I can’t believe Easter is just a few days away, and I still haven’t shared the recipe for these delicious Easter cookies, especially since I already shared my swirled Easter cake, and these have a similar swirled frosting look! I’ve been using swirled frosting for rainbow cupcakes (even shared a tip on how to make swirl frosting in this Instagram video) for a long time, and it’s the perfect addition to these soft lemon cookies to give them a nice Easter color! And if there’s anything more Eastery than lots of pastel colors, I don’t know what (other than maybe Easter egg hunts or Peeps – try these chocolate covered peeps!). Anyway, these cookies. You can make them either ginormous or you can make them like regular size cookies, either way tastes great. Just know that I did large cookies for the photos in this post because they’re just a little more fun than the small guys.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Great flavor – unlike regular sugar cookies that just taste like sugar, these have a slight lemon flavor that just amps up the sweetness to the perfect amount without being overly sweet. They’re a little bit like these citrus sugar cookies. Chewy – these cookies are designed to be soft and chewy on the inside while still having some nice texture on the outside of the cookies. It’s the perfect texture when combined with the creamy frosting on top! Colorful – if you’re looking for colorful cookies, you’ve come to the right recipe. The colorful swirl frosting on top complements the slight yellow tint of these cookies wonderfully and really gives you that Easter feeling!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Butter – make sure you are using unsalted butter that’s nice and soft. I like to take it out the night before ideally but if not, at least an hour before. If you only have salted butter, drop the 1/2 tsp of salt in the recipe down to 1/4. Lemon juice – I highly recommend using fresh lemon juice for this but if you don’t have fresh lemons, you can always use bottled lemon juice in a pinch. The fresh juice just has such a brighter and more refreshing flavor. You’ll use half the juice from the lemon for the cookie dough and the other half for the frosting.
How to Make Easter Cookies
These cookies are pretty easy to make, similar to a typical cream cheese sugar cookie recipe!
1 – Make the Lemon Cookie Dough
Start by combining the softened butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream together until it is light and fluffy. Next, add in the egg, vanilla extract, and lemon juice and mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl, then add it to the wet ingredients. Mix just enough to combine the wet and dry ingredients. The dough will be very crumbly. Take the dough and divide it into 6 equal portions for ginormous cookies or into smaller portions (12 or 18) for smaller cookies. Gently form a ball with each portion. Do not knead or handle the dough too much, just roll it quickly into a ball. Place the dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2″ apart then place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.
2 – Bake the Easter Cookies
About ten minutes before your cookie dough is done chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F. Bake the cookies directly on the rack you chilled them on for 15 – 18 minutes (for large cookies, 10-12 minutes for smaller cookies), or until the edges just start to brown slightly. The cookies may crack slightly while cooking and that’s totally okay! Also, if the balls don’t flatten out during the baking process, gently press on them when you remove them from the oven to give them a bit flatter look. After you remove the cookies from the oven, allow them to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
3 – Make the Swirl Frosting
While cookies are cooling, make the buttercream and get your swirled frosting ready to go. Start by beating the butter until it is light and fluffy (typically 3-4 minutes) then add in the lemon juice and mix to combine. Slowly add the powdered sugar a little at a time until it is well combined and the buttercream is the consistency you want. You are looking for a thicker frosting that you can pipe out of a piping bag (not spreadable). If your frosting is too thick, add another tablespoon of lemon juice and mix again. Divide the buttercream into 3 or 4 separate bowls and add a drop or two of you choice of food coloring to each bowl. Mix until color is consistent throughout frosting. Add a little of each color to the inside sides of a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip. Add each of the colors on a separate side of the bag so that they’re all lined up next to each other – not like one closer to the tip than the others. Pipe the buttercream around the top of each cookie, starting on the outside and moving into the center, similar to if you were frosting these lemon cupcakes. Top the frosting with Easter sprinkles! Serve immediately or place them in an airtight container and serve when you’re ready.
Expert Tips
Refrigerate the cookies for up to five days. Refrigerating them is the only way to keep them chewy – they’ll get dry if you leave them out at room temperature. Freeze the lemon cookies before frosting for up to three months in a freezer safe zipper top bag. Use a gallon size zipper tog bag with the corner cut off to pipe the frosting if you don’t have a piping bag and round piping tip. You could also just spread the buttercream on with a knife, but it won’t look nearly as pretty without the swirled frosting. Make sure when you’re pushing the frosting down toward the piping tip that you’re pushing all sides to create that pretty swirled effect rather than one color, another color, and so on. Also be careful not to mix it all together too much or you’ll just end up with one color of frosting that’s not pretty.
More Easy Easter Recipes
Easter egg cake – this gorgeous showstopping Easter cake combines white cake, pastel color buttercream, and a hidden surprise inside! Strawberry fluff – a yummy dessert salad that’s the perfect Easter side dish! Easter bunny cupcakes – light and fluffy Easter cupcakes topped with marshmallow bunny ears!Peanut butter eggs – a homemade version of the classic Reese’s Easter favorite!Carrot cake – a delicious layered carrot cake topped with a homemade cinnamon frosting!Easter trifle – this fun and colorful dessert is the perfect way to finish your Easter meal!
