Cake Mix Lemon Cookies

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5 from 1 vote

Super soft, tons of lemon, and easy to make. These lemon cookies are a must try!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Diet Vegetarian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 24

Chilling time 8

Total Time 8 29

Servings cookies

Calories 135kcal

Author Tracy

Equipment

mixing bowls
Baking trays
silicone baking mats or parchment paper
cooling rack

Ingredients

1 batch Copycat Boxed Yellow Cake Mix or store bought 13.25 oz yellow cake mix box
1/3 cup unsalted butter melted
2 eggs whisked. See recipe notes if using store bought cake mix
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
pinch salt

Instructions

Create Dough: Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix well.
Chill Dough: Cover the bowl and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hr and up to 2 days. For the best results, chill overnight, or at least 6 hrs. *If using store-bought cake mix, 1 hr is plenty.
Preheat Oven: Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 350℉ and line baking trays with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Add confectioner's sugar to a shallow, wide bowl.
Shape Cookies: Remove dough from the fridge. Shape about 2 tablespoons of dough in your hand into a ball, but then continue to shape it into more of a cylindrical shape so that they're a bit taller than wide.
Coat with Sugar: Roll the dough in the confectioner's sugar and then place on a lined baking tray, 2 inches apart, and with the cylindrical shape up so they're just a little bit taller than wider.
Bake: Add tray to the middle rack and bake for 12-13 minutes.
Cool: Remove from oven and let cool on the baking tray for 1-2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Enjoy!

Notes

Storage

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days or in the fridge for 7-10 days or the freezer for up to 3 months.

Make Ahead

Make our Copycat Boxed Yellow Cake Mix ahead and store in your pantry!

Fridge: Mix the dough and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days before rolling out the dough and baking.

Freezer: Chill the dough for only about 30-60 minutes so that it's not as sticky and easier to work with. Then roll out the dough, but don't coat them in sugar. Flash freeze on a baking tray for 1 hr in the freezer and then store in a plastic bag or another freezer-safe container. Before baking, let the dough balls defrost 30-60 minutes at room temperature before rolling in confectioner's sugar and baking.

Substitutions

Cake Mix: Use a store-bought yellow cake mix in place of our homemade mix. If using, use only one egg and you need to chill for only 1 hr to reduce the spread. Chilling longer is fine and will make the dough easier to work with, but after about 1 hr of chilling the amount of spreading the cookies won't change.

Almond Extract: Vanilla extract will also work.

Nutrition