As a kid, I loved Lemonheads candy. That sour, face-puckering lemony taste with the burst of sugar was my kind of treat. That’s also why one of my favorite holiday cookies was my Aunt Ruth’s lemony sugar cookies. Like my honey cookies, her sugar cookies were soft and moist—and quite unlike the typical crunchy sugar cookies everyone else’s mom was baking.
These days, I rarely eat candy, but I do still love a burst of citrus in my desserts. That’s why I decided to revisit Aunt Ruth’s recipe and give it some updates in addition to modifying the recipe to make Low FODMAP gluten-free lemon cookies.
Low FODMAP Gluten-free Lemon Cookie Drop Cookie Variation
The dough is quite sticky when first combined, but after an hour in the refrigerator, it’s sturdy enough to stand up to being rolled out and cut out with cookie cutters. I like to top the rolled out cookies with a lemon royal icing and hand-tinted sugar.
Most frequently, however, I keep my low FODMAP gluten-free lemon cookies a lot simpler. You can take a large cookie scoop and scoop out the dough and slightly flatten it on the baking sheet to create small round cookies that are perfectly topped with a lemon glaze.
Regardless of which approach you take with my low FODMAP gluten-free lemon cookies, I promise they will deliver a nice lemon and spice punch.
Store cookies in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
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Pin the recipe for later, and let me know how they turn out!
Low FODMAP Gluten-free Lemon Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter Bring butter to room temperature and cut into chunks
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 zest of one lemon
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup lactose free whole milk
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Penzey's cake spice Can substitute all spice or nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Cup for Cup gluten-free flour
Lemon Glaze
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 zest of one lemon
- 2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a measuring cup, combine milk and lemon juice.
- Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer. Add vanilla and eggs and mix well to combine.
- Add lemon juice and milk mixture, cake spice, and lemon zest to the mixing bowl and mix until just combined.
- Add flour, baking soda, and baking powder and mix until you have a soft, sticky dough.
- Scrape dough into a Ziploc or other food storage bag and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Either roll out dough to a 1/2 inch thickness and cut out with cookie cutters or drop dough from a cookie scoop and slightly flatten with your hand.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until slightly browned. Cool on wirre racks before decorating.
Glaze
- Combine glaze ingredients in a glass or other non-reactive bowl and whisk together by hand until you have a glaze that coats the back of a spoon. Add more lemon juice or powdered sugar as needed to get your glaze to your preferred consistency.
- Place wax paper under the cookie racks. Spoon lemon glaze over each cookie and let glaze set before putting cookies into air-tight containers.
This looks so good! What a great way to still enjoy a treat while sticking to the good stuff!
And they are so much fun to decorate, but can also be made as drop cookies if I’m not in the creative mood. I love their flexibility.
Thanks for sharing! DO they keep long?
I keep them in an air-tight container in the fridge, and have had them stay fresh for up to a week. You can always add a slice of (gluten-free) white bread to the package to freshen them up too if needed.