Vegan Lemon White Chocolate Cookies

Pillowy, soft lemon sugar cookies loaded up with nondairy white chocolate chips!? These Vegan Lemon White Chocolate Cookies are absolutely to die for! If you like a cookie that manages to be both soft and chewy, these are for you. They are also for you if you like a punch of citrus in your desserts. Light, fresh and perfect for spring and summer.

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.

Ingredients in Vegan Lemon White Chocolate Cookies

• Vegan Butter: Vegan butter is a simple alternative to dairy butter. Non-dairy butter is made up of different vegetable oils and is solid at room temperature. The flavors are nearly identical to normal butter and you should be able to find it next to the regular butter at the grocery store.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar is great for baking because the bond that it forms with water/liquid has a moisture-locking effect. This will give our cookies incredible texture and moistness. While we will be relying on the sugar for sweetness, it will also make the lemon flavor pop!
• Baking Soda: Baking soda is a leavener that requires an acidic and liquid ingredient to activate. In this recipe, the leavener will help the cookie dough base rise and firm up as it bakes.
• Sea Salt: Salt is a known flavor enhancer and cookies are no exception. This is especially true where flour and butter are concerned. In addition to amplifying flavor, salt works to strengthen the dough and provide texture.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract is the most common extract in baked goods. It will chemically add more flavor to the cookies without covering up the lemon flavor we want to shine through.

Cookie Ingredients Continued

• Lemon Zest: Using citrus zest in recipes is a great way to strengthen the flavor of whatever kind of fruit you are using. When you add zest to a recipe, you are including the natural oils that exist within the fruit straight into your dessert without having to turn to artificial flavoring. The zest will provide most of the lemon flavor to our cookies.
• Lemon Juice: While most of our lemon flavor will be coming from the lemon zest, the addition of juice will help smooth out our batter and give the cookies a slight sour zing. This will help counterbalance the sweetness.
• All Purpose Flour: No need for any fancy or expensive flour here! All purpose is great for cookie baking because it makes for both a light and sturdy cookie. Good chewiness too!
• Nondairy White Chocolate Chips: This one is a little bit tricky. While these chips are simply white chocolate chips without the dairy, they can be tough to find in the wild. When I know I'm going to need them I will typically order a couple bags of the King David brand from Amazon.

Vegan Lemon White Chocolate Cookie Tips

1. If you would like to get ahead, prepare the cookie dough the day before you plan on using it. Allow it to sit in an airtight container or covered bowl in the refrigerator overnight (or up to 48 hours) and bake when you are ready to serve. You can even freeze the dough for up to 1 month!
2. Nondairy white chocolate chips can be difficult to find in grocery stores. If you are unable to locate them at your local haunt you can order them online. I like the King David brand from Amazon.
3. If you would prefer your lemon flavor to be a bit more subtle, use 2 tablespoon of zest instead of 3 as written in the recipe.

Tips for Baking Vegan Cookies

1. Be very careful with ingredient swaps! Vegan baking is even more finicky than regular baking and it is near impossible to swap ingredients in and out seamlessly. Please keep in mind that this requires a lot of trial and error. Do not do it on a whim!
2. Don't over-beat your cookie dough! Once the dry ingredients have been introduced to the wet, the dough becomes somewhat more fragile. Overworking your cookie dough with the electric mixer could result in very tough cookies.
3. Chill your dough before baking! I know this is an annoying step but it's SUPER important. Chilling ensures your cookies will maintain their integrity during and after the baking process resulting in a cookie with the perfect level of chewiness. If you fail to chill your dough the cookies will spread out while baking leaving you with a thin, crispy cookie.

Please remember if you make this recipe to snap a pic and share with @censoredbaker on instagram!

Print

Looking for more vegan cookie recipes?

• Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
• Vegan Double Chocolate Cookies
• Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Vegan Orange Chocolate Cookies