Easy Lemon Cookies Recipe | Gimme Some Oven (2024)

FAQs

Which ingredient makes cookies moist and tender? ›

Eggs, particularly egg yolks. Eggs work to make your cookies soft in two ways: They add a ton of moisture, and the proteins add structure that prevents spreading. Cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. Low in protein and high in moisture, cake flour is used to leaven all sorts of baked goods.

Yellow cake mix will work in a pinch, but you'll need to use more lemon extract. Powdered Sugar – Granulated won't work here, but you can use it to make powdered sugar! Use a ratio of 1 tablespoon cornstarch for every 1 cup of granulated sugar.

For more even baking, position oven rack at the center of the oven and bake one sheet of cookies at a time. If you prefer to bake two sheets, space racks so oven is divided into thirds and switch cookie sheets top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking.

Griddle. You can whip up cookies in a jiff using a non-stick griddle. Heat your griddle to between medium-low and medium heat; if it's too hot, the outside of the cookie will burn before the inside has a chance to cook.

The lower the protein, the softer your cookies will be. All-purpose flour is a medium-protein flour, making for mediumly-soft cookies. Cake flour is low in protein and you can substitute it into cookie recipes for all-purpose flour 1:1. The results will be very tender cookies.

Add citrus. Sprinkle in lemon or orange zest to give your box cake batter a hint of zing. You can also replace the water with lemon, orange or lime juice or soda. Use this method with any type of cake mix, but it works best with lemon, yellow and white cake.

No matter what you're making, plan on using about 2 tablespoons citrus juice for every 1 teaspoon of lemon extract called for in the recipe. (If you're making a baked good, you may want to reduce the other liquids in the batter by a little less than 2 tablespoons to compensate.)

Ultimately, the scientific reason you should never bake cookies on a foil-lined baking sheet is simple: The parts of your cookie dough that come in direct contact with the foil are exposed to more concentrated heat than the rest of your cookies, thanks to aluminum's natural conductor properties.

Every oven setting has its own unique cooking and heating properties, which will have different effects on how a bake turns out. Conventional heating is great for cakes, while fan-assisted convection (specifically the mode in combination with conventional heating) is better suited for cookies, brownies and blondies.

Differences Between Convection and Conventional Ovens

In contrast, convection ovens have a fan that circulates hot air around the food, resulting in more even cooking and a faster cooking time. This fan also helps to reduce hot spots and promote browning, making it ideal for baking cookies.

Can you bake cookies without foil or parchment paper? ›

Summary: In a pinch, greasing your pans or baking molds can work in place of parchment paper. Be sure to coat your pans with a thin layer of flour for best results.

“To keep cookies soft, store them in an airtight container and not in a cookie jar,” Amanda recommends. “While cookie jars are cute, they usually don't have airtight lids.

Melted butter

When you melt the butter, water in the butter will dissolve the sugar, resulting in cookies that are tender and flat. In most cookie recipes, you are instructed to cream room-temperature butter and sugar together.

In the chemical reactions of baking, sugar bonds with water, retaining moisture as well as preventing the formation of too much gluten, keeping your cakes tender instead of chewy. Sugar also helps your baked goods develop the golden brown color and crunchy edges that define many beloved desserts!

Brown Sugar

Adding moisture to your cookie dough can help make it softer and chewier, and stay soft for longer. That's why I use much more brown sugar than granulated sugar in this recipe. Learn how to DIY your own brown sugar and how to keep it soft in your pantry here.

To avoid this, try using as little flour as possible while preparing to roll your dough. Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.