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Frosted Lemon Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

written by Ashley Fehr

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4.54 from 52 votes
Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 24 cookies

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Last updated on March 22, 2021

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These Lemon Sour Cream Sugar Cookies are soft, moist and loaded with lemon! There’s no chilling or rolling — just stir, drop, bake and frost (if you want to!). Perfect for Easter or Christmas baking. Includes how to recipe video

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long image of lemon sour cream cookies overhead on blue plate with lemon slices

So I stumbled upon the recipe for these Sour Cream Sugar Cookies in the cookbook my Grandma made for me last fall.

I never would have guessed how popular it would become! The problem is, some people loved it and some people hated it.

The issue was that those who didn’t like the recipe really didn’t know what to expect — the cookies are soft and cakey. They are not sugar cookies for rolling or cutting, and they’re pretty delicate.

close up of lemon sour cream cookies with lemon frosting on blue plate

So I’m back again with another variation, obviously. Bring on the haters! 😉

I wanted to try leaving out some of the moisture this time to get a slightly firmer cookie. These cookies are still very soft, and cakey, and delicious. If you’re looking for a firm sugar cookie — this recipe is not it. But they melt in your mouth and will be gone in no time!

I also wanted to add lemon because we love lemon. We love it big time.

square image of lemon frosted sour cream cookies with lemon slices on blue plate

With Easter coming up, my mind always goes to fresh, Springy flavors and potluck foods. Easter is a bit of a wildcard here in Manitoba — it can be cold, it can be really cold, or it can be pretty warm. You never really know what you’re going to get!

Regardless of what the temperature is, I am always so ready for Spring. The winter is long and cold and snowy and blowy and we are all anticipating blue skies and green grasses. Bring on the fresh, fruity treats! (And swimsuit-friendly meals… )

I would love to hear what your favorite Spring meals or treats are! Smoothies, popsicles, fruit salads, Easter meals? I’m itching for some fresh inspiration!

If you haven’t yet, be sure to join my Facebook group to stay up to date on new recipes and take part in polls and surveys to help me pick the best recipes to show you here!

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Frosted Lemon Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

written by Ashley Fehr

4.54 from 52 votes
These Lemon Sour Cream Sugar Cookies are soft, moist and loaded with lemon! There’s no chilling or rolling — just stir, drop, bake and frost (if you want to!). Perfect for Easter or Christmas baking.
Review
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Cuisine American
Course Dessert
Servings 24 cookies
Calories 269cal

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter room temperature
  • 2 cups granulated sugar approx. 400g
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup sour cream I use 5%
  • zest of 2 lemons
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice (1 lemon)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour about 575g

Frosting:

  • 1/4 cup butter room temperature
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered icing sugar
  • juice of 2 lemons*
  • yellow food coloring optional

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 4 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
  • Add eggs, sour cream, lemon zest, and lemon juice and beat until combined.
  • Add the baking soda, baking powder and flour and beat just until combined. Dough will be the consistency of thick cake batter — it is quite sticky and soft.
  • Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets (I get 6 on a regular baking sheet — my cookies are large!), trying to make drops as round as possible. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until no longer glistening in the center. Cool completely.
  • FrostingWith an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and just enough lemon juice to make a smooth, thick frosting (you can add a teaspoon of milk if it is too thick). Color with yellow food coloring if desired.
  • When cookies are completely cool, spread with an even layer of frosting and serve.

Notes

*I use the juice of 2 lemons and no milk and the frosting has a strong lemon flavor — if you prefer less zing, use the juice of 1 lemon and just enough milk to reach desired consistency.
**My cookies are very large. You can definitely make smaller cookies and the recipe will yield more, you will just want to decrease the baking time.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 269cal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 89mg | Potassium: 92mg | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 245IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 1.3mg

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Meet Ashley

My name is Ashley Fehr and I love creating easy meals my family loves. I also like to do things my way, which means improvising and breaking the rules when necessary. Here you will find creative twists on old favorites and some of my favorite family recipes, passed down from generations!

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Comments

  1. Giovanna says

    My husband just made these and for some reason they came out like thick cake. I went over the recipe to see if he had missed something and he followed it correctly. I noticed they call for an awful large amount of flour? Even the dough itself was quite sticky. Any thoughts on what could’ve happened? So disappointed bc I had to buy a lot of the ingredients and was so excited about these since I love lemon!

    Reply

    • Giovanna says

      Sorry, after reading some of the other comments below; I realized they are supposed to be cake-like. And they taste very good with the icing! I just was expecting a regular sugar lemon cookie consistency.

      Reply

      • Ashley Fehr says

        Yes, and please, please read the post thoroughly. Many times I reference the type of cookie you should be expecting, and I say that if you are expecting a regular sugar cookie that this is not the recipe. I write all those words for a reason! I’m glad they tasted good!

  6. Madison says

    These are really good half of the batch turned out perfect. I’m not sure why the other half was undercooked I cook them for longer than it said. The only thing I wish is that I bought some frosting for the, because the frosting it says to make is just a glaze, and he’s kind of big sugar cookies need a lot of frosting and not just a glaze. I’ve tried everything and it tells me to do to make it thicker online but nothing’s working so far. What should I do? For next time.

    Reply

    • Ashley Fehr says

      Hi Madison! I am honestly not really sure what happened to the half of your cookies. It could be a lot of things. Did you bake one pan on the top and one of the bottom? Was the oven door left open too long and the temperature was lower? Because all ovens vary so greatly it’s really important to go by the look than the exact baking time. If they look done on top, they are done. They are a moist cookie, so they may look moist inside. The frosting is definitely pretty thick, so it sounds like your butter may have been too soft or your measurements might be off slightly. Next time, I would just be sure to add the juice gradually until your desired thickness. If you do find it ends up too thin, the only thing you can really do is to add more powdered sugar. I hope that helps!

      Reply

      • Madison says

        Thank you I believe now it was just thinking 2 lemons worth of juice that made it so thin. I remade what u had left and eye balled some measurements and it’s great now. I’m gonna refresh them now. Thank you 🙂

      • jo says

        Do you adjust the recipe for fresh lemon peel vs. dehydrated lemon peel or store bought spice? If so, what are the adjustments?

    • Jake Brown says

      Use powdered sugar instead of sugar and when you are finishing the frosting keep gradually sturring in powdered sugar until it reaches the consistency you desire.

      Reply

    • Patricia merica says

      Madison, mine turned out the same as a glaze, after some research, the recipe says powdered icing sugar which is different then plain powdered sugar, the difference is they add cornstarch, so the glaze I had I added some cornstarch til it got thick enough and worked much better, just keep tasting it because my cornstarch was old and it started to get a cornstarch taste, so I added a little bit more lemon and powered sugar. Next time I will buy a new cornstarch and try it

      Reply

      • Ashley Fehr says

        Powdered icing sugar is actually exactly the same as powdered sugar — there is only one, at least where I live. If it was too thin, then just use a little less juice or more sugar. I don’t recommend adding corn starch.

      • Patricia says

        Ok, somewhere I read about that but next time I will try to just add a little bit of liquid at a time. Also do you know the nutrition value how many calories per cookie?

      • Ashley Fehr says

        I don’t usually calculate nutrition information for desserts, since they’re always going to be a splurge (unless I label something as lightened up or healthier). You can plug the ingredients into My Fitness Pal to figure it out if you want.

  7. Madison greb says

    Could I use lemon juice I buy from a store? I never can squeeze a lemon well enough to produce a lot of juice.

    Reply

    • Ashley Fehr says

      You can definitely substitute the juice in the recipe for store bought lemon juice, but the zest is really what’s going to give you all the punchy lemon flavor so I would try not to skip out on that part! If you find one of those lemon juicers, that’s what I use and they come in super handy and get tons of juice out!

      Reply

    • Regina M D says

      Put your lemons in the microwave ( one st a time) for about 20 seconds and they will yield more juice

      Reply

  8. Beth says

    Just finishing up baking a batch of these and they are delicious! Perfect little pillows of lemony goodness! These will be made often in our house…

    Reply

  9. Carole says

    There has to be one of us out here to ask this question; of course.
    What are the chances of these still being “cakey” soft and delicious…with
    Gluten Free Flour? I think I can already see what you answer may be to this one!!

    Reply

      • Erin L says

        I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 (the blue label, not red) and they did well, though they didn’t spread a lot so you can put quite a few on one tray, I used a medium pampered chef 2 Tbsp cookie scoop and they ended up 2.25 diameter little humps.

  11. LeAnn Doeden says

    Can you leave the zest out and use lemon juice instead of lemons? How much juice would you use instead of lemons?

    Reply

    • Ashley Fehr says

      I actually wouldn’t recommend it. Lemon juice is more acidic than zest and will change the whole cookie. It also has way less lemon flavor, so you’d have to add a ton of it which would also change the cookie a lot. If you don’t have access to fresh lemons, you could leave it out, and add some vanilla extract or try adding lemon extract instead. I hope that helps!

      Reply

  13. JoAnne says

    These look absolutely lovely. We also, for Spring, like strawberries dipped in sour cream and brown sugar. Everybody loves them

    Reply

    • Ashley Fehr says

      Thanks JoAnne! It’s funny, my family used to mix cream and brown sugar to dip one of our pastries in, it was totally indulgent but we loved it whenever we could get our hands on it!

      Reply

  14. Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says

    Sugar cookies are my FAVORITE! My Aunt has a great recipe that I need to get from her, and it’s the cakey kind too…pretty much my version of a perfect sugar cookie. Love the lemon frosting on here, perfect for spring!

    Reply

  20. Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen says

    I’m ALL about a cakey sugar cookie! Especially when it’s frosted and lemon-y :). These sound wonderful and so perfect for spring!

    Reply

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