High Altitude Soft Lemon Cookies

Soft and chewy high altitude lemon cookies with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. The sweet and creamy white chocolate and the buttery macadamia nuts perfectly complement the bright flavor of the lemon. This is an easy, high altitude tested cookie recipe that doesn’t even require a mixer, with the cookies ready to eat in less than an hour!

Looking for more lemon recipes? You’ll love these iced lemon shortbread cookies, fluffy lemon cupcakes, and lavender lemonade honey popsicles.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

So Quick and Easy. You’ll love how simple this recipe is. Since it uses melted butter, the dough is easy to mix up with just a bowl and spoon. And after a brief chill time, the cookies are ready to bake.

Perfectly Soft and Chewy. A little corn starch in the dough tenderizes the cookies for an incredibly soft texture.

Tried and True Recipe. If you’ve made my high altitude chocolate chip cookies, then today’s recipe might seem familiar. I based these soft lemon cookies on my original chocolate chip cookie recipe, tweaking it a bit to add lots of lemon flavor, as well as the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. It goes to show how a great base recipe can be adapted a variety of ways.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• Sugar. Granulated sugar sweetens the cookies and adds moisture.
• Lemon Zest. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar to add fresh lemon flavor to your cookies.
• Unsalted Butter. Adds richness, moisture and flavor to the cookies.
• Vanilla + Lemon Extracts. Flavor.
• Egg. Gives the cookies structure and leavens the dough a little.
• All-Purpose Flour. Adds structure and stability so the cookie doesn’t spread too much.
• Corn Starch. A small amount of corn starch tenderizes cookie dough for soft, chewy cookies.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. A good amount of salt is essential in chocolate chip cookies to enhance the flavor of the chocolate and balance the sweetness.
• Baking Soda. Leavens the dough.
• White Chocolate Chips.
• Macadamia Nuts.

Instructions

• Measure the sugar into a bowl, and zest the lemon over the sugar.
• Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until moist and fragrant.

• Add the melted butter to the lemon sugar, and use a wooden spoon to mix vigorously for 2 minutes.
• Stir in the egg, vanilla and lemon extract until smooth.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, corn starch, salt and baking soda. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring just until no more flour remains. Let the dough sit at room temperature to cool for 10 minutes.
• Stir the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts into the cooled dough. The dough will be thicker now than it was before cooling.

• Divide the dough into 12 portions for medium-sized cookies and 24 portions for small cookies. Shape into balls, and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Refrigerate the dough balls for 25 minutes – no more, no less.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Place the chilled dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake the cookies on the center oven rack for 9-10 minutes (for medium cookies) or for 6 1/2 – 7 minutes (for small cookies). The cookies should still be very pale, with the edges set and the centers still underdone.
• Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a mixer to make these cookies?

You sure don’t! You can easily make this recipe with just a bowl and spoon.

Why does this recipe use melted butter instead of softened butter?

By using melted butter, you won’t need to use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar, since you can easily mix the dough by hand. Also, though, I’ve tested the two methods multiple times, and as it turns out, creaming butter and sugar doesn’t do anything special for cookies. You will get identical results by starting with melted butter.

Why do my cookies always turn out flat at high altitude?

Flat cookies that spread out too much are the bane of a high altitude baker’s existence. The usual culprit is too much sugar and too little flour, both of which need to be adjusted for high altitude cookie recipes.

What does the corn starch in the cookie dough do?

Corn starch – just a little – tenderizes cookie dough for a soft, chewy cookie.

Can I add some lemon juice for more lemon flavor?

Additional liquid would change the structure of the cookies, making them spread out too much, so these soft lemon cookies get all their lemon flavor from both fresh lemon zest and lemon extract.

Why didn’t my cookies spread out enough?

If you don’t flatten the dough balls a little with your hand, your cookies might not spread enough. Chilling them for too long, too, might prevent them from spreading. Also, if you scoop too much flour (by using the measuring cup to scoop the flour and pack it in, rather than lightly spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off), then the excess flour will make a more dense dough that doesn’t spread enough. That said, though, these cookies aren’t supposed to spread a lot, but just enough. If you prefer a slightly flatter cookie, you can try reducing the flour by 1-2 tablespoons, and/or skipping the chill time.

How do you make perfectly round cookies?

There’s a technique called “cookie scooting”, and it’s genius! Immediately after taking a pan of cookies out of the oven, take a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter (it needs to be slightly larger than the circumference of the baked cookies), and “scoot” it around the hot cookie. This pulls in any uneven edges to form a beautiful, perfectly round cookie. Watch the video by Cloudy Kitchen to see the technique in action.

Can I make these cookies without the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts?

I haven’t tested the recipe without the add-ins, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Of course, without them, the recipe won’t make as many cookies, so I’d suggest doubling the recipe unless you want a really small batch.

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