Enjoy summer in a bite with these raspberry lemonade cookies! They're pillowy soft and bursting with tangy lemon and raspberry flavor. Made in just one bowl in half an hour, they're a breeze to whip up!
It takes a lot for me to veer away from my classic chocolate loaded cookie, like my brownie cookies or chocolate chip cookies, but these raspberry lemonade sugar cookies do just that. They are the quintessential summer time cookie with their hot pink sweet raspberry swirls, made from real fruit, and zesty lemon flavor. They're chewy and soft with a cake-like texture all in a classic cookie shape.
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Ingredients and Substitutions
- Unsalted Butter - This is what gives the cookies that nice chewy texture. Use dairy-free butter if needed.
- Sugar - White granulated sugar is used to provide a chewy texture and sweeten the dough.
- Gluten free 1:1 flour - You can also use all purpose flour if desired.
- Lemon - Both the juice and zest are used in the dough to give it a tart lemon flavor. Fresh lemon juice is preferred but you can use store-bought as well and will need to increase the amount to 1 ½ tablespoons of lemon juice.
- Frozen raspberries - You can either use store-bought frozen raspberries or freeze fresh raspberries. If you choose to freeze your own berries, make sure they are completely dry before placing them in the freezer. You don't want any water on them or they will become icy. In this recipe we want little pieces of raspberries, not full plump berries, so eventually you will break them up with your hands.
How to Make Raspberry Lemonade Cookies
You will need a large bowl, an electric mixer or stand mixer, cookie scoop, and a cookie sheet with parchment paper for these cookies.
Step 1 : Cream the butter and sugar together. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, add the room temperature butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until light and creamy.
Step 2 : Add the wet ingredients. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and lemon juice to the bowl and mix well to incorporate.
Step 3 : Fold in the dry ingredients. Add the gluten free flour, baking soda, baking powder, and lemon zest and fold into the batter with a rubber spatula. Stop folding when there is still a little flour mixture left in the bowl.
Step 4 : Add the frozen raspberries. If you haven't already, break up the frozen raspberries into pieces with our hands. Add them to the bowl and gently fold into the cookie dough with only a few folds. Don't over mix this step, we are looking for little ribbons of raspberries in the lemon dough. The natural raspberry juices will dye the dough a hot pink color so there is no food coloring required!
If you are using a stand mixer, only mix on low speed for a few seconds.
Chill the bowl of dough in the fridge for at least 10 minutes. Because the frozen raspberries release water and juice as they're mixed into the batter, it's important to pop the dough back in the fridge so it can firm up again before baking the cookies. It won't take long! Go ahead and preheat the oven while the dough is chilling.
Step 5 : Bake in the oven. Use a large cookie scoop if making large cookies or a medium cookie scoop for regular sized cookies. Scoop the dough onto a prepared baking sheet, leave about 2 inches in between each cookie ball, and bake in the oven until the edges are set and golden.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle some extra coarse cane sugar on top of the cookies while they're cooling if desired.
Expert Tips
- Break the frozen raspberries into smaller pieces. This makes it easier to fold into the batter and scoop into cookie dough balls. I do this with my hands by pinching each raspberry in between my thumb and pointer finger. You can also use the back of a fork.
- Don't over mix the raspberries into the dough. Ideally you should only have to fold the dough about 4 - 5 times to distribute the raspberries into the dough. As the raspberries mix with the dough, portions of the dough turn a hot or soft pink color. You want ribbons of pink color with some plain cookie dough color in the mix too to create a marbled effect.
- Remember to chill the dough while the oven preheats. The cookie dough can become a little soft as the raspberries defrost. Chilling it helps to keep the dough in tact to create beautiful cookies.
- Allow the cookies to cool before transferring them to a cooling rack. They will be very soft and flimsy while they're warm but will firm up as they cool down making the easier to pick up with your hands.
How to Store
Once the cookies have cooled completely, transfer them to an airtight container and store them out on the counter. They will keep for up to 5 days and get even softer after each day.
Can I Make These into Strawberry Lemonade Cookies?
I haven't tried this but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I would use frozen strawberries and break them up into smaller pieces in a food processor by pulsing just a few times. Then fold them into the cookie dough just like you would the raspberries and bake as directed.
For more cookie ingredients, check out my:
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Recipe
Raspberry Lemonade Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter - use dairy free if needed
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice - approx. 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 ½ cup gluten free 1:1 flour - or all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅔ cup raspberries - frozen and broken into smaller pieces
- Coarse sugar - optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and lemon juice to the bowl and mix to incorporate.
- Fold the lemon zest, gluten free flour, baking powder, and baking soda into the batter until there the flour is almost all incorporated.
- If your frozen raspberries are still in their full shape, break them up gently with your hands into smaller pieces and add them to the bowl. Gently fold the raspberries into the dough with only a few folds. Try not to overmix the dough, you want little swirls of pink raspberry dough. Chill the dough for at least 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 F while the dough is chilling.
- Use a large cookie scoop, if baking large cookies, to scoop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the cookies in the oven for 14 - 16 minutes until the edges are puffed up and golden brown. Let the cookies cool completely before transferring them to a cooling rack. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired and enjoy!
Absolutely delicious! Added to my tried&approved List of recipes
So honored to be a part of your list!
What gluten free flour do you recommend? I'd like to try these but I'm worried because so many people say it didn't work for them. I assume the problem is probably the flour since gluten free flours can be very different.
I have used King Arthur's gluten free blend and Bob's Red Mill's 1:1 gluten free blend for this specific recipe and they both work well. The photos above are with King Arthur's gf flour!
Added 1/4 tsp of salt to bring out the flavor and they were delicious! Thank you for the great recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I love these cookies so much! I've made them so many times with different kinds of fruit and loved every batch. They are more cake/scone-like cookies, but I love that about them.
Aw yay! I'm so glad you enjoy them! I have made them with blackberries too and they're great!
I made this with real butter and all purpose flour. They are very good! I made average size cookies and have 2 dozen.
Yay I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
It tastes great, but the recipe makes the dough VERY wet and sticky. So the cookie comes out more like a cake.
After following the recipe, the batter was a bit too sticky. The cookies are really pretty and have a good flavour, but the gluten free flour gave them a strange powdery mouthfeel.
I added some white chocolate chips on top of a couple of the cookies after shaping them on the baking sheet, and they came out nicely too.