Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies
You’ll love these AMAZING gluten free lemon crinkle cookies. They’re moist, buttery and delicate, with an incredible, fragrant lemon flavour and they simply melt in your mouth. They’re packed with lemon – both in the form of lemon zest and lemon juice. They’re also incredibly easy to make. Here, I’ve included all my top tips for making them, including how to get the best lemon flavour and how to get the prettiest crinkle.
Servings 30 cookies
Ingredients
- 150 g (¾ cup) caster/superfine or granulated sugar
- zest of 2 lemons (Ideally, use organic unwaxed lemons.)
- 70 g (½ stick + 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm (You can also increase the amount of butter to 85g or ¾ stick, which will give cookies that are richer and more buttery. But they will also spread out more in the oven and will have wider cracks, so they might not be quite as pretty.)
- ½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- 2 US large/UK medium eggs, room temperature
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- 240 g (2 cups) plain gluten free flour blend (I used Doves Farm Freee plain gluten free flour that doesn't have any xanthan gum added. You can also mix your own gluten free flour blend using this recipe. Note that for this homemade blend, 1 cup = 150g, so ideally use a digital food scale for best results.)
- ½ tsp xanthan gum (Omit if your gluten free flour blend already contains xanthan gum.)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 100 g (½ cup) granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies before baking
- 90 g (¾ cup) powdered/icing sugar, for rolling the cookies before baking
Instructions
Making the cookie dough:
- Add the sugar and lemon zest to a large bowl, and use your fingertips to rub the zest into the sugar. This helps to release more essential oils from the zest.
- Add the melted butter and vanilla, and whisk until combined.
- Add the eggs and whisk well.
- Add the lemon juice and whisk until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt, and add them to the wet ingredients.
- Mix with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula until you get a smooth, batter-like cookie dough.Tip: At this stage, the cookie dough will really be more like a batter – very soft and sticky, bordering on runny. That's how it should be. Don't add more flour!
- Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours before proceeding to the next step. You can also keep it in the fridge overnight if you want to bake the cookies the next day.Tip: In addition to firming up the cookie dough into something you can actually handle and shape into balls, chilling also ensures that the cookies won’t melt into puddles during baking.
Shaping & coating the cookies:
- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.Tip: You will bake the cookies in several batches, so you can line 2 baking sheets if you have them on hand. Otherwise, just re-use the same baking sheet, but make sure to cool it completely before you place the next batch of unbaked cookies onto it.
- Shape about 1 tablespoon (about 17g) portions of the chilled cookie dough into balls. You should get 30-32 cookies in total.Tip 1: The cookie dough will be still slightly soft and sticky, even after it's been thoroughly chilled. I like to scoop portions of the cookie dough with a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon that I've dipped in a bit of powdered/icing sugar beforehand. This prevents the cookie dough from sticking to the spoon and makes the whole process easier and faster.Tip 2: If the cookie dough sticks to your hands as you go to roll it into a ball, you can lightly dust your hands with a bit of powdered/icing sugar as well. This will prevent sticking.
- Roll each ball first in granulated sugar and then in powdered/icing sugar until it's fully coated.Tip: Rolling the cookies in granulated sugar first results in the prettiest cookies, with a lovely white coating of powdered sugar that cracks to give a beautiful random pattern.
Baking:
- Place the cookie dough balls on the lined baking sheets, at least 1 ½-2 inches (4-5cm) apart. The cookies will spread and expand slightly during baking.Place the baking sheet with the cookies that you won't be baking straight away in the fridge until needed.
- Bake one baking sheet at a time at 350ºF (180ºC) for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies have risen and expanded into little rounded mounds with cracks in their sugar coating. The cookies are done when the cracks no longer look wet or shiny.
- The cookies will be very soft and delicate immediately out of the oven. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Storage:
- The gluten free lemon crinkle cookies keep well in an airtight container in a cool dry place for about 1 week. They're best a few days after baking.