Lemon Crinkle Cake Mix Cookies

These Lemon Crinkle Cake Mix Cookies are the easiest lemon cookies ever! You can turn them into lemon crinkle cookies or spread a lemon glaze on them whenever you need a change. They will become a hit in all versions.

If you love lemon flavored sweets, you might want to check out our lemon meltaway cookies and lemon jam too!

Love crinkle cookies? Well, who doesn’t? I’m sure most of you will agree that they have a bakery style look. Obviously, the most popular ones are chocolate crinkles and red velvet crinkles. But I think this lemon version deserves an equal demand and love, especially for those who are fan of lemony flavors.

Tell you what? There is a ridiculously easy way to make lemon crinkle cookies using cake mix. You can never go wrong with a box of cake mix even when making cookies.

Ingredients

Cake mixes are basically used to make cakes. However, this is not the only thing you can make with a box of cake mix. You can use it to make wonderful cookies without all the mess.

You need three basic ingredients for any cake mix cookie recipe:

• Box of cake mix
• Oil
• Eggs

The method is quite straightforward. Just combine the ingredients above and drop about a tablespoon of dough on a baking sheet and bake. Easy peasy, right?

So lemon crinkle cookies made with cake mix are no exception. Even a novice baker can easily make these.

Moreover, you can customize these lemon cake mix cookies with your favorite add-ins such as white chocolate chips or nuts.

How To Make

First, combine a box of lemon cake mix with oil, eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest in a bowl.

Second, make balls and put them in a bowl of powdered sugar. Make sure all sides are covered.

Third, place them on a baking sheet and bake at 375F /190C for 10 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer on a cooling rack.

Pro Tip: The dough is sticky, so it won’t be easy to shape it in balls at first. What you should do is to drop about a tablespoon of it in a bowl of powdered sugar, coat it well. You will see how it gets easier to form them in balls.

Can I Use Yellow Cake Mix?

Yes you can make this recipe using a box of yellow cake mix. There is one thing you should keep in mind though. Lemon juice and lemon zest might be optional if you are using a lemon cake mix while you shouldn’t skip these two if you are using a yellow cake mix. Otherwise, you won’t have the desired lemon flavor.

Can I Use Lemon Juice Instead Of Lemon Zest?

Well, we use both of them in this recipe. Lemon zest gives a stronger tangy flavor but you can use lemon juice only if you can’t find lemon zest. Oh and if you can’t find a fresh lemon (either for juice or zest), you can use lemon extract. About ½ teaspoon lemon extract should work fine for the desired tangy flavor.

How Do You Zest Without A Zester?

You can easily do it with a vegetable peeler but make sure you don’t cut the white parts, which are bitter. You don’t have a peeler? Use a knife. Cut the skin very thinly in strips. Without the White parts again. And then you can chop the skin finely to add into the cookie dough. Or you can even buy dry lemon zest in jar if you can find. It works fine too.

How To Make Them Look Perfect

There are two things to keep in mind:

1. For perfectly crinkled cookies, you can coat the cookie dough balls first with granulated sugar (regular sugar) and then with powdered sugar. Yet, I have never done that. Instead, I just sift extra powdered sugar over the cookies when they are still warm.
2. Don’t bake two sheets at the same time. If you place two racks in the oven at the same time, the heat doesn’t spread equally and the cookies in the second sheet will not end up with the desired crinkles.

Freezing

Roll the dough into balls and place them on a plate without coating them with powdered sugar. Freeze them until firm and keep in a freezer bag. When you are ready to use these, thaw them first and then roll into powder sugar and bake.

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