These Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Cookies are soft and chewy, slightly fluffy and perfectly tangy and citrusy. They're covered in a rich, creamy lemon frosting too! They're also refined sugar free, come together in one bowl and the dough doesn't require chilling. A delicious sweet treat for Thanksgiving or Christmas!
There are many different types of Lemon Cookies, including crinkle cookies and Italian-style lemon cookies, but I decided to make ones that are a bit like Sugar Cookies: they're soft, slightly fluffy and a little chewy. A creamy frosting adds extra lemon flavour and richness.
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together the ingredients for the cookie dough in a glass mixing bowl.
Tip: If the dough looks too wet: place it in the fridge for an hour to help it firm up. If it looks too dry: add a splash of any type of plant-based milk.
- Use your hands to shape the cookie dough into patties - you should be able to make 7 large cookies.
Tip: To make super fluffy cookies, I like to make sure the centre part of the cookie is slightly thicker than the rest, like in a dome shape. And don't worry, unlike traditional cookies, these ones won't spread as they bake.
- Transfer the cookies onto a rectangular baking tray.
Tip: Line the baking tray with greased baking paper to make sure the cookies don't stick.
- Bake in oven for around 10-12 minutes, until very lightly browned - be careful not to over-bake!
- They will be slightly soft when you remove them from the oven - leave to cool completely to let them harden before applying the frosting.
- Don't worry about the cracks on top - I found it was impossible to make these vegan and gluten-free lemon cookies without the cracks forming on top. The cracks don't affect the taste or the texture at all, and the yummy lemon frosting will completely cover them up!
How to make the frosting
- Place the ingredients for the frosting in a food processor or blender.
- Whizz until completely smooth, adding some plant-based milk or water to thin out if necessary.
- Taste and add extra lemon juice and/or maple syrup if necessary.
- Use a knife to spread a bit of frosting over each of the cookies.
How long do these Lemon Cookies keep for?
These Lemon Cookies do taste best when fresh, but keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can replace the coconut oil with coconut butter.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the gluten-free flour with rice flour.
- If you don't need the cookies to be gluten-free, you can replace the gluten-free flour with plain flour.
- The ground almonds can be replaced with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version, use ground sunflower seeds instead of ground almonds and omit the frosting or make a coconut cream-based cream cheese frosting!
Tips for baking with lemons
- For optimum lemon flavour, I would recommend using fresh lemons (not ones that you've had sitting in your fruit bowl for weeks!) and organic ones if possible.
- You have to be careful when baking with lemon juice as the acidity and lemon flavour can really vary depending on the lemons you use.
- For the cookies, I would recommend tasting the lemon juice you're using and adjusting the amount of lemon juice you use accordingly.
- For the frosting, I would recommend tasting it as you're making it and adding extra lemon juice if necessary.
- For the lemon zest, make sure you use unwaxed lemons.
More gluten-free vegan cookie recipes
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Oatmeal Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Chocolate Cookies
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Millionaire Shortbread
- Orange Cookies
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
- Lemon Blueberry Cookies
- Pumpkin Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Linzer Cookies
- Homemade Oreos
- Brownie Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Chickpea Cookies
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I'd really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 30 g (⅛ cup) coconut oil (or sub coconut butter)
- 10 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other similar sweetener)
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (make sure lemons are unwaxed)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub rice flour, or plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
For the frosting:
- 75 g (½ cup) cashew nuts soaked in cold water overnight or in hot water for 15 minutes
- 5 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
For the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave.
- Add the maple syrup, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla, and mix well.
- Measure out the dry ingredients (ground almonds, gluten-free flour and baking powder) and mix well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well until you get a soft dough but one that's firm enough to mould.
- If the dough looks too wet, placing it in the fridge for an hour will help it firm up. If it looks too dry, add a splash of any type of plant-based milk.
- Use your hands to shape the cookie dough into patties - you should be able to make 7 large cookies. To make super fluffy cookies, I like to make sure the centre part of the cookie is slightly thicker than the rest. And don't worry, unlike traditional cookies, these ones won't spread as they bake.
- Transfer the cookies onto a baking tray/baking sheet lined with greased baking paper.
- Bake in oven for around 10-12 minutes, until very lightly browned - be careful not to over-bake!
- They will be slightly soft when you remove them from the oven - leave to cool completely to let them harden before applying the frosting.
For the frosting:
- Drain the soaked cashews and add to a food processor or blender with the maple syrup and lemon juice.
- Whizz until completely smooth, adding some plant-based milk or water to thin out if necessary.
- Taste and add extra lemon juice and/or maple syrup if necessary.
- Use a knife to spread a bit of frosting over each of the cookies.
- Taste best when fresh, but keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Video
Notes
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Anna Josefine Woerner
The batter tasted excellent and the look was beautiful but the texture and flavour was a bit off. I didn't have any almond flour so I used gluten free flour but I think without the almond flour they get too crumbly and dry tasting.
Rhian Williams
Sorry to hear that! Yes the almond flour is essential for the texture. If you don't have almond flour, it can be replaced with ground walnuts or sunflower seeds, or a fifth of the amount coconut flour!
Charlotte
Hi ! I was wondering if I could make these and freeze the batter into balls before baking ?
Rhian Williams
I'd recommend baking them first and freezing once they're baked!
Lea
Dear Rhian,
I would like to substitute the Maple syrup for Stevia, do you the quantity for the Stevia?
Thank you so much
Rhian Williams
I believe you can substitute around 3ml stevia per 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, however this can vary between stevia brands. The amount of maple syrup is equal to the amount of sugar that would be used, so I'd advise to check what substitution ratios your specific stevia brand recommends when substituting stevia for sugar. I hope that helps!
Kensley
This cookie recipe is great! I wasn’t able to make the frosting the first time I baked these, but the cookies themself were delicious! Next time, I plan to make the recipe’s frosting as well 😀
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Kathy
Are each one of these cookies over 300 calories
Rhian Williams
Yes it's per cookie, including the frosting too!