Because graduation celebrations never finish right as the ceremony ends—even if you turn hoarse from cheering for your younger brother for earning the highest number of A+ grades in the history of the school’s major!—my family planned a full day of festivities for last Friday.
After snapping a few cell phone pictures outside of the theater, my parents and I hustled back to the parking garage and drove halfway across town. Instead of fighting the crowds and waiting for hours at one of the over-booked restaurants near campus, we ordered two fancy deep-dish pizzas to go from one of the best pizzerias in Northern California, which we brought back to my brother’s apartment along with a selection of ice cream and sorbet.
Despite the massive amount of cheese and sauce and meat and toppings, those two pizzas almost entirely disappeared within half an hour! All courtesy of our family, my brother’s friends, and his best friend’s family too. (And now I want to try baking my own deep-dish pizza…) But before any of us could fall fast asleep into a food coma…
We dashed back down to the car, parallel parked on the busy city streets, and drove the 45 minutes to my parents’ house in the suburbs. After Dad took a brief nap, we headed over to my grandma’s. With her slow creaky knees, it would’ve been too hard for her to walk up the hilly city streets to attend the ceremony, so my brother donned his cap and gown again to surprise her. It was the perfect sweet ending to the celebratory day!
Just like these chewy Skinny Lemon-doodles were the perfect sweet surprise for my brother! Because it’s his favorite flavor, I declared this Lemon Week on the blog to celebrate his graduation. We kicked it off with this lemon blueberry breakfast loaf, and now with these cookies… Well, let’s just say my brother barely shared a single bite!
Because most of the ingredients are fairly predictable and straightforward, let’s highlight the two main ones that provide these cookies with their iconic flavor. First up, the lemon zest. The zest from two lemons adds all of the sunshiny citrus taste—no juice required! The oils in the peel pack in quite a flavor punch. If you can find them, I highly recommend Meyer lemons because they’re slightly sweeter.
Secondly, the butter extract. This adds the sweet, buttery, almost cake-batter flavor that all snickerdoodle cookies have without excess butter from traditional recipes. Almost all grocery stores stock it on the baking aisle near the vanilla extract. (If you have a Walmart nearby, they also sell a big bottle on their wedding aisle!) If you can’t find butter extract, you can substitute vanilla, but the cookies won’t have the same iconic taste.
A final quick optional ingredient note… My brother is actually lactose-intolerant and allergic to eggs, so every cookie recipe I create for him contains neither! If you omit eggs from your diet as well, I highly recommend Ener-G. It’s an egg replacement that’s a shelf-stable powder and keeps for ages. Just whisk a little Ener-G with warm water, let it rest for 5 minutes, and it’ll behave just like an egg in this cookie recipe!
And of course, you can’t make snickerdoodles without the sparkly sugar coating! It almost looks like little glittering diamonds, don’t you think? After rolling it in the sugar and placing it on the baking sheet, you must flatten the cookie dough to your desired thickness and width. These cookies do not spread at all while baking!
But the cookies are still extremely soft, chewy, sweet, and perfect for any lemon lover! Somehow I think I’m going to bake these every time I see my brother this summer… He loves them that much!
| Skinny Lemon-doodles | | Print |
- 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour (measured correctly)
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsp lemon zest (about 2 medium lemons)
- 4 tbsp (48g) unsalted butter*, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites*, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp butter extract
- 1 ¼ cups (240g) granulated sugar, divided
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg whites, vanilla, and butter extract. Stir in 1 cup of granulated sugar. Add in the flour mixture, stirring until incorporated.
- Add the remaining granulated sugar to a small bowl. Roll the cookie dough into 24 balls. Working with one ball at a time, roll in the granulated sugar, and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Flatten to the desired thickness and width. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Butter extract can be found on the baking aisle near the vanilla extract. It provides the iconic snickerdoodle taste without the excess butter of traditional recipes. If you cannot find butter extract, substitute vanilla extract instead, but the flavor won’t quite be the same.
Do not substitute stevia for the sugar; it does not work in this recipe because it changes the texture of the cookie dough and will make your cookies dry.
If the cookie dough is too sticky to roll, chill for at least 30 minutes. These cookies do not spread in the oven, so you must flatten the cookie dough before baking.
This recipe is easily halved if needed.
{vegan, low fat, low calorie}
More fun snickerdoodle recipes from other food bloggers…
♥ Pumpkin Snickerdoodles by Dessert for Two
♥ Chocolate Mocha Snickerdoodles by Crazy for Crust
♥ Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Blondies by Averie Cooks
♥ Snickery-doodles by Sally’s Baking Addiction
I just made these and they are so light and yummy!! Perfect lemon flavor!
Is it wrong that I want to hide some from my husband? 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies Heather! And no, I keep a secret sweets stash from my family sometimes too — it’s practically a necessity with how quickly we go through cookies! 😉
Can I chill the dough overnight?
I think that should be fine; just don’t forget to flatten the balls of cookie dough before baking! I hope you enjoy the cookies Sam!
Points value has since chanced and now is 4.5 Smart Points per cookie.
Thanks for sharing Derek!
I was so excited when came across this recipe. Love love love lemon and cookies. Kind of sinful combo when trying to watch my weight. I just finished making these and they have a bread dough consistency. Noticed when making them they seemed extremely dry and by dry I mean shaggy dry. I added some real lemon juice till was able to mix all together in a cookie dough consistency. They look great. Puffed up and are very chewy, just have the bread consistency. What went wrong?
I’m sorry the cookies didn’t turn out for you Kathi; that must have been disappointing. If the cookie dough was dry and the cookies were bready, there was too much flour in the cookie dough. How did you measure it? Did you follow the directions included in the link next to the flour in the Ingredients list? I highly recommend a kitchen scale for measuring flour — this is the inexpensive one that I own, and it ensures all of my recipes turn out with the perfect taste and texture every time! 🙂
I am a cookie baking nut. Mostly because my husband is the official Cookie Monster. This is the first bad cookie I have ever made. I doubled the recipe so I’d have enough to give to my daughter in law. She loves lemon. Only thing I can think of is I lost count on measuring. I should have known better. Circumstances yesterday morning caused for a lot of distractions when preparing them. I am definitely going to try again with a single batch.
I am always looking for healthy ways to cook and am excited to follow you on FB. Thank you for replying
I love your husband’s official title Kathi! I think I need to be the runner-up Cookie Monster… 🙂 I really hope that it was just the losing track while measuring that caused your issues, and I’m really looking forward to hearing how the single batch turns out for you!
Hi Amy,
I really enjoy your recipes! Like your brother, I am also lactose intolerant and allergic to eggs. I will try the Ener-G.
Thanks!
I’m excited to hear what you think of the cookies Heather! 🙂 Most of my recipes can be made egg-free with Ener-G. It’s my favorite egg substitute, and I use it all the time so that my brother can enjoy all of the sweet treats with the rest of us!
I’m sorry, but these did not turn out well. I made them for my boyfriends birthday bc he loves lemon, but I wouldn’t even give them to him ? They were extremely extremely dry. I substituted stevia for sugar so I don’t know if that caused it, but in the end, I had no treat to give my boyfriend on his bday bc I made these the night before and had no backup recipe.
Unfortunately, the stevia substitution is exactly what caused the cookies to be dry. If you make them as written, they turn out perfectly tender and chewy. 🙂 I hope your boyfriend had a wonderful birthday Dina!
Ohhhh ok. Thanks for the tip. I wonder if you might be willing to make a note up in the recipe to make no sugar substitutions. That may keep other baking novices like me from making the same mistake. And thanks, his birthday was great. I just picked up a cupcake from a specialty bakery ?
You’re welcome Dina! I just updated the recipe, and I appreciate you mentioning that to me. I’m sure you’re a great baker — don’t sell yourself short! 🙂
I used orange instead of lemon…worked well!
I’m so happy to hear that Bridgette! 🙂 I hope you enjoyed the cookies!
Used only 3/4 c sugar in these, also just sprinkled a little on top rather than rolling. Also used vanilla extract instead of butter extract.
They are sooooooo delicious. I’m in Australia and have no idea what a snicker doodle is. Sounds a bit rude! But regardless they are fabulous. Thanks.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies! That means a lot to me! 🙂 I have no idea where snickerdoodles got their name… I wish I knew, but I haven’t found anything yet!
I made these today and they’re pretty effing good. Massing out the flour and sugar (1 C=198 g, btw) helps tremendously, I think. I did use dry lemon rind which I rehydrated before adding to the flour mixture. I sorta like to be punched in the face with lemon flavor when it comes to lemon cookies, and these don’t quite do the trick. However, don’t know that they’re meant to, and also the dried lemon rind is likely culprit.
I’m glad you enjoyed these cookies, Megan! I definitely agree that the dried lemon zest probably wouldn’t provide as much flavor as fresh. If you’re able to use fresh lemon zest, that should help! 🙂 (Also, I’m not quite sure what you mean about the grams though — both the flour and sugar weights are correct! 😉 )
This recipe looks delicious! Question though, is there a way to use lemon juice instead of lemon zest?
I have a meyer lemon tree, you see, and last lemon season I had more lemons than I could use or give away, so I juiced about two and a half gallons of juice from my extras, and froze the juice in ice cube trays. I didn’t think to zest the lemons and save the zest, so I’ll either need to go buy store lemons to make this recipe, or wait until my tree has ripe lemons again. That won’t be TOO long now, as the branches are heavy with green lemons already, but I’d been hoping to use up some of the juice before I had even more lemons to use!
Thanks!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe CC! Unfortunately, lemon juice would add too much liquid to these cookies, and that would give them a cakey or muffin-like texture, rather than chewy. However, I have plenty of other lemon recipes that do require lemon juice! You can find them here. I absolutely love using Meyer lemon juice to make my lemon bundt cake, lemon poppy seed muffins, and lemon zucchini muffins! (My parents have a Meyer lemon tree, and I always pick lemons from it whenever I visit!) I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try any of my other lemon recipes — or even these cookies!