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These lemon crinkle cookies are the perfect balance of tart, sweet, and chewy. Made with cake mix, pudding mix, and just a few other simple ingredients, these quick and easy cookies are sure to be a favorite.
I think everyone is tired right now. Our house has been hit with various sickness that just won’t quit. I’m really over it.
So without a lot of energy, I’m on the lookout for easy recipes right now.
Honestly, thank goodness for cake mixes. I love baking from scratch, but you know that I can totally get down with a good cake mix recipe. They’re perfect for times like now when I need a little pick-me-up but don’t have much energy.
I don’t need a whole batch of doctored cake mix cupcakes in the house right now, so instead I grabbed a lemon cake mix, a box of lemon pudding, and made these easy lemon crinkle cookies.
Tart and chewy lemon crinkle cookies
These lemon crinkle cookies are soft, chewy cookies with cracks (or “crinkles”) on the outside. They have the bright flavor of lemon and the perfect amount of sweetness to them.
I loooove lemon cookies, such as glazed lemon cookies, lemon ricotta cookies, and chewy lemon sugar cookies. But this recipe gets some extra points because it’s extra easy to make.
The base of this recipe is a box of lemon cake mix and a box of lemon pudding mix. Add in a couple extra ingredients and the dough is ready to bake in almost no time.
How to make lemon crinkle cookies with cake mix
Easy lemon crinkle cookies take just minutes to mix together and require zero chilling, so you can fix that cookie craving in about half an hour!
Ingredients you’ll need
To make these cookies, you will need:
- 1 (15.25 ounce) box lemon cake mix
- 1 (3.4 ounce) box instant lemon pudding mix
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
Even though this recipe uses a lemon cake mix and lemon pudding mix, I like adding some lemon zest and lemon juice for maximum lemon flavor. Trust me, it’s worth the few seconds it’ll take you to zest and juice a lemon.
If you are out of powdered sugar, you can make your own powdered sugar to use in this recipe instead.
The cake mix and pudding mix give these cookies a pretty yellow color, so you won’t need to add any yellow food coloring to get that sunshiny hue.
Making these cookies
To make the cookie dough for this recipe, add the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla to a bowl. Use an electric mixer to combine the ingredients until well mixed. The dough will be sticky!
Place the powdered sugar in a shallow bowl. Drop balls of the dough into the sugar using a medium (1.5-tablespoon) cookie scoop. Roll the dough in the powdered sugar, then form the dough into a ball between your palms.
Place the dough balls on a lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie.
Bake at 375°F for 8-10 minutes. The bottoms of the cookies will be set but the middles will still look slightly undercooked.
Let the lemon crinkle cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Storage
Store your lemon crinkle cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
If you want longer storage, pop the cookies into an airtight container or zip-top freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
More delicious crinkle cookie recipes
If you’re as into these lemon crinkle cookies as I am, I’ve got a few other crinkle cookie recipes up my sleeve.
For something chocolatey, try easy chocolate crinkle cookies or brownie crinkle cookies.
Red velvet crinkle cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day.
St. Patrick’s Day crinkle cookies are always a hit in March, but are delicious any time of year.
And if you’re a fan of gingerbread, gingerbread crinkle cookies are a must-make for your holiday cookie exchanges!
Easy Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 box lemon cake mix 15.25 ounces
- 1 box instant lemon pudding mix 3.4 ounces
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract until well blended. Place confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (1 ½ tablespoons), drop balls of dough (dough will be sticky) into the confectioners’ sugar, roll to coat. Gently form dough into a ball by lightly rolling between your palms.
- Place dough balls on prepared baking pan about two inches apart.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes. The bottoms will be set but middles will look slightly undercooked. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on pan before removing to a wire rack.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
