Lemon Crinkles

A recipe for soft and chewy lemon crinkle cookies made with coconut.

Lemon Crinkle cookies from Jen's Favorite Cookies

Source:  Beyond Kimchee, a blog about Korean food.

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

 It’s spring, which for us means it’s time to plant… at my mother-in-law’s house.  My husband had a busy Saturday planned, but scrapped it all to spend the day working in his mother’s yard, spreading mulch and planting the large garden she had recently purchased.  Time is of the essence with plants, you know.  He called to request my help.  I told him I would be right over, which was kind of a lie.  I baked cookies first.

If you check my “Cookies” pinboard, you will see a number of cookie and dessert recipes pinned that involve lemon or lemonade.  I don’t really know what that’s about.  Chock it up to spring fever.  Of all the lemon recipes I plan to make, I wanted to make this one first, and not just because it’s made with Cool Whip.  Also because I love crinkles.  Love.

It is kind of an unusual recipe, though.  I mean, it’s not everyday you use frozen Cool Whip in a cookie.  The Cool Whip and the cake mix make it seem all throw-some-mixes-together-easy; but processing coconut and zesting and juicing citrus fruits is a little more gourmet and serious.  Yep, this cookie is an anomaly, alright.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies from Jen's Favorite Cookies

I wish I had a better way to process coconut.  I mean, it comes already shredded, and maybe it’s fine that way.  My blender has not-so-slowly deteriorated into something not-so-amazing, and I’m left with just my big food processor, which is big and bulky and hard to get out and hard to put away.  But I dragged it out anyway.  I pulsed the coconut together with the lemon and lime zest.

I kind of like the addition of the lime.  Plus, I didn’t have as many lemons as I thought I did, so the limes came in handy.

I had my daughter helping me today.  She put the frozen Cool Whip in the mixer, with the lemon juice and eggs, and when she started mixing, the giant chunk of frozen Cool Whip sloshed liquid all over the place.  This really will work great if the stuff is frozen, but please break it into chunks before you start mixing.  Within a minute or two, it will be all soft and mixed together.  Then you can throw in your lemon-lime-coconut and your cake mix.

This dough is very very soft.  It’s almost more like batter.

Hmmm… this gives me ideas!  Lemon Crinkle Cake?  With lemon curd?  But I digress…

Use a scoop or spoon to drop the soft dough into little piles in a bowl of powdered sugar.  Be very generous coating your dough with sugar.  Drop the balls onto your baking sheet and throw them in the oven.

Lemon Crinkles from Jen's Favorite Cookies

I have long been telling people to underbake their cookies.  Underbake is the key, I always say.  But not today.  Not with this cookie.  Because this dough is so soft, underbaking will just leave you with a really gooey and hard-to-eat cookie.  You’ll actually want to overbake this one, just slightly.  The edges should be brown when they come out of the oven.  Give them a couple minutes to cool on the baking sheet, before you move them to a cooling rack.  This will leave them with a perfect, soft and chewy texture!

The texture is part of what I really enjoyed about this cookie.  I took the entire batch of them with me to my mother-in-law’s house, and I brought just one cookie home.  ONE measley little cookie.  As disappointing as it is to not have any yummy cookies at home, it is kind of flattering to have so many disappear!  The family gave me some nice compliments on them.  I’m sure your family will compliment you too, not only on the perfect, slightly over-baked texture, but also the wonderful spring-like lemon flavor!

5.0 from 3 reviews
Lemon Crinkles
 
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A soft and chewy lemon coconut crinkle cookie.
Recipe type: Cookies
Serves: 3 dozen
Ingredients
  • 2 cups frozen whipped dairy topping
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • ½ cup coconut
  • 2-4 tsp. lemon or lime zest
  • 1 box lemon cake mix
  • ¼ cup powdered sugar + more for rolling
Instructions
  1. In food processor or blender, process coconut and zest until the texture is finer.
  2. Mix together whipped topping, eggs, and lemon juice, until blended together well.
  3. Add cake mix, ¼ cup powdered sugar, and coconut mixture. Mix until combined.
  4. Drop balls of dough into a bowl of powdered sugar, and coat generously. Place on baking sheet, leaving space between cookies for spreading.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Allow to cool 1-2 minutes before removing from baking sheet.

If you enjoy this recipe, you might also enjoy:

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes from Sweet 2 Eat

Lemon Bars from Lemons & Anchovies

Chocolate Crinkles from Jen’s Favorite Cookies

THIS RECIPE FEATURED AT: A Glimpse Inside, Feature Friday

37 thoughts on “Lemon Crinkles”

  3. Velvet

    The Lemon Crinkle cookies were delicious. My kids loved them, I even got a “mmmmmm yummy out of Grace”! They reminded me of lemon bars which are my favorite and you know if there is powdered sugar on it then it is going to be good. Excellent recipe!

    Reply ↓
  6. Mandy

    These look delicious!!! Great idea to shred the coconut with the lemon and lime zest! Printing the recipe off and putting it on my list to bake this week.

    Mandy
    PS First time to your blog and enjoyed looking at all of your recipes.

    Reply ↓
  7. Miz Helen

    Hi Jen,
    WoW, these are great looking cookies. I sure would love to serve a plate of these for afternoon tea. Hope you are having a great week end and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

    Reply ↓
  8. Rachel

    Oh wow!!! I bet these were delicious! I like the addition of lime to the mix too! Thanks for linking up at the project party! xoxo- Rachel

    Reply ↓

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  13. Jen

    Hi! These look delicious, but I have a question. Does 2 cups of whipped topping mean 2 measured cups or two 8oz tubs? Thanks, can’t wait to try!!

    Reply ↓
  14. Jen Post author

    I used a 16 oz. tub, so I’m assuming two 8 oz. tubs is the same. I hope they work out well for you!

    Reply ↓

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  24. Hannah

    Found you via SITS and have to say I can’t wait to have a go at making these. I think they will be perfect for my next ‘Mummy Meetup’ to impress everyone with my baking skills 🙂 xx

    Reply ↓
  28. maggie

    Looks delicious! I love anything lemon flavored! And…….I love typing in your comment box and seeing this fun font. That’s a new one…..kind of makes me want to keep typing and typing. Happy SITS Day!

    Reply ↓
  34. Jester Queen

    Happy SITS day (a day late). These look SOSOSO good. Thanks for the heads up about not underbaking, because my style is to underbake by at least a couple of minutes so the cookies stay soft. I can see myself making these for my sisters in law for the holidays, and I’d have been so frustrated if I got down to the last days before we all get together and had a gooey mess!!

    Reply ↓
  35. Liz Olimpio

    Oh my husband loves lemon squares so have been looking for a good lemon cookie to change things up a bit. Will definitely have to try this recipe out. Thanks and Happy SITS Day!

    Reply ↓

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