Frosted Lemonade Cookies Recipe

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A cold glass of lemonade is the perfect treat for lounging by the pool, enjoying a park picnic, or hanging out at home. When you can't get enough of the thirst-quenching beverage, the answer is frosted lemonade cookies. You read that right. It's lemonade in a moist, soft, and pillowy cookie form. Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico's frosted lemonade cookies cleverly combine the popular drink with the irresistible appeal of cookies.

These pale, slightly golden cookies are buttery with just the right amount of lemon flavor. Frozen lemonade concentrate in this recipe gives both the cookies and frosting their sweet, refreshing citrus flavor. It's a convenient ingredient that lets you skip the need to actually juice lemons. If you can't get your hands on frozen lemonade concentrate, we share tips for making it yourself at home below. 

These lemonade cookies, decorated with a sprinkling of freshly grated lemon zest over the homemade frosting, are just as lovely to look at as they are to taste. Make these cookies during the warmest months, or reach for this recipe at any time of the year to bring back the bright and cheery memory of summer days.

To make these cookies, round up the ingredients first. For the batter, you will need unsalted butter, granulated sugar, large eggs, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and frozen lemonade concentrate. For the frosting, more butter is necessary, as well as additional frozen lemonade concentrate. It also requires powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Finally, you'll need lemon zest for topping the cookies. We recommend freshly grating the zest before decorating. Plan ahead to make sure the butter is softened and the lemonade concentrate is thawed before making the cookies and frosting.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

To start the batter, in a mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter and sugar by beating on medium and gradually increasing to medium-high, for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy. Scrape the sides with a spatula when necessary.

Add the eggs and beat for another minute until combined.

Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and lemonade concentrate and beat briefly until just combined. Chill the dough for 1 hour.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, place as many scoops of about 1 ½ tablespoons of dough as you can, spaced 2 inches apart. Work in batches if needed.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until the cookies turn a very pale golden color.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let it cool for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Continue to bake remaining cookies if working in batches.

As the cookies cool, start on the frosting. In a medium-sized bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and powdered sugar until evenly combined.

Add the lemonade concentrate and vanilla extract and beat until the frosting is thick and creamy.

Once the cookies are cool, spread the frosting on top with a knife or use a piping bag to pipe the frosting.

Sprinkle the lemon zest over the cookies to decorate.

Serve and enjoy. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days on the countertop or in the refrigerator for up to a week.

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Frozen lemonade concentrate is a canned product found in the freezer section of grocery stores. It's usually situated next to its more popular cousins, like frozen apple juice or orange juice concentrates, and even frozen margarita mix. However, the lemonade version is not as commonly found in stores.

If you've never worked with frozen lemonade concentrate before, know that it's not quite the same as lemonade. It's made from a dense mixture of lemon juice, sugar, and sometimes water. It's thick, syrupy, and too strong to enjoy on its own, which is why it's mixed with water to make lemonade. Other than using it to make lemonade and these cookies, there are different ways to use a can of frozen lemonade concentrate.

And don't fret if you can't find this product; you can easily make it at home. First, heat 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar on medium, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool and mix in 2 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice. That's it. You can scale down the recipe if you don't need as much, or you can follow the recipe and use the rest to make lemonade by adding 3 parts water to 1 part concentrate. Store any leftover concentrate in the refrigerator for up to three weeks or freeze for up to six months.

It's important not to use cold butter straight out of the refrigerator when the recipe calls for softened butter. Cold butter is too hard to cream properly with sugar or to mix into frosting. There are several ways to soften butter, but if you plan ahead, the best way may be to simply let it sit out on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour. It should be softened when you can make an indentation in it with your finger, but not go all the way through, and still cool to the touch. If the kitchen is on the warmer side, keep an eye on the butter to make sure it doesn't soften too much.

If your butter is oversoftened, it will be greasy or too soft and just as bad as hard butter, if not worse. Ingredients like flour, eggs, and baking soda give cookies structure and allow them to rise upwards as they bake in the oven, but if the butter is too warm, it will melt before the cookies rise. You'll end up with flat cookies that spread too much and burnt edges. Melted butter is even worse, so don't try to soften butter quickly by melting it. This recipe also calls for refrigerating the dough before making the cookies to make sure the butter doesn't get too warm, so don't skip that step.

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