Pink Lemonade Cookies are the recipe that Maria makes every single spring and every summer party when she wants to put the most completely gorgeous and most genuinely show-stopping plate of soft and chewy cookies on the table that makes every person in the room immediately stop and reach for one before the plate has even been fully set down, because the most vibrant and most beautifully deep pink color of these cookies combined with the most perfectly piped and most elegantly swirled pink lemon frosting on top creates the most completely extraordinary visual presentation that looks like it came from the most professional and most beloved bakery while simultaneously delivering the most brightly and most boldly lemon-flavored cookie bite imaginable from the most powerful and most concentrated lemon extract.
She creams the softened butter and sugar, adds the egg and lemon extract and pink food coloring, mixes in the flour and baking soda until just combined, presses into discs, bakes until the most beautifully set edges with soft centers, and then pipes the most gorgeous pink lemon frosting in the most elegant swirl over every completely cooled cookie.
Pink Lemonade Cookies are the most easy and deeply lemon-flavored soft chewy pink cookies made with creamed butter sugar egg lemon extract pink food coloring flour and baking soda baked at 350°F for 9 to 12 minutes then frosted with pink lemon buttercream of butter powdered sugar lemon juice and heavy cream. Come follow us on Pinterest where we share beautiful cookie recipes and easy summer party favorites from our kitchen every single week.
Table of Contents
Why You Will Love This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
This Pink Lemonade Cookies recipe is the most completely joyful and most genuinely crowd-pleasing party cookie that produces the most beautifully vibrant pink individual cookie with the most boldly lemon-flavored and most deeply citrus-bright taste from lemon extract — which provides dramatically more concentrated lemon flavor than fresh lemon juice — topped with the most perfectly piped and most elegantly swirled pink lemon buttercream that makes every single cookie look like the most professionally decorated and most completely irresistible individual party treat.
The use of lemon extract rather than fresh lemon juice in the cookie dough is the single most important flavor decision for the most authentically bold and most deeply lemon-lemonade-flavored cookie. Lemon extract is significantly more concentrated than fresh juice, producing a lemon flavor that sings clearly through the buttery cookie base in every single bite rather than the much milder and more easily lost-in-the-bake lemon character that fresh juice alone produces. Our Lemon Sugar Cookies make a beautifully equally lemon-vibrant and equally soft companion for a complete and wonderful lemon cookie collection.
Ingredients Needed for This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
For the Pink Lemonade Cookies:
- ½ cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 large Egg
- 1 tbsp Pure Lemon Extract
- 1½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- ¾ tsp Baking Soda
- Pink Food Coloring (start with a small amount and add for desired depth)
For the Pink Lemon Frosting:
- ½ cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp Fresh or Bottled Lemon Juice
- 2 tbsp Heavy Cream
- Pink Food Coloring
How to Make This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the room-temperature softened butter and granulated sugar. Cream together for approximately 2 to 3 minutes until the most light and most beautifully fluffy mixture forms.
Add the egg, lemon extract, and a small amount of pink food coloring. Mix for 2 to 3 minutes until completely incorporated. Add more pink food coloring as needed to achieve the most vibrant and most beautifully deep pink color, cara mia.
Add the flour and baking soda to the mixer bowl. Mix until just combined — no longer than necessary to incorporate the flour. Overmixing once the flour is added produces tough, dense cookies rather than the most perfectly soft and most tenderly chewy result.
Using a small ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, measure out the dough and roll each portion into a ball. Press between the palms to flatten into a disc approximately half an inch thick. Place the cookie dough discs on the prepared baking sheet, leaving two inches between each disc.
Bake for 9 to 12 minutes until the edges are set and the center is no longer glossy. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
For the pink lemon frosting, combine the softened butter, sifted powdered sugar, lemon juice, and heavy cream in the stand mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until smooth and fluffy, scraping down the sides. Add pink food coloring to the desired shade.
Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Once the cookies are completely cooled, pipe a round swirl starting from the center and spiraling outward on each cookie.
How to Serve This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
Serve at room temperature on a beautiful white plate or tiered cookie display for the most completely stunning and most genuinely spring and summer party-appropriate presentation that immediately captures every guest’s attention with the most vibrant pink color and the most gorgeously swirled frosting on each individual cookie.
These pink lemonade cookies make the most completely perfect baby shower, bridal shower, birthday party, and summer gathering treat that simultaneously looks like the most professional bakery creation and tastes like the most genuinely extraordinary lemon cookie. Our Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes make a beautifully equally vibrant and equally spring-party-perfect companion for a complete and wonderful spring and summer citrus dessert collection.
How to Store This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
Store frosted cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Freeze unfrosted baked cookies for up to 3 months in a freezer-safe container. Make the frosting fresh when ready to serve. If making ahead, bake and freeze the cookies unfrosted and prepare the frosting on the day of the party for the most beautifully fresh and most properly fluffy piped result.
Tips to Make This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
Use softened, not melted, butter for the most proper and most beautifully airy cookie dough texture. Softened butter creams with the sugar to incorporate the most essential air bubbles that produce the most light and most properly lifted cookie. Melted butter produces cookies that spread too aggressively during baking and become flat and greasy rather than the most beautifully thick and most perfectly soft result.
Cool the cookies completely before piping the frosting. Even slightly warm cookies will cause the pink lemon frosting to melt and slide off rather than holding the most beautifully defined and most gorgeously piped swirl shape. Complete cooling to room temperature is the most essential preparation step for the most professional-looking frosted result.
Helpful Notes for This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
A cookie scoop ensures each cookie is the most uniformly sized and most consistently shaped which produces the most even baking throughout the entire batch and the most beautifully identical individual cookies for the most professional-looking and most completely uniform party presentation. Uniform cookies also make frosting easier as each cookie requires the same amount of frosting for the most consistently beautiful swirled result.
Parchment paper or a silicone baking mat on the baking sheet prevents sticking and promotes the most evenly baked and most beautifully bottomed cookies throughout. Baking directly on an unlined metal sheet can produce unevenly browned or stuck cookies.
Variation of This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
Maria made a version adding half a teaspoon of fresh lemon zest to the frosting alongside the lemon juice for the most beautifully vibrant and most intensely lemon-fragrant pink frosting that elevated the entire cookie most dramatically. Teresa tried using lime extract in place of lemon extract for the most completely extraordinary and most vibrantly different pink limeade cookie variation.
For a strawberry lemonade version, add two tablespoons of reduced strawberry puree to the pink frosting in place of the pink food coloring for the most beautifully naturally pink and most genuinely strawberry-lemonade-flavored frosting that is completely extraordinary. Our Raspberry Sugar Cookies make a beautifully equally vibrant and equally beautifully frosted companion for a complete and wonderful fruity spring cookie collection.
FAQs About This Pink Lemonade Cookies Recipe
Why must I use lemon extract rather than fresh lemon juice in the cookie dough?
Lemon extract is significantly more concentrated in lemon flavor than fresh lemon juice because it is made from the essential oils in lemon zest rather than the juice. A tablespoon of lemon extract delivers dramatically more bold and more authentic lemon-lemonade flavor than a tablespoon of fresh juice. Using fresh lemon juice in the same quantity as extract produces a much milder and less distinctly lemon-flavored cookie that does not taste like the most authentic pink lemonade cookie.
Why do my cookies spread too much?
The most common causes of excessive spreading in these pink lemonade cookies are butter that is too warm or melted rather than properly softened, dough that has not been pressed into a disc before baking, or oven temperature that is too low. Ensure the butter is softened but still cool to the touch, press each cookie ball into a disc before placing on the prepared sheet, and verify the oven temperature with an oven thermometer for the most reliable and most beautifully shaped result.
Can I make these cookies without food coloring?
Yes. The pink food coloring is entirely for the most fun and most beautiful visual effect. These cookies will taste exactly like the most vibrant and most bold pink lemonade cookies whether pink-colored or left their natural pale cream color. The lemon extract provides the most completely authentic lemon-lemonade flavor regardless of the color.
Conclusion
These Pink Lemonade Cookies are the most completely joyful and most deeply bold lemon-flavored spring and summer party cookie that makes every gathering feel genuinely and completely festive through the most vibrant pink soft and chewy cookie base and the most gorgeously swirled pink lemon buttercream frosting in every single beautiful and completely irresistible pink lemonade cookie bite. We hope they bring the same deeply warm spring party joy and the same completely delighted gathering to your kitchen that they have always brought to ours. Make them, share them, and come back to tell us all about it. With all our love, Maria, Lucia, and Teresa.
Pink Lemonade Cookies The Most Easy Soft Chewy Lemon Extract Pink Frosting Cookie You Will Bake
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
The most easy and vibrant Pink Lemonade Cookies made by creaming 1/2 cup room temperature butter with 3/4 cup sugar 2 to 3 minutes adding 1 egg 1 tbsp lemon extract and pink food coloring mixing 2 to 3 minutes adding 1 1/2 cups flour and 3/4 tsp baking soda until just combined rolling into balls pressing into 1/2 inch discs placing on parchment-lined sheets and baking at 350°F for 9 to 12 minutes until edges set cooling completely then piping pink lemon frosting of butter powdered sugar lemon juice heavy cream and pink food coloring beaten fluffy in piped swirls from center outward. A completely perfect spring party lemon cookie recipe.
Ingredients
1/2 cup 1 stick Unsalted Butter softened to room temperature
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1 large Egg
1 tbsp Pure Lemon Extract
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
Pink Food Coloring
1/2 cup 1 stick Unsalted Butter softened for frosting
3 cups Powdered Sugar sifted
2 tbsp Fresh or Bottled Lemon Juice
2 tbsp Heavy Cream
Pink Food Coloring for frosting
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line sheets with parchment or silicone mat.
2. Cream softened butter and sugar 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
3. Add egg, lemon extract, and small amount of pink food coloring. Mix 2 to 3 minutes. Add more coloring for desired depth.
4. Add flour and baking soda. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Scoop and roll dough into balls. Press between palms to 1/2 inch disc.
6. Place on prepared sheets 2 inches apart.
7. Bake 9 to 12 minutes until edges set and center no longer glossy.
8. Cool completely before frosting.
9. For frosting: combine softened butter, sifted powdered sugar, lemon juice, and cream. Mix low until combined. Increase medium speed. Beat smooth and fluffy. Scrape sides. Add pink food coloring.
10. Transfer to piping bag with large star tip.
11. Pipe round swirl from center outward on each completely cooled cookie.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 9 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Cookies, Spring, Summer
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 223
- Sugar: 25g
- Sodium: 82mg
- Fat: 10g
- Saturated Fat: 6g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 33g
- Fiber: 0g
- Protein: 1g
- Cholesterol: 34mg
Keywords: pink lemonade cookies, easy soft chewy pink lemonade cookies recipe lemon extract frosting, best pink lemonade cookies spring summer party, pink lemon frosting cookies
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