Celebrate spring and warmer summer weather with these refreshing Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies. They bake up soft & chewy inside with a sugary crunch on the outside. If you love lemon, you'll love these zesty cookies that just pop with lemon flavor!
Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
This month's theme is Mother's Day cookies, celebrating our wonderful Moms and letting them know how much we appreciate them by making them a special treat. And what could be more special than using one of her favorite flavors. In my case, lemons! My Mom used to make the best desserts out of lemons like Lemon Meringue Pie, Lemon Pudding, Lemon Pound Cake, well the list goes on & on but you get the gist. So in her honor I decided to make a cookie that just pops with lemon flavor - lemon poppy seed cookies.
These cookies taste like sunshine in cookie form!
After perusing the internet for a good recipe, I chose a Martha Stewart recipe as that seemed to make the most use of fresh lemons and had the added punch of lemon zest on top. I know if you love lemon like my Mom and I do that you will love these cookies.
How to make Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
These cookies take just a little over 30 minutes start to finish. The hardest part, which isn't hard at all, is making the lemon butter. Just zest a few lemons, squeeze them for their delicious juice then make a little lemon butter. (which, by the way, is great on seafood dishes too).
- Cream the lemon butter with sugar.
- Add eggs, extract, dry ingredients then sprinkle in the poppy seeds.
- Scoop the dough into a ball then roll in lemon zested sugar.
- Press down with a glass and bake away.
They turn out soft & chewy with a nice crunch on the outside from the sugar. (brb - I've got to go sneak another cookie it sounded so good!) 🙂
Don't know what to make for Mother's Day for a special treat? Well, whatever you decide, serve her up some sparkling spring mimosas and be sure to check out all the goodies from my fellow bloggers below. I know you'll find something you like! In fact, you will probably be saying to yourself - which one should I make, I like them all!
Enjoy!
LEMON POPPY SEED COOKIES
Ingredients
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 3 ½ teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest, 2 to 3 lemons
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds + additional for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In a small saucepan, bring the lemon juice to a simmer and cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add ½ cup butter (1 stick) to lemon juice and stir until melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream the remaining butter with 1 cup sugar until light, about 3 minutes. Continue to beat while adding in egg and lemon butter and whip another 3 minutes. Mix in vanilla and lemon extracts and 2 teaspoons of zest.
- In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to lemon butter mixture, mixing at low speed until combined. Stir in poppy seeds.
- On a flat plate, mix together remaining ½ cup sugar with the rest of the lemon zest. Pinch large fingerfuls of zest into sugar until well mixed. This will help flavor the sugar more thoroughly.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop batter into 1-½? balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Set about 2? apart as they will spread slightly. Using a flat-bottomed glass, dip in lemon-sugar mixture then press cookie flat until it’s about ¼? thick. Sprinkle with additional poppy seeds.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes or until just starting to brown around edges. Cool on cookie sheets for about 2-4 minutes then remove to wire racks to finish cooling. Store in airtight container.
Notes
Nutrition
Love lemon too? Satisfy your craving with our Lemon Chia Protein Bars or Healthy Lemon Smoothie.
Mother’s Day is coming! And what better cookies to make than those either in honor of or for our mothers?
You can also use us as a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! Also, if you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:
- Classic Spritz Cookies from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
- Chocolate Chip Cookies (Baked) from Baking in Pyjamas
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies from 2 Cookin' Mamas
- Crystallized Ginger Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Candied Flower Shortbread Cookies from Live... Bake... Love...
- Oats and Nuts Cookies from Basic N Delicious
- Coconut cookies from Flours and frostings
- Brown Sugar Maple Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries from The Spiced Life
- Mint Chip Chocolate Cookies from A Baker's House
- Almond Crescents from A Shaggy Dough Story
- Rhubarb Sauce Cookies from Food Lust People Love
DON'T MISS A RECIPE!
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These cookies really are like a little bite of sunshine! So yummy!
Thanks! It's a great way to usher in spring!
Rolling these in the lemon sugar before baking really give these cookies an extra punch of flavor. Love them!
So glad you liked them. I love that extra pop of lemon flavor too!
I love lemon anything so these cookies would make me very happy. I haven't baked much with poppy seeds so this seems like the perfect recipe to break that habit.
If you're a lemon lover Felice you will love this recipe! I hadn't baked with poppy seeds in a while either but they are always a great addition.(and they did make the cookies look so much prettier :-))
LOL! I came to your latest post and... Then I walked into the kitchen to make my favorite lemon poppy seed cookies - BAH HA HA HA!!! SO FRIGGIN' GOOD! Thank you for inspiring me!
Always happy to inspire! Bet yours were delish!
I luuurve lemon cookies! This whole post looks like springtime with the gorgeous flowers. Can't wait to try these!
Thanks Karen! These cookies will definitely make it feel like spring. Love to know what you think if you try them.
These look SO GOOD (another lemon fiend here). Actually my mom is too, so maybe I can make them for her to make up for making her favorite cookie when she was not around lol. And you get brownie points for the fact that they are not rolled or sliced--they are so perfectly and evenly thin I though for sure you did!
Glad to find another lemon fiend. 🙂 You should definitely make them for your Mom. She'll love them!
Ah, a girl after my own heart! I love lemons and these cookies bring out their tart and bright flavors so well.
I really like that trick of pushing the cookies down with the bottom of a glass. I love when no fancy equipment is needed to make something special like this cookie.
I know what you mean! My kitchen is so small that I just can't fit too many gadgets so I try to make do with what I have on hand. Sometimes it works out being the best way.
lovely cookies. Have been wanting to bake the combination of poppy seeds and lemon for such a long time.
If you love lemon Mayuri you will love these! Hope you get to bake some up soon.
Sunshine in a cookie indeed ! The cookies look bright and refreshing!
They certainly seemed to make our day a little brighter with these for a treat!
I can just smell and taste these cookies now...love, love, love lemon and poppy seed!
They did smell wonderful when cooking - it was hard to wait until they cooled to try them (ahem, well actually they taste good warm too!) 🙂