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Dessert

Old Fashioned Lemon Sugar Cookies

A lemon-flavored sugar cookie made with flour, sugar, shortening, eggs, and lemon juice, chilled before baking.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Old Fashioned Lemon Sugar Cookies

Oven350°
Time8-10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Preheat oven to 350°.

  2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

  3. In large mixing bowl, beat sugar and shortening until fluffy; beat in eggs.

  4. Stir in dry ingredients.

  5. Add in lemon juice. Mix well.

  6. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into small balls, 1 1/4 in or less; roll in additional sugar.

  2. Place on greased baking sheets 2 inches apart; flatten with egg turner.

  3. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

696Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
112 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and carries flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown and crisp at the edges.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise and lighten.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the cookies.

The step that matters

Chilling the dough. Chilling firms the fat so the cookies hold their shape instead of spreading too thin in the oven. Skipping or shortening the chill can leave flat, greasy cookies.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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