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Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe

Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe

Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe: You will LOVE these gluten-free lemon crinkle cookies. They are soft, juicy, and buttery, and they smell and taste amazing, like lemons. They just melt in your mouth. They have a lot of lemon in them, both in the form of lemon peel and lemon juice.

Also, they’re really simple to make. I’ve put together all of my best tips for making them, such as how to get the best lemon flavor and the prettiest creak.

Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe

INGREDIENTS

  • 150 g (¾ cup) caster/superfine or granulated sugar
  • zest of 2 lemons (Ideally, use organic unwaxed lemons.)
  • 70 g (½ stick + 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm (You can also increase the amount of butter to 85g or ¾ stick, which will give cookies that are richer and more buttery. But they will also spread out more in the oven and will have wider cracks, so they might not be quite as pretty.)
  • ½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
  • 2 US large/UK medium eggs, room temperature
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
  • 240 g (2 cups) plain gluten free flour blend (I used Doves Farm Freee plain gluten free flour that doesn’t have any xanthan gum added. You can also mix your own gluten free flour blend using this recipe. Note that for this homemade blend, 1 cup = 150g, so ideally use a digital food scale for best results.)
  • ½ tsp xanthan gum (Omit if your gluten free flour blend already contains xanthan gum.)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 100 g (½ cup) granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies before baking
  • 90 g (¾ cup) powdered/icing sugar, for rolling the cookies before baking

INSTRUCTIONS

Making the cookie dough:

  • Rub the lemon zest into the sugar in a large bowl with your fingertips. This boosts zest essential oil release.
  • Whisk in melted butter and vanilla.
  • Add eggs and stir.
  • Add lemon juice and stir well.
  • Mix the gluten-free flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl and add to the wet ingredients.
  • Mix until smooth, batter-like cookie dough using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.

    Tip: At this stage, the cookie dough will really be more like a batter – very soft and sticky, bordering on runny. That’s how it should be. Don’t add more flour!

  • Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours before proceeding to the next step. You can also keep it in the fridge overnight if you want to bake the cookies the next day.

    Tip: In addition to firming up the cookie dough into something you can actually handle and shape into balls, chilling also ensures that the cookies won’t melt into puddles during baking.

Shaping & coating the cookies:

  • Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.

    Tip: You will bake the cookies in several batches, so you can line 2 baking sheets if you have them on hand. Otherwise, just re-use the same baking sheet, but make sure to cool it completely before you place the next batch of unbaked cookies onto it.

  • Shape about 1 tablespoon (about 17g) portions of the chilled cookie dough into balls. You should get 30-32 cookies in total.
Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Tip 1: The cookie dough will be still slightly soft and sticky, even after it’s been thoroughly chilled. I like to scoop portions of the cookie dough with a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon that I’ve dipped in a bit of powdered/icing sugar beforehand. This prevents the cookie dough from sticking to the spoon and makes the whole process easier and faster.

Tip 2: If the cookie dough sticks to your hands as you go to roll it into a ball, you can lightly dust your hands with a bit of powdered/icing sugar as well. This will prevent sticking.

  • Roll each ball first in granulated sugar and then in powdered/icing sugar until it’s fully coated.

    Tip: Rolling the cookies in granulated sugar first results in the prettiest cookies, with a lovely white coating of powdered sugar that cracks to give a beautiful random pattern.

Baking:

  • On prepared baking sheets, place cookie dough balls at least 1 ½-2 inches (4-5cm) apart. The cookies will expand somewhat when baked.Store the baking sheet with unbaked cookies in the fridge until required.
  • Bake cookies on one sheet at 350ºF (180ºC) for 8-10 minutes until they balloon out and develop cracks in their sugar covering. Cracks should no longer be moist or glossy to finish cookies.
  • Cookies are soft and delicate right out of the oven. After 10 minutes on the baking sheet, move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Storage:

  • Gluten-free lemon crinkle cookies last a week in an airtight jar in a cool, dry area. They’re excellent a few days after baking.
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