These lemon cookies are light and buttery and filled with a tangy raspberry buttercream frosting. They're the perfect spring cookie and they're super easy to make!! The simple lemon cookie dough can also be frozen for up to 3 months, so you can have cookies anytime!
You might also like these lemon lavender cookies or these raspberry linzer cookies!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients to make these lemon raspberry sandwich cookies!
Lemon Juice & Zest - I highly recommend using fresh lemons for the best flavor! But you can always substitute with a little bottled lemon juice if necessary.
Raspberries - You need fresh raspberries for the filling, frozen won't work as well. But you could sub a little bit of raspberry jam in lieu of fresh berries.
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Cutout Cookies
Add the softened butter and powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add in the egg, vanilla, and lemon zest and mix until fully incorporated.
Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined. The dough should come together into a ball but will feel dry. If the dough doesn't come together, you can add a teaspoon of milk or water at a time until it does.
Press the dough into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm (2 hours minimum but ideally overnight).
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick and cut into circles. Re-roll and cutout the scraps.
[I used the 2 ⅝ inch ruffled cookie cutter from this set, but you can use whatever shape cookie cutters you want!]
Place cutout lemon cookies 1-2 inches apart on your baking sheet (they won’t spread). Place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes (or the fridge for 40 minutes) before baking to allow the cookies to firm back up. This ensures the cookies won't spread during baking.
While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are set. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results. It usually takes 2-3 batches to bake all the cookies.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool completely before filling with the raspberry buttercream!
Tips for Perfect Cookies
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, crumbly cookies that don't spread.
Make sure your oven is the proper temperature! Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is exactly 350°F. If the oven is too cold, the cookies will spread too much and if it's too hot they centers won't bake all the way through. For example, my oven is about 20 degrees off. So I have to set the oven to 370°F in order to get it to bake at 350°F.
Use a lightweight, light colored baking sheet for best results! Believe it or not, a lighter pan makes the cookies bake more slowly than a dark pan, which helps keep them from spreading too much. My favorite pans for baking cookies are:
You also want to use either parchment paper or silicone mats on your cookie sheet to help keep the cookies from spreading.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, on the center rack. This will ensure all your cookies cook evenly and the bottoms don't burn. Then let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches. This ensures the cookies cook evenly and don't spread too much by being put on a hot pan.
Always under-bake the cookies! If you slightly under-bake the cookies (so the centers are still soft when you remove them from the oven), they'll stay soft and chewy for days!
Do the cookie scoot! In order to get perfectly round cookies, use a large cookie cutter to gently scoot them around as soon as they come out of the oven!
Recipe FAQ's
Chilling the cookie dough allows the flour to hydrate a bit and ensures the butter is super cold. This keeps your lemon cookies from spreading too much and completely flattening out.
You can store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Lemon Sandwich Cookies with Raspberry Buttercream
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Lemon Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Raspberry Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon raspberry puree, see notes
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
Lemon Cookies
- Add the softened butter and powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg, vanilla, and lemon zest and mix until fully incorporated.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined. The dough should come together into a ball but will feel dry. If the dough doesn't come together, you can add a teaspoon of milk or water at a time until it does.
- Press the dough into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm (1-2 hours minimum but up to 24 hours).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick and cut into circles. Re-roll and cutout the scraps.
- Place cutout cookies 1-2 inches apart on your baking sheet (they won’t spread). Place the baking sheet in the freezer for a minimum of 20 minutes (or the fridge for 40 minutes) before baking to allow the cookies to firm back up. This ensures the cookies won't spread during baking.
- While the cookies are chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are set. Bake on the middle rack of the oven and rotate the pan halfway through baking for the best results. It usually takes 2-3 batches to bake all the cookies.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool completely before assembling.
Raspberry Buttercream
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add in the raspberry puree and lemon juice. Beat the buttercream for 3-4 minutes on high speed until light and fluffy.
- Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe a small amount of filling into the center of a cookie and top with a second cookie. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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