Enjoy bright lemon flavor for a refreshing sunny day treat with these delicious vegan lemon cookies! Topped with an optional (but highly recommended) vegan cream cheese frosting, these soft-baked cookies provide so much flavor and texture that it's impossible to eat just one. Gluten-free and refined sugar-free as well!
These bright, zesty and fresh springtime cookies are going to be on repeat all summer long at my house! Made with gluten-free flour and just a handful of ingredients, these healthy vegan lemon cookies are amazing when paired with a vegan cream cheese frosting. Serve them chilled for an extra-refreshing bite!
I think lemon lovers would agree with me that this is the season to add lemons to everything! Whether it's lemon blueberry muffins for breakfast, a creamy lemon smoothie for snack time or pasta al limone for dinner, there is never a bad time for fresh lemon flavor.
These vegan cookies not only feature lemon in the cookie dough, but also use fresh lemon zest and juice in the frosting. Two lemon desserts in one!
Ingredients for Vegan Lemon Cookies
This easy recipe uses simple ingredients that I always have on hand, making it super easy and convenient for whenever I'm craving them. They are basically vegan lemon sugar cookies but taken to another level when the frosting is added on top!
See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for quantities and full instructions.
- Almond flour - Make sure you're buying almond flour made from blanched almonds for the finest texture. Almonds make for a light and fluffy delicious base.
- Oat flour - I use oat flour all the time! Oats help bind your gluten-free baked goods and give that perfect cookie base flavor.
- Arrowroot Powder - Arrowroot, along with the oat flour, helps add vegan structure to these cookies while keeping them super fluffy.
- Melted coconut oil - Your coconut oil should be in liquid form, which will mix into the cookie dough smoothly. You can also substitute melted vegan butter.
- Pure maple syrup - This is my favorite way to naturally sweeten recipes. Pure maple has just one ingredient: the sap from maple trees! It brings a wonderfully subtle sweetness to recipes while keeping them free of refined sugar.
- Fresh lemons - Use the zest of two small lemons as well as two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. I use a microplane and a lemon squeezer to make this step as easy as possible!
- Baking essentials - Grab pure vanilla extract, salt and baking soda out of the pantry to mix into these soft lemon cookies.
- Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting - I frosted these with a chilled batch of this vegan frosting, which is the most incredible topping for a fresh and bright cookie like this one!
How to Make Vegan Lemon Cookies
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a half sheet baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, oat flour, arrowroot powder, salt and baking soda.
- Add the wet ingredients. Add melted coconut oil, maple syrup, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Stir well until combined and no clumps remain. You can use a hand mixer if desired.
- Form the cookies. Use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop and place the cookie dough balls on the parchment paper (making about 13 cookies). The cookies will expand slightly while they bake so be sure to space them out as much as possible.
- Bake for 8 minutes. Place the baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack.
- Allow cookies to cool. Remove from oven and allow to fully cool to room temperature before handling. I like to stick the entire cookie sheet in the freezer to speed up this process.
- Frost the cookies if desired (highly recommended). Once the cookies are fully cooled and have firmed up you can frost them. Top each cookie with my vegan cream cheese frosting. Use another lemon to add lemon zest overtop all the cookies.
- Enjoy! The frosting will start to soften at room temperature, so store frosted cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Gluten-Free Lemon Cookies
I keep these lemon cookies gluten-free by baking with a base of almond flour and oat flour. Look for super-fine almond flour from blanched almonds (not almond meal) for best results. Almonds are low in carbohydrates and high in protein with fiber, healthy fats, vitamin E, magnesium, iron and calcium.
Oat flour is also gluten-free, but make sure look for the certified gluten-free label when shopping at the grocery store as there could be cross contact during processing. You can actually make your own oat flour by pulsing oats in the food processor until they form a fine, flour-like consistency.
Find more gluten-free cookie recipes here!
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
I was recently able to perfect a vegan cream cheese frosting that is out of this world! I am seriously so excited about this one. It's made with cashews and canned coconut cream, and is naturally sweetened with maple syrup. The texture is smooth, thick and creamy, with a delicious cream cheese flavor! Sprinkle with a bit of lemon zest on top for a beautiful garnish.
All About Lemons
Springtime just calls for lemon! It tastes as bright and happy as it looks, and I love how it enhances other flavors as well. Lemons are low calorie, sodium-free and high in vitamin C.
In addition to containing immune boosting vitamin C, a medium-sized lemon provides 160 mg of potassium! Shop for lemons with firm, thin, and smooth skin that feel heavy for their size. You can store them in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
More lemon recipes I love:
These lemon cookies are vegan (no dairy or eggs!), gluten-free, soy-free and made without any refined sugar. They're a super allergen-friendly treat!
I hope you make them and tag me on Instagram so I can see your creations, and don't forget to drop a review below so I can hear more about the baking process as well!
More Vegan Cookie Recipes (all gluten-free)
Soft-Baked Vegan Lemon Cookies (Gluten-Free)
- Total Time: 18 minutes
- Yield: 13 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Enjoy bright lemon flavor for a refreshing sunny day treat with these delicious vegan lemon cookies! Topped with an optional (but highly recommended) vegan cream cheese frosting, these soft-baked cookies provide so much flavor and texture that it's impossible to eat just one. Gluten-free and refined sugar-free as well!
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups super fine almond flour from blanched almonds*
- ½ cup oat flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil (or sub melted vegan butter)
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 small lemons, zested
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from one small lemon)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Serve with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting and lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a half sheet baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, oat flour, arrowroot powder, salt and baking soda.
- Add the wet ingredients. Add melted coconut oil, maple syrup, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Stir well until combined and no clumps remain. You can use a hand mixer if desired.
- Form the cookies. Use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop and place the cookie dough balls on the parchment paper (making about 13 cookies). The cookies will expand slightly while they bake so be sure to space them out as much as possible.
- Bake for 8 minutes. Place the baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack.
- Allow cookies to cool. Remove from oven and allow to fully cool to room temperature before handling. I like to stick the entire cookie sheet in the freezer to speed up this process.
- Frost the cookies if desired (highly recommended). Once the cookies are fully cooled and have firmed up you can frost them. Top each cookie with my vegan cream cheese frosting. Use another lemon to add lemon zest overtop all the cookies.
- Enjoy! The frosting will start to soften at room temperature, so store frosted cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 8
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
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