Lemon Meltaway Cookies
These Lemon Meltaway Cookies are sweet, zippy, lemon-infused sandwich cookies with a sweet lemon buttercream frosting sandwiched between buttery lemon sugar cookies.
These lemon meltaway cookies are bursting with flavor and taste so good! Best of all they are so simple to make.
Have you ever added lemon extract to sugar cookies? We do it all the time, and it’s delicious. However, we decided to take that lemony goodness a step further with these cookies. We love to make these buttery, lemon sugar cookies and stuff a generous dollop of lemon buttercream frosting between them to create the most delicious sandwich cookies you’ve ever had!
Table of contents
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It uses simple, basic baking ingredients that are easy to find.
- It’s sweet and full of zingy lemon flavor.
- The lemon-infused sugar cookies and buttercream frosting are the perfect combination.
🛒Ingredients
This recipe only uses a few simple baking ingredients that are either in your kitchen or a quick trip to the grocery store away.
All the ingredients are listed here but you can find their exact amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
For the Cookies
- Butter – softened
- Powdered sugar
- Lemon juice
- Lemon zest
- Flour
- Cornstarch
- Salt
For the Frosting
- Powdered sugar
- Butter – softened
- Lemon juice
- Lemon zest
🔪 How to Make Lemon Meltaways Cookies
Making these cookies is a snap. It only takes a few minutes and a few simple steps. Both the cookies and frosting are incredibly simple.
Step 1: Combine the Wet Ingredients
Cream the butter and powdered sugar together. Then, add the lemon juice and lemon zest and beat thoroughly.
Step 2: Combine the Dry Ingredients
Whisk the flour, cornstarch, and salt.
Step 3: Make the Cookie Dough
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
Step 4: Chill
Lay out a piece of plastic wrap and form a 1 to 2-inch diameter log in the center of the plastic wrap. Wrap the log tightly and chill for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Step 5: Bake
Remove the log from the refrigerator and slice it into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Bake for 12 minutes.
Step 6: Cool
Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Step 7: Make the Frosting
Beat the powdered sugar, butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a bowl until smooth and creamy.
Step 8: Make the Sandwich Cookies
Turn half the cookies upside down and add a layer of frosting with a piping bag or a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off. Then, top the frosted cookies with the remaining cookies. Enjoy!
📝Variations
Do you want to change up this recipe and make it your own? Here are some ways that you can do that!
- Omit the lemon and make plain sugar cookie sandwich cookies.
- Add other extracts to make sandwich cookie flavors like mint, lemon, coconut, and more.
- Roll the edges of the cookies in sprinkles to coat the frosting for a festive look.
If you love sandwich cookies, we think you’ll enjoy our strawberry shortcake sandwich cookies.
🥄 Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowls
- Wire cooling rack
- Piping bag or Ziploc bag
🥫 Storage
Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. For longer storage, wrap the cookies in plastic wrap and freeze them in an airtight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bag for up to a month.
Serve With
Serve these cookies with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea. These are also a great addition to a larger dessert table at parties or gatherings with your other favorite sweet treats like cookies, cupcakes, bars, and pies.
💭 Tips
- To make things easier and cut down on mess, use a piping bag to frost the cookies.
- Wrap the cookie dough tightly to ensure the dough long retains its circular shape while it chills.
- You MUST chill this cookie dough before baking it to ensure the proper rise.
⁉️ FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
Some cookie doughs with a particularly high butter content require chilling. This keeps the cookies from flattening out too much as the butter melts.
If your cookies are frosted with buttercream, there’s no need to refrigerate them. The large amount of sugar in the frosting makes the butter shelf stable for up to 3 days.
While most food benefits from being refrigerated, cookies are perfectly fine at room temperature. In fact, refrigerating cookies dries them out.
🍽 More Recipes
Do you enjoy lemon? Then try these delicious recipes:
🧾Recipe Card
Want to make this recipe? Print the recipe card below, or pin this recipe, so you can find it later.
Lemon Meltaway Cookies
Equipment
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- mixing bowls
- Wire cooling rack
- piping bag or ziploc bag
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup + 2 tablespoons butter softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 ¼ cup flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the frosting:
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter softened
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Cream the butter and powdered sugar together. Add in the lemon juice and lemon zest and beat to thoroughly incorporate.
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour and cornstarch and salt together. Add it to the butter mixture and mix.
- Stretch out a piece of plastic wrap and scoop the dough into a log shape in the center of the wrap. Roll it up into a log about 1-2” in diameter and place into the refrigerator to chill for about 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Once chilled, remove and slice into thin pieces, about ¼” thick and place on a baking tray.
- Bake for 12 minutes. Place on a cooling rack to thoroughly come to room temperature before adding the filling.
- To make the filling, place the powdered sugar, butter, lemon juice and zest into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the frosting is smooth and creamy.
- For ease of filling, place into a frosting bag with any tip of choice.
- Turn the cookies over and pipe a swirl of frosting into the center of the cookie, staying just a little bit away from the edge as the frosting will be pushed out when the top cookie is placed on to create the sandwich.
- Repeat with all the cookies until you have them all matched.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
