Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
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Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies – an absolute favorite bake sale cookie for spring! Melt in your mouth cookies with a pop of fresh lemon essence.
Soft Cookies
Warm weather is officially here and I am officially celebrating. Take that, winter!
Cookies seem like an appropriate treat to usher in a season of sunshine, flowers, and picnics. Especially if the cookies are as light and airy as summer makes us feel.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
Today’s Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies are my new favorite cookie…
I know, I know. I’ve said that before.
However, these pillowy little drops of sunshine are so tender and vibrant, you can’t help but love them!
Lemon Poppy Seed
Our Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies are packed with lemon zest and poppy seeds for a tangy flavor that instantly makes you feel light-hearted.
Plus those Poppy Seeds give these cookies a wonderful pop of color!
Easy Lemon Cookies
These drop-style cookies take very little effort to prepare and retain their tender texture for days. They are a marvelous make-ahead for parties and weekend treats!
Just be sure not to over-bake the cookies.
The centers may look a little underbaked, yet the moment the edges are set and just barely showing color, take them out of the oven.
Poppy Seed Cookies
You’ll end up with heavenly Soft Lemony Poppy Seed Cookies that will make everyone feel like celebrating!
Perfect for summer or spring days when all you need is a fresh, sweet treat to brighten your day.
How To Make The Best Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
- Mix – The most important thing to remember to make soft pillowy cookies, is that you need to cream the butter and sugar together. That means you need to beat them together on high speed until the sugar crystals start to break down and the butter is extra fluffy. Do this before mixing in any other ingredients.
- Scoop – Measure the cookies out in equal portions. That way they bake evenly.
- Bake! – Don’t over-bake the cookies. Take the cookies out of the oven, when the edges are just barely golden brown, but the centers still look slightly under-baked. The centers will finish baking on the cookie sheets as the cookies cool.
See The Recipe Card Below For How To Make Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies.
Looking For More Pillowy Cookie Recipes?
- Elvis “Burning Love” Cookies
- Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cookies
- Freedom Cookies (Low Carb!)
- Fruity Pillow Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Best Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillow Cookies
- Almond Pillow Cookies from The Noshery
- Almond Pillow Cookies from Brown Eyed Baker
Soft Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds, plus extra for garnish
- 3-6 drops yellow food coloring, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, 3+ minutes. Scrape the bowl and beat in the egg, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, poppy seeds, and yellow food coloring. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add in the flour mixture. Scrape the bowl, then mix until well combined.
- Scoop the cookie dough onto the baking sheets in 1 1/2-tablespoon portions, two inches apart. Sprinkle the tops with extra poppy seeds. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden. Then cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes before moving.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
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Nutrition
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Made these delicious cookies today. They are so delicate and taste so good ! The whole batch disappeared in just a few hours. Thanks for this wonderful recipe.
these were amazing!! i followed it exactly and they actually came out fluffy. Last time i had cookies like this i had to use cream of tartar but the ratios were lovely. I’m saving this for all future lemon cookies. thank you soo much!!
Followed the recipe exactly. These were tender and delicious and I will definitely make them again!
Absolutely delicious. Highly recommend it. i added two 2 tablespoons extra lemon juice, because I like sourness to Balance out the sweetness. It worked just fine.
REALLY good cookies! Recipe and measurements are spot on. You can avoid the parchment paper if you have a good nonstick baking pan. I will definitely make them again!
I have always loved lemon poppy seed! Don’t waste your time making a single batch, they are that good!
These cookies are a favorite at our house. We’ve made them at least 5 times and entering who tries them gushes about how good they are.
Oh my oh my What a light and feathery delicious cookie. Just made a batch and this recipe will be a keeper. Thanks so much. 💞
So light and delicate…and we used 6 tbs of poppy seeds, not 2 tsp…and whipped it very well. Wonderful cookies!
I made these using oranges since I was out of lemons and they were diviiiine! Soft, pillowy and flavourful! Thank you for sharing!
This recipe was so good!! I love the ratios of all the ingredients, and the lemon is just enough to give the cookie a little pizzazz. I just subbed in gluten free flour, and it worked perfectly. Amazing recipe. Thank you so much :)
I adore these but I’d like to try a more crispy or crunchy version of this. As a novice baker I have no idea what to change to make these less soft and a bit more crunchy. Can anyone give some advice on how to do that if possible?
Hi Priss, These are amazing cookies, but I would prefer something with a little more crunchiness / crispiness to it. Will bake longer next time.
Gorgeous! I halved the recipe and it was perfect (used 1 medium egg instead of trying to halve a large one!). Beautiful and better as I used the poppy seeds I harvested from my garden poppies!
These cookies are so good!! Perfect texture and flavor!
I want to make these for a baby shower! I was curious could I premade the dough and leave in fridge over a day or two then bake them on day of shower? Not sure if texture would change? Great recipe!!!
Hi Lisa,
Sure, you can make the dough and either refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Happy Baking! :)
Yummy! I used only a 1/2c butter and 1/4c shortening instead of a full cup of butter. I also added about 1 T more lemon juice. They turned out great and were gobbled up quickly by my 6 kids!
I made these gluten free with no other substitutions, except a little more lemon than vanilla extract. They are fabulous!
I made
This recipe is excellent
These were amazing! They taste heavenly and they are so soft! Bakers, the dough is very creamy, but they turn out amazing!
Superb cookies. Soft and chewy.
So light, fluffy, and full of flavor! I only had 1 lemon, so used 1tsp of lemon extract, and they were delicious cookies.
I absolutely love this recipe! The cookies are so soft and full of flavor. I also enjoyed that the cookies are not overly sweet. Just a wonderful cookie all the way around! Thank you for sharing.
This recipe deserves more than a 5 star! I made a batch…I put in more poppy seeds than the recipe calls for & probably made slightly bigger cookies & it the required about 13 mins to be absolutley perfect – slight crunch on the outside & soft & abit squishy in the middle (not gooy).
Im not usually big on cookies …but I could not resist eating 3 right off the bat – so light I could of eaten more, a serious test to my selfcontrol!! Later that evening when putting them away I snuck another one :)…seriously they are so good!
Made this today. 30 pcs using scooper #22
Family loved it. Thank you for the recipe.
This recipe is fantastic! My only problem is that the cookies are too dry! What did I do wrong? Or what can I do to make them more moist? Thanks!
Hi Dillon,
Is it possible you mismeasured the flour? When baking, remember to always stir (fluff) the flour, scoop or spoon the flour into measuring cups, then level the cups.
Hi! I know this was posted a while ago but it looks like you are still responding to comments :) Lemon is my favorite, especially in baked goods! So thank you for this recipe I can’t wait to make it! The one question I have is, can these be frozen? If so should I freeze them on dough form or cooked form? I am looking into halving the recipe but wouldn’t hate having these on hand. AND since I currently cannot share these with people (happy easter in quarantine!) I do not want to have too many sitting around for me to eat all week haha. Thank you in advance and I hope you are well and staying safe and healthy!
Hi Lindsey,
Yes, you can freeze either the cookie dough before baking, or freeze the cookies after baking. Just make sure to wrap them well to avoid freezer burn. You can freeze up to 3 months.
I think the metric Proportions are wrong. DO you really need 2.7kg of butter?
Hi Liam,
Sorry about that… Our recipe form calculates these automatically. I reset the metric column and it looks more accurate now. Thanks for pointing this out. :)
Sounds great. Will fix some for Family Easter Meal. Thank you for sharing!
Mary Jane
Yummy but too soft. 13 min and still very cake like. My hubby loves lemon🤗
Hi Josie,
It sounds like your oven runs on the cool side. Try placing a hanging oven thermometer in it so you can adjust the temperature accordingly.
These were delicious 😋 However I portion them out with a 1 1/2 Tablespoon scoop and only cake out with 22 cookies.
I REALLY want to make these for my boyfriend because these are his absolute favorite cookie!! The only problem is that he eats very little sugar. How can o make these sugar-free or with less sugar, and still have them taste amAzing??! Any suggestions? I’d love to surprise him!!!
Hi Cindy!
Wholesome makes a good sugar substitute that makes really well, called Zero.
Oh my God they are the best I was going to make lemon poppy seed muffins but I made these instead I used butter flavored crisco instead of butter the only complaint is we ate half of them already lol my husband loved them and he’s not a big lemon or cookie fan. ♡ thanks going to make them for Christmas
Wow! So so yummy and soft and believe it or not I used gluten free flour . Great recipe. It’s a keeper.
Since we love lemon poppy seed muffins at our house, I had to try these cookies! They were soft and wonderful!!!
Love them.
The BEST cookies I have made…friends and family raved and asked me to make a double batch next time! Perfect winter cookies…bright, sunny, lemon-y, soft and chewy…this is the only recipe I will make for Lemon Poppyseed Cookies from here on out!
One of the ingredients:
1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
Is there supposed to be parentheses in there?
Hi Colleen,
So sorry about that! We are in the middle of converting our recipes to a new user-friendly format, but there have been some glitches. We are working to find them all. Thanks for pointing this one out. All fixed!
I am trying this out right now. Here’s to hoping they turn out
These are now my sons favorite cookies. Whenever he is home from college I have to make a batch for him to take back with him. They are delicious!
Great recipe.
I’m a-gonna go home and bake a huge batch of these here cookies TONIGHT!
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I’ll be making these gluten-free……They sound great!! :-)
These look fantastic! I’m a huge fan of lemon desserts and baked goods. My peeps sometimes complain that I make things ‘too lemony’, as if such a thing were actually possible.
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Love this recipe!! Lemon poppyseed anything is a favorite of mine. A little bakery I used to work in as a kid had the best muffins, and I was lucky enough to get them right out of the oven!
Love the sound of these cookies!
These sound delicious (I LOVE lemon), but alas, I’m not a fan at all of soft cookies. Any way to make them so they’re crisp (or at least not soft in the center)?
Hi Mary,
What! No soft cookies? LOL! That’s ok. ;)
I wouldn’t bake these longer to make them crisp. Instead, I would add lemon zest and poppy seeds to a shortbread recipe like this one: http://www.aspicyperspective.com/shortbread-cookies-lemon-frosting/
Soft and fabulous!!
Such yummy and classic flavors!
Not yet
These are adorable for spring, and look perfectly moist and chewy! Yum!
Perfect cookies for spring!
These are so pretty! I love lemon and poppy seeds!
Could you half this recipe. Two of my mother’s favourite things are lemon and poppy seeds, but she is pre-diabetic so she’s trying to watch her sugar intake. If I could half this recipe, she wouldn’t be so mad at me for making them for her. lol
Hi Mabel,
Of course! However, I would probably make the whole batch and just freeze half the dough for later. :)
Is it better to freeze dough and cook later, or cook batch and freeze cookies?
Hi Carolyn,
I prefer to freeze dough and bake the cookies when needed. That way, they are fresh!
Such a fun cookie! I’m always a fan of lemon and poppy seed together and this is a great way to deliver it.