These lemon ginger cookies are made with crystallized ginger, a little ground ginger and allspice, plus plenty of lemon zest. Citrus and spice make a balanced and refreshing duo, especially if you’re craving a lemon cookie with more depth of flavor. Each cookie is soft and chewy in the centers with irresistibly crisp edges. Lemon glaze adds a finishing touch.
I didn’t think I’d love a lemon cookie quite as much as I loved these. Ginger’s spicy heat and lemon’s bright flavor complement each other so well. It’s like the perfect marriage that fits so many seasons of the year, but if you ask me, the sparkly crystallized ginger and lemon glaze on top seems especially fitting on a holiday cookie platter.
Tell Me About These Lemon Ginger Cookies
- Flavor: Can we call these spa cookies? The aroma and flavor reminded me of sipping warm tea with cucumbers on my eyes at a tranquil spa. In reality, we have a pleasantly spiced and zippy lemon cookie on our (probably unmanicured) hands.
- Texture: I appreciated the texture just as much as the flavor. The cookies are very soft and chewy in the centers with crisp edges. Unlike lemon crinkle cookies and lemon thumbprint cookies, which both remain soft and puffy, this version browns nicely around the edges which cools to a slight crunch. (Likely the switch to baking soda and addition of lemon juice and crystallized ginger, more on that below.)
- Ease: Preparing this cookie dough is pretty uneventful. Sure, the excitement for lemon cookies is always thrilling but the process is standard. Besides a mixer, there’s no special tools or equipment involved.
- Time: After you make the dough, roll into balls as best you can, then chill them for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Between making the cookie dough, rolling, chilling, and baking, this recipe takes around 2 hours total.
Are You Familiar with Crystallized Ginger?
Crystallized ginger is a key ingredient in this cookie recipe, though you could certainly leave it out if needed or desired. (See recipe note.) You can find it at most grocery stores—it’s usually in the produce aisle but could also be found in the natural foods section or even by the dried fruit. Crystallized ginger is peeled and cut fresh ginger root that’s been cooked in simple syrup and dried out. Each little chunk has a crunchy sugar coating with a soft and chewy center, similar to a gumdrop candy. I love using crystallized ginger in baking for that unexpected sweet-yet-spicy flavor, like in these chocolate ginger cookies and this ginger pear galette.
- You need 1/4 cup very finely minced crystallized ginger. It’s potent, so we’ll use only 2 Tablespoons in the dough. Each cookie dough ball will take a light dip into the rest.
Have you tried my drop sugar cookies before? This recipe is adapted from it. In my recipe testing, I added lemon zest, lemon juice, and the spices. Since I added liquid (lemon juice), I increased the flour. The cookies tasted like little lemon cakes. They were very tasty, but I wanted more of that chewy-crisp texture. Since we now have lemon (an acid) in the dough, I swapped baking powder for a smaller amount of baking soda. The edges browned and crisped beautifully. I appreciate the detailed, yet easy-to-understand way Serious Eats explains things: baking soda raises a cookie dough’s pH, creating an alkaline dough.
Renowned pastry chef Stella Parks tells us:
Baking: a delicious science.
Overview: How to Make Lemon Ginger Cookies
The full written recipe is below, but let me walk you through a couple things before you get started. You need 11 ingredients for these lemon ginger cookies: flour, baking soda, ground ginger, ground allspice, salt, butter, sugar, egg, lemon, vanilla extract, and crystallized ginger. The combination of ground ginger and allspice gave these a pleasant spice flavor. Allspice is a common spice found in the spice aisle—it tastes like a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. It’s excellent in many baking recipes, like my favorite apple pie. See recipe note if you don’t have it or can’t find it.
Like I mentioned above, preparing the cookie dough is easy. Proper room temperature butter is imperative and chilling the cookie dough is another non-negotiable. These lemon cookies are very buttery and the colder the cookie dough, the less they’ll over-spread. The cookie dough can get a little hard after time in the refrigerator, so I recommend rolling the dough into balls before chilling.
After the cookies cool, drizzle with a little lemon glaze. The lemon glaze sets, so these “spa cookies” 😉 are easily stackable, packable, and convenient to travel, transfer, gift, etc!
Lemon Ginger Cookies Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, ginger, allspice, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 1 minute. Add the egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Beat in 2 Tablespoons of chopped crystallized ginger. Dough will be thick and sticky. Scoop small sections of dough (about 1 scant Tablespoon of dough each) and roll into balls. Very lightly dip the tops of each into remaining crystallized ginger. (You don’t want too much—just a few pieces.) Place dough balls onto a large plate or lined baking sheet.
- Cover and chill the cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (and up to 4 days).
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Arrange chilled cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Whisk the glaze ingredients together. If desired, add more confectioners’ sugar to thicken or more juice to thin out. The thicker the glaze, the whiter (and less translucent) it will be. Drizzle on cooled cookies. Icing will set after about 1 hour, so these are convenient to store and transport.
- Cookies without glaze stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. Cookies with glaze stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
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