Do you love cookies but want to eat healthier? We have a solution for you. These healthy lemon cookies..... or healthier anyway, are soft, chewy and bursting with lemony flavor. They are frosted with a lemon cream cheese frosting to take them to the next level of deliciousness.
Is your sweet tooth craving soft and chewy lemon cookies? This easy lemon cookie recipe is just that. Plus they have a lemon cheesecake frosting on top.
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This delicious lemon cookie recipe is like a cross between a sugar cookie and a chocolate chip cookie (without the chocolate chips).
These cookies are healthier because they are made with whole wheat flour. This recipe is a great way to add more whole grains to your diet while still enjoying a sweet treat.
What's Cool About This Recipe
- 100% Whole Grain: Most healthy lemon cookies are made with almond flour or coconut flour but ours are made with whole wheat flour so they are the closest to a traditional cookie but with way more nutrition and a slightly nutty flavor.
- Lots of lemon flavor: There is lemon in the cookies and in the frosting to really make the lemon flavor come through.
Baking with Whole Wheat Flour Resources
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Butter: You can use salted or unsalted
- Organic brown sugar: If you don’t have brown sugar then you can substitute an equal amount of organic granulated sugar mixed with a touch of molasses (about ½ teaspoon).
- Organic granulated sugar: We like using granulated raw cane sugar like this one from florida crystals
- Egg: Just a large chicken egg
- Fresh lemon juice: Fresh lemon juice is going to give you the best lemon flavor.
- Lemon zest: Adding lemon zest will help give the cookies that bold lemon flavor.
- Vanilla extract: Can you even make cookies without vanilla?
- Whole white wheat flour: We usually use fresh milled flour from hard white wheat but any high quality store bought white whole wheat flour will work well.
- Baking soda: This helps the cookies spread out and get that golden brown crisp around the edges.
- Salt: This is very necessary if you are using unsalted butter, if you’re using salted butter you can leave it out or still add it in.
- Frosting Ingredients:
- Cream cheese: You’ll want to use full fat brick style cream cheese.
- Organic granulated sugar: You can use powdered sugar here if you want.
- Fresh lemon juice: Fresh lemon juice has the very best flavor. We do not recommend using lemon extract.
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract helps soften the lemon flavor a bit.
- Heavy cream: This makes the frosting extra silky and also makes the granulated sugar dissolve.
See recipe card for quantities.
Equipment
Stand mixer or hand mixer
1½ tablespoon cookie scoop
Variations
You could trade the cream cheese frosting for a lemon glaze.
How to make healthy lemon cookies
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit with the rack on the top middle position.
In a large mixing bowl beat the butter until smooth, add the sugars and beat until well combined. Add the egg and beat until fluffy and creamy colored. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract, beat until combined (the mixture might separate but this is fine).
In a small bowl stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix just until combined.
Tip: If you want perfect cookies then do a test bake (bake one cookie). If it spreads too much then add 1-2 tablespoons more flour. If you don’t want to do a test bake then you can poke your finger in the dough, when you pull it out then it should slightly stick to your finger, if your finger is coated with dough add 1-2 tablespoons more flour.
Make dough balls with 1½ tablespoons of dough, place 1½-2 inches apart on an ungreased or parchment lined baking tray.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the cookies are set in the middle and slightly golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool on the tray for 1-2 minutes before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting
In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth, add the sugar and vanilla extract, slowly pour in the lemon juice while beating, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat until smooth. Then repeat with the heavy cream. Beat until smooth and thickened.
Frost onto the cooled cookies, store in the refrigerator and serve chilled.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve for a light lemon summer dessert.
- Take to potlucks.
- Hoard the whole batch and eat them all yourself. LOL, just kidding.
Tips From Our Kitchen
These cookies are best served chilled.
FAQ
Place cookie dough balls onto a cookie sheet, they can be close together but not touching. Freeze for a couple hours or until they are firm. Place the cookie dough into a resealable plastic bag. Freeze for up to 3-4 months.
You can bake directly from frozen or let the dough thaw. If baking from frozen then add 1-2 minutes to the baking time that the recipe states.
After the cookies have cooled completely, wrap individual cookies in plastic wrap or place the cookies in a resealable plastic bag and freeze for up to 3-4 months. If you are freezing the cookies with frosting on top then place the cookies onto a baking tray and freeze until the frosting is hardened then proceed as stated above. Remove from the plastic and thaw covered in the refrigerator.
Place the frosting in a freezer safe airtight container or bag. Freeze for up to 3-4 months. Thaw in the refrigerator.
Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
Whole Wheat Lemon Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- Stand mixer or electric hand beater
Ingredients
Lemon Cookies
- ½ cup Butter slightly softened
- ½ cup Organic granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup Organic brown sugar
- 1 large Egg
- 2 tablespoons Fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Fresh lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups Whole white wheat flour hard white wheat
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon Sea salt
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz Full fat cream cheese slightly softened
- 3 tablespoons Organic granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon Fresh lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons Heavy cream
Instructions
- Beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until combined.½ cup Butter, ½ cup Organic granulated sugar, ⅓ cup Organic brown sugar
- Add the egg and beat until fluffy and lightened in color. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract, beat until combined (the mixture might separate but this is fine).1 large Egg, 2 tablespoons Fresh lemon juice, 1 tablespoon Fresh lemon zest, ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- In a small mixing bowl stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix just until combined. Do a test bake (bake one cookie). If it spreads too much then add 1-2 tablespoons more flour. If you don’t want to do a test bake then you can poke your finger in the dough, when you pull it out then it should just slightly stick to your finger.1¾ cups Whole white wheat flour, ½ teaspoon Baking soda, ¼ teaspoon Sea salt
- Scoop the dough by 1½ tablespoons onto a baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the cookies are set in the middle and slightly golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool on the tray for 1-2 minutes before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting
- In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth, add the sugar and vanilla extract, slowly pour in the lemon juice while beating, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat until smooth. Then repeat with the heavy cream. Beat until smooth and thickened.4 oz Full fat cream cheese, 3 tablespoons Organic granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon Fresh lemon juice, 3 tablespoons Heavy cream
- Frost onto the cooled cookies, store in the refrigerator. These cookies are best served chilled.
Nutrition
We calculate these nutritional facts using an estimate and they can vary drastically between ingredients used and measuring technique. So, they are not intended for medical use.
Esme Slabbert
Great will have to try this for our next family baking session.
I visited you via The Country Cook. My entries are Tim-Tam and Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream (No Churn!) and Delicious Homemade Garlic Naan Bread.
You can join the Seniorsalon Pit Stop at https://esmesalon.com/tag/seniorsalonpitstop/