This recipe is: dairy freenut free
With just a few ingredients, these butter-less lemon butter cookies are full of flavor and make a perfectly sweet dairy free treat. Makes about 30 cookies.
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What I love about these lemon butter cookies
The butter flavor really shines through in these cookies, and the lemon plays the role of sidekick – making a perfect pair. The cookies aren’t overly sweet, but the powdered sugar coating is up to you. Sprinkle them with as much as you want to suit your taste. Personally, I love the texture of the dry powdered sugar against the buttery cookie so I do a few coatings. Don’t worry about adding extra. I won’t tell anyone…
If you like this recipe, you have to try this snowball cookies and this no bake oatmeal delights and this super soft sugar cookies.
Searching for more lemon desserts? You will love these lemon curd cookies, strawberry lemonade cupcakes, or these mini lemon bundt cakes. Plus, these lemon rosemary olive oil cookies have the beautiful, aromatic flavor of rosemary infused into the cookies.
Ingredients & substitutions
- Lemon – These cookies use lemon juice and lemon zest for the lemon flavor. If you want to make these cookies extra lemony, you can add a teaspoon of lemon extract.
- Vegan butter – This recipe will work great with vegan butter or a butter flavored shortening, whichever you prefer. Feel free to use the same amount butter if you don’t need to make them dairy free.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make butter cookies without butter
Mix the dough. Using an electric mixer, beat the vegan butter with sugar until it gets fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated, then add the lemon juice and extract. Gradually add the flour to the mixing bowl, continuing to mix until all of the flour is incorporated.
Form the cookies. When everything is well mixed, you can begin to roll out 1 inch dough balls and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. With the dough balls formed on the baking sheet, take a fork and press into the cookies to flatten.
Bake the cookies. Pop the cookies into a 350˚F, preheated oven for 15 minutes. When the cookies are set on top and golden on the bottom edges, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool before transferring them to a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar when the cookies are fully cooled.
Everything you need to know about lemon butter cookies
- What is the difference between a butter cookie and shortbread cookie? Butter cookies and shortbread cookies are different in a few ways. First, butter cookies will have more ingredients than a shortbread cookies. Butter cookies will include an egg or eggs, plus usually a flavoring such as vanilla, lemon or almond – while shortbread usually contains minimal ingredients like sugar, flour and butter. Their texture is also different also, shortbread cookies will be dense and crumbly, while butter cookies are often light and airy, with a crispy exterior.
- What does adding butter to cookies do? Butter adds a lot of rich flavor as well as affecting the texture of a cookie and how it bakes. This can vary quite a bit, depending on how you are incorporating your butter. Room temperature butter, when creamed with sugar properly can create a light and fluffy texture that bakes into a beautiful, slightly crispy cookie. You can achieve practically identical results using a vegan butter or a butter flavored shortening.
Lemon Butter Cookies
5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star
4.4 from 10 reviews
This easy, lemon butter cookies recipe makes the best, melt in your mouth cookies. They’re a dairy free version of an old fashioned buttery, shortbread cookie. They’re perfect for the holidays or any time of year. Top with a sprinkle of powdered sugar for a simple alternative to icing.
- Author: Melissa Belanger
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 30 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 cup vegan butter or vegetable shortening
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C).
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy.
- Beat in the egg.
- Add lemon zest and lemon juice.
- Gradually mix in the flour until incorporated.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Using the tines of a fork, cross marks in the cookies to slightly flatten them (as pictured).
- Bake cookies for 15 minutes or until cookies are set on top and slightly golden on bottom.
- Transfer to cooling rack and immediately dust with powdered sugar (sugar will melt into cookies from the remaining heat).
- Once completely cool, dust cookies again with powdered sugar.
Notes
*Optional: Add 1 teaspoon lemon extract for a little extra lemon flavor.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 100
- Sugar: 8.4 g
- Sodium: 61.4 mg
- Fat: 3.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 16.6 g
- Fiber: 0.3 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 6.2 mg
Published: December 20, 2013. Updated: June 7, 2024.
Melissa Belanger is the founder and food-obsessed visionary behind Simply Whisked, where she creates dairy free recipes with simple ingredients. She lives in Wisconsin with her milk-allergic husband and two kids. Melissa's experience in developing dairy free recipes is unparalleled and she strives to make dairy-free living accessible and enjoyable. In addition to running Simply Whisked, Melissa also manages two other publications: Another co*cktail Blog, a co*cktail recipe website, and The Pasta Twins, a joint venture with her twin sister.
