These Lemon Sandwich Cookies are made with two soft and chewy lemon cookies and a lemon cream cheese frosting filling. They are easy to make without any refrigerating, rolling dough, cookie cutting, or any fuss.
I love lemon desserts so much that I have a whole series of Lemon Cookie Recipes: from Lemon Curd Cookies to these fancy looking Lemon Meringue Pie Cookies, or these easy Lemon Blueberry Cookies.
For hot summer days, I love this Lemon Curd Ice Cream inspired by a local ice cream shop at a nearby farm, in the spring I gravitate toward Raspberry Lemon Loaf and Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake.
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💡 Recipe Development: Why Crunchy Sandwich Cookies Don’t Work
When developing this recipe, I made several variations to determine if it is better to have a crunchy or a soft and chewy sandwich cookie.
Despite my best efforts and many batches, it’s nearly impossible to recreate the crunch and satisfaction of a store-bought crunchy sandwich-style cookie (think Golden Oreos, or Trader Joe’s Joe-Joe’s). There is so much that happens in that manufacturing process that just can’t be replicated at home (not reasonably).
Rather than a crunchy cookie recipe that’s overly complicated and not really that satisfying, these cookies are designed to be sweet, lemony, chewy, and soft. They’re simple with a bright, but not overpowering lemon flavor that works perfectly with a slightly tart cream cheese frosting filling.
🌟 Why You’ll Love These Cookies
Soft and Chewy: These cookies are soft and chewy, and so good you can eat them on their own without any filling.
Easy: The cookies take 20 minutes to whip up, and not much more to beat the ingredients together for the filling and assemble. Super simple.
Layers of Lemon: The cookies use lemon extract for lemon flavor (I’ve tried lemon juice/zest but lemon extract is much more effective), while the frosting has the subtle but bright taste of real lemon zest and juice.
🛒 Ingredients
Below are the ingredients needed to make both the Lemon Cookies:
Lemon Cookies:
- Butter: I use salted butter softened to a cool room temperature.
- Sugar: Use granulated sugar.
- Egg & Egg Yolk: Use large eggs, pasture-raised if possible. The extra egg yolk adds richness and a subtle yellow color.
- Lemon Extract: I’ve tried dozens of times to make lemon cookies with only lemon zest and juice, but it’s just not practical (you’d need a ton of lemon zest) nor as effective (lemon juice affects the wet-dry ingredient ratio) as using lemon extract.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: For leavening.
- Salt: To balance and bring out flavor.
- Flour: Use all-purpose unbleached flour.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Cream Cheese: Use full-fat cream cheese bars, softened to room temperature.
- Butter: I use salted butter, also softened to room temperature
- Powdered Sugar: For sweetening the frosting.
- Lemon Zest and Juice: Zest the lemon first, then use ½ tablespoon of the juice from the lemon.
- Lemon Extract (optional): If you want extra lemony flavor in the cream cheese, add ½ teaspoon of lemon extract. If you add too much lemon juice to the cream cheese frosting, it will become too soft, so adding lemon extract is a way to add more flavor without adding too much liquid content.
To learn more about these cookie ingredients, see my Guide to Cookie Ingredients.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
📝 How to Make Lemon Sandwich Cookies
Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make Lemon Sandwich Cookies, including making the lemon cookies, the filling, and assembling the sandwich cookies.
*Note: The recipe card with instructions, ingredient list, and quantities is included further below these step-by-step photos.
Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Step 1. Combine the Butter and Sugar: In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar either by hand, with a hand mixer, or with a stand mixer.
Step 2. Add the Egg, Egg Yolk, and Lemon Extract: to the mixing bowl and combine.
Step 3. Add the Dry Ingredients: Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour and combine.
Step 5. Bake the Cookies: Use just over a tablespoon worth of dough to shape into a round ball and place on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350°F for 8 minutes. The cookies should not brown.
Tip: These cookies are designed to be on the smaller side at just over 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. This helps them to keep the overall size of the sandwich cookie manageable since each sandwich cookie is two lemon cookies and the filling.
Rolling the dough into a ball gives the cookies a nice round shape when baked.
Troubleshooting: If the cookies look too thin or flat add 1-2 tablespoons of flour to the cookie dough.
Step 5. Make the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: In a large mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract (if using).
Step 6. Assemble the Cookies: Add the cream cheese frosting to a piping bag fitted with a star tip, or to a quart-sized freezer bag with the tip slightly cut off. Pipe the frosting onto the backside of one of the cookies. Then sandwich the frosting with a second cookie.
Or keep it super simple and use a knife to spread the frosting on the cookie before sandwiching it with a second cookie.
🍋 Lemon Sugar
If you'd like to add an extra special touch to these cookies you can roll the dough in lemon sugar before baking. To do so add ⅓ a cup of granulated sugar and the zest of 1 lemon to a small bowl. Scrunch the sugar and lemon zest together until the sugar becomes fragrant and the lemon zest is well distributed.
Then roll the cookie dough in the sugar and place on a baking sheet to bake.
✏️ Lemon Sandwich Cookie FAQs
These cookies are best assembled on the day of serving, however, you can make both the cookie dough and the frosting in advance. Then bake the cookies and assemble them the day of.
Use just over 1 tablespoon worth of dough for each cookie and roll them into a round ball between the palms of your hand. This will help the cookie to have a uniform size and shape.
If the lemon cream cheese frosting is soft, refrigerate the frosting or the entire sandwich cookies before serving. When slightly chilled the frosting should be fairly firm.
Store the cookies in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge. They last up to 3 days.
If You're Interested in More Lemon Desserts, You May Love These:
If you've tried these Lemon Sandwich Cookies or any other recipe on my site, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. I'd love to hear from you!
Lemon Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
Lemon Cookies
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tsps lemon extract
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour 360 grams
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 oz full fat cream cheese 2 standard bars
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract optional
Instructions
Lemon Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the softened butter and granulated sugar.
- Add the egg, egg yolk, and lemon extract and combine.
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour and combine.
- Use 1 heaping tablespoon of cookie dough per cookie and shape it into a round ball. Place each cookie on the cookie sheet, 9-12 per sheet.
- Bake at 350°F for 8 minutes. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes before removing the cookies to a cookie drying rack.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl combine the softened cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice. If you want a stronger lemon taste you can add ½ teaspoon of lemon extract.
Assembling the Cookies
- Once the cookies have fully cooled, use a pastry bag fitted with a star pastry tip (you can also use a sturdy Ziploc bag with the tip cut off) and fill it with the lemon cream cheese filling. Pipe the filling onto the bottom of a cookie, then use a second cookie to create a sandwich.Or keep it super simple and use a knife to spread the filling.
Notes
- Cookie Size: These cookies are designed to be on the smaller side at just over 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. This helps them to keep the overall size of the sandwich cookie manageable since each sandwich cookie is two lemon cookies and the filling.
- Rolling the dough into a ball gives the cookies a nice round shape when baked.
- Troubleshooting: If the cookies look too thin or flat add 1-2 tablespoons of flour to the cookie dough.
- Lemon Sugar: If you'd like to add an extra special touch to these cookies you can roll the dough in lemon sugar before baking. To do so add ⅓ a cup of granulated sugar and the zest of 1 lemon to a small bowl. Scrunch the sugar and lemon zest together until the sugar becomes fragrant and the lemon zest is well distributed. Then roll the cookie dough in the sugar and place on a baking sheet to bake.
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