towards lemon curd, which solely makes use of egg yolks, too). This provides our cookies a beautiful yellow coloration as properly. It can save you your egg whites for meringue cookies, pavlova, or macarons.
• Poppy seeds. A necessary ingredient! Not solely do poppy seeds add a pleasant crunch to those cookies, they add enjoyable a visible aspect too. Some folks wish to soak their poppyseeds earlier than baking, however I don’t discover it essential. I discuss extra about this beneath.

Now what you don’t want: vanilla extract! The omission of vanilla extract from this recipe was completely intentional. Sadly, it strongly subdued the contemporary lemon taste, sarcastically making the cookies extra bland! Whereas I’m personally a vanilla fan, we’ll skip it right here.

SAM’S TIP: There are such a lot of methods to zest a lemon, however my favourite technique for this recipe is to make use of a microplane. Right here’s a information on find out how to zest a lemon with a number of totally different instruments, in case you want a refresher!

Keep in mind, that is simply an summary of the components I used and why. For the complete recipe please scroll all the way down to the underside of the put up!

Easy methods to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

Cookie Dough

We’ll begin by beating a wholesome quantity of lemon zest into butter and sugar. This step brings out the oils of the lemon zest and emulsifies each little bit of lemon taste into the dough, similar to in my lemon cookies. We’ll add a little bit of contemporary lemon juice too, only for good measure. And sure, it must be freshly squeezed!

1. Beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest collectively till gentle and fluffy.
2. Stir within the egg yolks and lemon juice till properly mixed.
3. Whisk collectively the dry components in a separate bowl.
4. Steadily add the dry components to the moist components till mixed. Cowl the dough with plastic and let it chill within the fridge for not less than half-hour.

5. Scoop and roll the chilled dough into 1.5 Tablespoon balls. Place 2″ aside on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 11-12 minutes at 350F.
6. Let the cookies cool for not less than 10 minutes earlier than including the glaze.

Lemon Glaze

The cherry on prime, this glaze is bursting with taste. Don’t skip it!

7. Whisk collectively the powdered sugar and lemon juice, beginning with simply 1 ½ tablespoons of juice. Add extra if wanted till you attain the suitable consistency; the ribbon of glaze that falls off your whisk ought to maintain its form for a number of seconds earlier than dissolving again into the remainder of the glaze.
8. Drizzle glaze over the cookies and let agency up earlier than having fun with. Should you’d wish to sprinkle some extra poppy seeds over the glaze whereas it’s nonetheless moist, be at liberty!

SAM’S TIP: Cease baking your cookies when the perimeters are simply beginning to flip a light-weight golden brown for tender and chewy outcomes. The facilities should look somewhat underdone, however they’ll proceed cooking on the baking sheet outdoors the oven.

Often Requested Questions

These cookies could be so enjoyable at a tea get together or spring child bathe!

Take pleasure in!

Let’s bake collectively! I’ll be strolling you thru all of the steps in my written recipe and video beneath! Should you do this recipe, make sure you tag me on Instagram, and it’s also possible to discover me on YouTube and Fb

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