Gluten Free Lemon Sugar Cookies are so easy to make, filled with the flavour of lemon zest, and topped with a wonderful lemon icing. They also freeze beautifully.
I love having some homemade cookies on hand during the week because they pack perfectly in lunch kits. If they are easy to make, and freeze well, that is a huge bonus! These Gluten Free Lemon Sugar Cookies are so easy to whip together, and since they are drop cookies, they take nearly no time to prepare and bake. Plus, they freeze great, even with the lemon icing on them. Once the icing has dried and hardened, place them in a container with waxed paper in between the layers of cookies. The next time you need a cookie or two (or three), they are ready to go!
One of my favourite kitchen “must have” items is my stainless steel cookie scoops. I love using my cookie scoops for making drop cookies, it really helps to make all the cookies the same size. I actually have three sizes that I use all the time. Definitely worth the investment for me.
Gluten Free Lemon Sugar Cookies
These Gluten Free Lemon Sugar Cookies are so easy to whip together, and since they are drop cookies, they take nearly no time to prepare and bake. Plus, they freeze great, even with the lemon icing on them. Once the icing has dried and hardened, place them in a container with waxed paper in between the layers of cookies.
Ingredients
- Lemon Sugar Cookies:
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- Zest of half a large lemon (about 1 teaspoon)
- 1 1/3 cup white rice flour
- 2/3 cup potato starch
- 2/3 cup tapioca starch
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners' (icing) sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- pinch of salt
- yellow colouring (optional)
Instructions
Lemon Sugar Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the sour cream, oil, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and lemon zest until smooth. Set aside.
- Place all the remaining dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- With the mixer running on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix on medium speed until completely blended.
- Scoop 2 teaspoons of dough on your baking sheet, leaving 2-inches between cookies to allow for them to expand while baking. Dampen your hands with a small amount of water and roll the scooped dough into a smooth ball. This will give your finished cookies a nice round shape.
- Bake cookies in preheated oven for 12-13 minutes, or until just slightly browned around the outside. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Only frost cookies when they are completely cooled. Store cookies in an airtight container.
Frosting:
- In a tall mixing bowl, beat all the ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Store in an airtight container until you are ready to frost the cookies.
Looking for more cookies? Download the FREE Gluten Free Cookies E-book.
Having some trouble with your cookies? Please read How to Correct Your Gluten Free Cookie Crisis.
Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Lucy says
Yummy! I too baked a whole lot of cookies… must have more! 😉
I love using the cookie scoop as well, the cookies all come out the same size. Recently I bought larger ice-cream scoops to scoop up muffin batter, always fills them the same amount no muss or fuss.
Have a great day, Jeanine! HUGS 🙂
Jeanine says
I have 2 larger cookie scoops as well, Lucy (well, 3 actually), and use them for muffins too. LOVE them! Can’t imagine using 2 tablespoons to do that anymore. 🙂
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
I love anything with lemon! These cookies look scrumptious!
Jeanine says
Thanks, Angie! I love lemon too, so good!
Dee says
Can I use coconut sugar in place of granulated sugar? I love lemon!
Jeanine says
I haven’t tried it, Dee, you’re welcome to try and let me know how it works!
Sarah says
Can I use the gluten free flour already mixed to substitute for the flours above?
Anna says
These cookies were awesome, seemed like I was eating my mom s lemon cookies (with gluten). Will be on my to make regularly list. Thank you
Bridy says
These cookies are amazing. Lemon has been my new favorite flavour and I had 1 lemon sitting waiting to be used.
I didn’t feel like getting messy today so I just used my 2tsp cookie scoop and plopped the dough on the cookie sheets. They cam out perfectly!
I think I will also try using fat free greek yogurt instead of sour cream next time, just to see how they turn out. Not that 1/4 cup of sour cream is a lot considering how many cookies this batch makes, but the less fat in my life the better haha
I am also curious as to how these would turn out cup for cup with wheat flour. These would be a great snack for school or a fundraiser and I usualy use wheat flour for stuff like that.
Jeanine says
So glad that you like them, Bridy, but I have no idea how you’d change them to wheat flour, sorry!
Stacy says
How much pre-mixed gf flour should i use? I added up all your ingredients for the home made flour mix but i ended up with dough that was too dry. Also the cookies didn’t spread much. I loosened the dough by adding a couple T’s of milk so that part worked out. The cookies are tasty, anyway. I used bob’s red mill 1-to-1 baking flour per their recommended weight per cup. It’s too much flour.
Jeanine Friesen says
By adding up the flour & starches, I’d use 2 2/3 cup “all purpose” gf flour, plus the 3 tablespoons cornstarch, and be sure to omit the xanthan gum if that blend has xnthan gum added already.
Lori says
Hello,
Many of the recipes have cornstarch. I can’t have corn. What do you suggest as a substitute? Thank you so much. I can’t wait to try all these cookies!!
Jeanine Friesen says
I would suggest trying to substitute arrowroot starch for the cornstarch.