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Lemon Cookies

A light, fluffy, low-calorie lemon-flavored cookie made with cream cheese.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,197 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 36
Prep10 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Whisk the all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl.

  3. In a large bowl, beat the room-temperature butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

  4. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest until smooth.

  5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir on low speed or by hand just until combined.

  6. Drop rounded spoonfuls of dough onto the prepared sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

  7. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are lightly golden. Cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then move to a rack to cool completely.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + cream cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream cheese + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,999 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, wheat, butter, cream cheese, sugar, egg, lemon):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Blueberryabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, wheat, butter, cream cheese, sugar, egg, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).