These lemon ricotta cookies are rolled in granulated sugar and powdered sugar before baking to help the surface crack as the cookies bake to make the prettiest lemon crinkle cookies ever!
Who doesn't love crackle cookies? Typically, we see chocolate crackle cookies (or maybe you call them chocolate crinkle cookies) and molasses crinkle cookies, but I was intrigued by this lemon crackle cookie recipe version, made with ricotta in the cookie dough.
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Ingredients
- butter—use unsalted butter. If you prefer to bake with salted butter, make sure to add less salt or omit the salt.
- sugar—you will need both granulated and icing sugar (also called powdered sugar). I don't recommend brown sugar because the molasses flavour may interfere with the delicate lemon flavour.
- eggs—bake with large eggs (they weigh 56 grams with the shell on) to ensure the dough and cookies have the right texture.
- ricotta cheese—I used full-fat traditional ricotta cheese.
- lemons—you will need at least 2 lemons to get enough zest and juice. Do not use bottled lemon juice because the flavour isn't as bright or fresh and the cookies will be bland.
- vanilla—I always bake with pure vanilla extract
- flour—this recipe was tested with bleached all-purpose flour. Unbleached flour will likely work too.
- salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt. If you are using table salt, add half the amount.
- leavening—you will need baking soda and baking powder so that the cookies spread out, rise up, and crack on the surface.
Please refer to the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
Note about baking with ricotta cheese: If you notice the ricotta has a lot of water pooling in the container, consider straining some of it off to avoid adding too much liquid to the cookie dough.
Substitutions and Variations
- Yellow-coloured cookies: some people will add yellow food colouring (a few dabs of yellow gel or a few drops of yellow liquid food colour, for example) to create a more yellow cookie dough and enhance the contrast between the yellow cookie and the white cracked sugar crust. I didn't do that so my cookies are paler.
- Bolder flavour: make these cookies with fresh lemon juice, not bottled. If you'd like to enhance the lemon flavour, consider adding lemon extract, lemon oil or lemon emulsion to the dough. A little goes a long way with these so use them sparingly!
- Orange: if you'd like orange crinkle cookies, replace the lemon zest with orange zest and the lemon juice with orange juice. Use orange juice from concentrate from the grocery store because the flavour is bolder and more potent and will yield more flavour when mixed into a cookie dough.
- Ricotta: I've tested making these cookies with traditional and low-fat ricotta. Both worked well so feel free to use either! Just make sure to invest in a good quality ricotta that you like eating so that these cookies taste as good as they look!
How to Make Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Step 1: Before making the cookie dough, whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (image 1) and zest and juice the lemons (image 2). Use a microplane to make a fine zest.
Step 2: Cream together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (image 3). Beat in the egg first (image 4), then the ricotta cheese (image 5), and then the lemon juice and vanilla (image 6).
Step 3: Add the dry ingredients (image 7)and stir them in to form a thick but sticky lemon cookie dough (image 8). Cover and chill the dough for 2 hours to make it easier to handle before scooping it with a 1-⅓ ounce disher, rolling each scoop in granulated sugar and then coating in a thick layer of icing sugar (image 9).
Step 4: Space out sugar-coated lemon ricotta cookie dough scoops on a parchment paper-lined half-sheet pan. I put 6 per sheet pan to give them space to expand and allow airflow. Bake them until they have cracked and set (image 11).
Trick for Better Cracked Effect on Crinkle Cookies
These lemon ricotta cookies are coated generously with lots of icing sugar (powdered sugar) before baking to give them a gorgeous crackle finish to them. To improve the crackle finish, roll the cookie dough scoops in granulated sugar first before coating them in powdered sugar. This is a trick that I picked up from America's Test Kitchen, and it definitely works well in this recipe. The granulated sugar:
- absorbs some of the moisture on the surface of the cookie preventing the powdered sugar from dissolving and disappearing.
- helps dry out the surface since it absorbs some of the moisture. The dryer surface of the cookie dough is more prone to cracking in the oven.
The combination of granulated sugar and icing sugar on the surface of the cookie means you get a perfect crackle finish on your cookies every time!
Tip: For a more pronounced cracked sugar coating, make sure to create a thick powdered sugar coating or you can even roll the balls of cookie dough twice in icing sugar to ensure a thicker crust that will crack better.
Crinkle Cookie FAQs
When the surface of a cookie dries before the cookie dough has finished expanding, it will crack. Three things contribute to the crackled effect of crinkle cookies: the sugar coating that dries the surface of the cookie dough, chilling the dough to slow the spread and expansion means the surface dries out first, the baking powder reaction is delayed and happens after the edges and crust have set.
If you find that your crinkle cookies are too thick and don't spread, it could be that your oven temperature is too hot, the dough may not contain enough baking soda or sugar, or you may have mismeasured the dry ingredients. Use a kitchen scale to ensure that your ingredients are properly measured.
Double coating the scoops of cookie dough in icing sugar, or better yet, rolling the scoops of dough in granulated sugar before icing sugar prevents the icing sugar from melting on crinkle cookies.
This recipe was not developed with lemon cake mix. You would have to do quite a few tests to replace some of the ingredients with a cake mix.
Other Crinkle Cookie Recipes
Crinkle cookies are so impressive, and everybody loves to eat them! Here are a few other recipes to try next:
If you tried this recipe for lemon crinkle cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 1.25 mL baking powder
- 1.25 mL baking soda
- 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 250 grams granulated sugar
- 22.5 mL finely grated lemon zest
- 1 large egg(s)
- 180 mL ricotta cheese
- 60 mL fresh lemon juice
- 2.5 mL pure vanilla extract
- 100 grams granulated sugar for coating
- 63 grams icing sugar for coating
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add this dry mixture to the mixer bowl, and incorporate on low speed to form a soft dough.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until fluffy. Add the egg, ricotta, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla, one ingredient at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment. Place the icing sugar in a small bowl and the granulated sugar in another small bowl.
- Portion out dough into large scoops using a disher ( about 40–45 grams dough per cookie). Roll each scoop into a ball very quickly (dough is soft and sticky). Drop the ball into the bowl of granulated sugar, then roll it around to coat it completely. Transfer the ball to the bowl of icing sugar and roll it around to coat it. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing cookies about 1 ½ inches apart to allow for spread. Fit about 6 cookies per half-sheet pan.
- Bake cookies 1 sheet at a time until cracked and set (about 14–16 minutes per cookie). Let cool on pan 2 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely.
Notes
- Use fresh lemons for the zest and juice to create the brightest lemon flavour.
- You need about 2 lemons to get enough juice and zest for this recipe. Obviously, this depends on the lemons and the seasons. Use a microplane to make finer zest.
- For even more lemon flavour, you may try to use lemon extract, oil, or even lemon emulsion. Remember with these, a little goes a long way!
- I have tested this recipe with full-fat traditional ricotta and low fat. Both work.
- If the ricotta has a lot of water, consider straining some of it off before baking with it.
- The dough is sticky. Make sure to chill it for 2 hours and use a disher to portion out the dough more easily. Once you coat the scoops of cookie dough in granulated sugar, they will be easier to handle.
- For a brighter yellow cookie dough, use yellow food colouring (either a dab of a gel colour or a couple of drops of a liquid food colour).
- Space out the cookies on the half-sheet pans. I bake six cookies at a time to ensure they have enough airflow.
- Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.
Nutrition
Adapted from Canadian Living.
Shareba says
I love a good chocolate crinkle cookie, but these lemon ones look amazing too! I'll have to try these when I do my holiday baking later this week!