These mini meltaway cookies are soft, buttery and light with lemon and cinnamon flavors. These are coated with powdered sugar yet not overly sweet. Easy to make with simple ingredients.
This meltaway cookie recipe is like the mini version of our most loved melting moment cookies with a lemon twist.
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Why We Like This Recipe
- These meltaway cookies are easy to make with little effort. You can even make them at the last minute.
- They are made with simple ingredients you already have in your pantry.
- They are egg-free. A great option for friends who have an eggless diet.
- Their mini size is great. They make around 70 mini cookies. So you can share or freeze some.
- They are soft and melt in your mouth.
- The lemon flavor gives a refreshing feeling.
- There is no baking powder in these meltaways cookies, so they don’t rise when baking. You can place as many cookies on a baking sheet as you like.
- They keep well for up to 2 weeks.
- They can be frozen before being baked.
These meltaway cookies already look cute with their itsy bitsy size on special occasions, but you can make them look even fancier with some colorful sprinkles. And if you use Christmas colors, they are perfect for cookie exchange or make perfect edible gifts! Pack your Christmas meltaway cookies in jars or fancy looking mini boxes and give them to whoever you like.
About The Ingredients
Flour: We use all purpose flour but a combination of all purpose and whole wheat flour works fine too.
Cornstarch: Also known as corn flour in the UK, corn starch is a key ingredient in this meltaways cookies recipe. The cookies are wonderfully soft thanks to cornstarch.
Powdered sugar: We need it both in the cookie dough and for coating. The amount in the dough is not much because we coat the meltaways with powdered sugar after they are baked. Other types of cookies like granulated sugar or brown sugar won’t give the same result. So use powdered sugar, also known as icing sugar.
Unsalted Butter: We use 1 cup butter for these mini melting butter cookies. Make sure it is softened at room temperature before combining it with the other ingredients. If you try to use it cold and hard, it won’t blend well and you can’t form a dough.
Fresh lemon zest: These are lemon melt away cookies, but you can leave the zest out if you want to. We highly recommend that you use it though because the flavor is even better with it.
Cinnamon: We just use ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. You can increase the amount or leave it out.
Alternative Add-Ins
Lemon juice: If you want even more lemony flavor in your lemon meltaways, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice in addition to lemon zest.
Nuts: You can add finely crumbled hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts or pecans. They all give a nice nutty flavor to your cookies. If you want that nutty flavor to stand out more, skip lemon zest. Just use this recipe as a base and create your own version.
Spices: You can create other versions of these meltaway butter cookies using spices like ground ginger and pumpkin pie spice.
Vanilla extract or almond extract: Either of these would be a good addition too.
How To Make
The recipe for these melt in your mouth cookies with cornstarch is straightforward. Just follow the steps below.
- In a large bowl, cream butter, lemon zest, cinnamon and powdered sugar. You can use a hand mixer or spatula for this. If you want, make the dough in a stand mixer.
- Now you can add the dry ingredients. First, add in cornstarch. Using a spatula, stir well.
- Combine flour with this mixture well until you get a soft dough.
- Using a teaspoon, scoop dough and make tiny balls. You can use a small cookie scoop too.
- Place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes or until their bottoms are slightly golden. Let them cool on the baking sheet. You don’t need to transfer them on a wire rack.
- When they are cooled, put some powdered sugar in a small bowl and roll the baked cookies into it.
- Alternatively, you can sprinkle colored sugar or sprinkles over the baked cookies. Read the tips about sprinkles below to learn more about this.
Expert Tips
- Make sure butter is softened. This is very important.
- You really don’t need to chill the dough, but if somehow you find it difficult to roll the dough into balls, chill it for 15-20 minutes.
- You don’t need to leave a lot of space between each dough ball on the baking sheet. As there is no baking powder in the dough, the cookies don’t rise when baking.
- The measurements here make about 7 dozen mini cookies. If you want, you can make your meltaway cookies bigger than these.
- Roll these meltaway shortbread cookies in powdered sugar after they are cooled.
- The powdered sugar on them might be absorbed as they sit in the container, it is normal. You can sift more powdered sugar on them if you want.
- To store: Keep these cookies in an airtight container or jars at room temperature for up to two weeks. If it is summer or the temperature is high in your place, put them in the refrigerator after one week.
- To freeze: You can freeze half of the meltaways if you want. To do this, roll dough in balls, place on a plate or baking sheet. Freeze them for 30 minutes and remove. Put them in a freezer bag and then keep them in the freezer. When you are ready to bake, either let them sit on the counter for 1 hour and bake as stated in the recipe or put directly in the oven and bake for about 3 minutes longer.
- To give a Christmas feeling on these meltaway cookies: We sometimes use colored sugar sprinkles. You can easily make your DIY colored sugar and simply sprinkle some on the cookies when you pack them in a box or jar.
- How to make sprinkles to completely stick on your melt away cookies: Whisk together two egg whites and ¼ teaspoon water. Let the cookies cool down completely and brush their tops with this mixture and coat with sprinkles immediately.
FAQs
They keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 10 days. Keep it in the refrigerator for up to a month and in the freezer for 3 months. We don’t recommend freezing them after baking though. It is better to freeze them before baking.
Yes you can. But you should use the bottom of a glass and gently flatten the cookie balls before baking. It will be easier to coat their top with icing then. And you won’t use powdered sugar to coat them for sure.
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📖 Recipe
Lemon Meltaway Cookies Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 250 g unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup powdered sugar to coat the cookies
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- In a large bowl, mix butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon until creamy.
- Add in cornstarch and mix them well.
- Add in flour and mix with a spatula until everything is combined.
- Use a teaspoon to scoop dough and make tiny balls. Place them on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until their bottom is slightly golden. Remove from the oven and let them cool in the baking sheet.
- Roll them into powdered sugar or sprinkles.
NOTES
- Make sure butter is softened. This is very important.
- You can add in 1-2 teaspoon lemon juice if you want to feel the lemon flavor even more.
- You really don’t need to chill the dough, but if somehow you find it difficult to roll the dough into balls, chill it for 15-20 minutes.
- You don’t need to leave a lot of space between each dough ball on the baking sheet. As there is no baking powder in the dough, the cookies don’t rise when baking.
- The measurements here make about 7 dozen mini cookies. If you want, you can make your meltaway cookies bigger than these.
- Roll these meltaway shortbread cookies in powdered sugar after they are cooled.
- The powdered sugar on them might be absorbed as they sit in the container, it is normal. You can sift more powdered sugar on them if you want.
- To store: Keep these cookies in an airtight container or jars at room temperature for up to two weeks. If it is summer or the temperature is high in your place, put them in the refrigerator after one week.
- To freeze: You can freeze half of the meltaways if you want. To do this, roll dough in balls, place on a plate or baking sheet. Freeze them for 30 minutes and remove. Put them in a freezer bag and then keep them in the freezer. When you are ready to bake, either let them sit on the counter for 1 hour and bake as stated in the recipe or put directly in the oven and bake for about 3 minutes longer.
- To give a Christmas feeling on these meltaway cookies: Simply sprinkle some on the cookies when you pack them in a box or jar.
- If you want the sprinkles to completely stick on your melt away cookies perfectly, use the following method: Whisk together two egg whites and ¼ teaspoon water. Let the cookies cool down completely and brush their tops with this mixture and coat with sprinkles immediately.
NUTRITION
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gill says
These are probably the easiest cookies I have ever made. Super yummy! I make them often so that we can always have some on the counter to snack on 🙂
Ann says
I tried making these and they would not form into a ball. It was nothing but flour… I am not sure what I did wrong.
I followed the recipe exactly.
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Ann,
Sorry to hear that. Was the butter soft enough? This is a recipe we make often, just made a batch last week. Never experienced this. The amount of butter (250g) should be enough to give the needed moistness to the dough to form a ball. When mixing with hands, butter and other ingredients combine well with the help of the normal temperature of your hand. Then it is easy to make balls from the dough.
To fix such a problem, we can suggest that you add a little more (1 or 2 tablespoons) softened butter or olive oil. Hope this helps.
Charlie Gronberg says
Can you make different flavors other than plain and lemon?
Zerrin says
You can make ginger by putting1/2 tsp!
Zerrin says
Hi Linda, I'm sorry to hear that. Were the cookies still warm when you tried to coat them with sprinkles? My sprinkles are like colorful granulated sugar and they stick on the warm cookies. Not as perfect as on frosted cookies, but they are okay. The same for powdered sugar. The cookies must be warm. Another thing is that sprinkles don't stick if you coat them with powdered sugar first.
If neither of these works, there is another solution that I need to add in the recipe as a note above. That is, you can use a mixture of pasteurized egg white and a splash of water. Let the cookies cool and brush them with this mixture. Sprinkle colorful sugar or sprinkles over them immediately.
I will check the other confusing parts in the recipe immediately and make the necessary corrections. This kind of problems might happen when we change the recipe card we use. Sorry again for your disappointment.
Pamela says
I saw someone asked about the amount of lemon zest but lemon zest is not listed in the ingredients?
Pamela says
that's what I get for not reading completely....nm, I see the zest listed as an addition. Making these tonight.
Carrie says
How many cookies will this recipe make?
Zerrin says
About 3 dozens.
June says
In your ingredients it says powder sugar. I didn't see the in the instructions of when exactly to put the powder sugar. Please help!!
Zerrin says
Hi June,
As it's written in the third step, in a large bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamy. And then add in the dry mixture in the bowl gradually.
Shirley says
Can they be frozen if made in advance? And, do you think they would ship well? Thank you.
Zerrin says
Yes Shirley, they freeze well. I think they ship well to as long as you put them in an airtight container.
Donna says
How long do they last in jars?
I want to make ahead of time for holidays.
Zerrin says
Hi Donna! They are good up to one week.
Zerrin says
They mold in ten min freezer refrigerator or not!
Better eat them up!
s says
No way to skip before finish reading, such a beautiful presentation,i am loving it.
Kaylia says
Mine totally flattened out, they didn't hold their round shape in the oven, help!
Zerrin says
Oh sorry Kaylia! That's really interesting now as these cookies never flatten. We don't use baking soda or baking powder, so they don't normally change their forms. What could be the problem in your case? Could there be a mistake in your measurements?
Jean says
How much lemon zest would you recommend?
Zerrin says
Hi Jean,
1 teaspoon zest works fine.
Maegan says
Could I use salted butter? And if so do I skip on adding salt?
Zerrin says
Hi Maegan,
Well I don't recommend salted butter because the ones I know here in Turkey are quite salty and it would be too much for the cookies. I mean it is more than the amount of salt I use in these cookies.
Susanna Piotrowski says
What type of sprinkles are those???? They look like real glitter in their shape and texture. Where can we purchase them?
Zerrin says
Hi Susanna,
I don't know if these have a special name. I'm just in love with the colors!
I bought them from a small shop in my hometown in Turkey. I don't know if you can find them at online shopping websites, sorry.
Luanne says
Hi! You say to make tiny balls. How tiny? Thanks, Luanne
Zerrin says
As tiny as the marbles kids play, which are 1/2 inch or 1 inch.
Luanne says
Thank you =)