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Amazingly soft and perfect lemon sugar cookies with the best lemon cream cheese frosting on top!
I am not even going to admit how many of these I ate. But I couldn’t stop eating them! I loved everything about these cookies. And the added lemon flavor and lemon cream cheese frosting made these cookies out of this world.
Rewind to the first time that I had my first Swig Sugar Cookie. I went on a road trip with my friend and these swig cookies were the talk of the town. We were so excited to try our first swig cookie. Was it worth the five hour drive? Yes! Swig cookies are AMAZING! They are so soft and the frosting on top is creamy and delicious.
So naturally I had to put a recipe for them on the blog. They tasted just like the real thing and even had their signature rough edge. I was in heaven.
So last week my family was craving a batch of Swig Sugar Cookies. But I decided to add lemon to them. HOLY YUM! These are incredible with the lemon flavoring added to them. And since I am a huge lemon lover, I loved these even more!
I declare these the best lemon sugar cookies out there. They have a slightly crisp outside and a soft inside. The lemon cream cheese glaze was the perfect finishing touch! Try them out for yourself. You will quickly find why I couldn’t stop at just one! 🙂
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Lemon 'Swig' Sugar Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Butter softened
- ¾ Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1¼ Cup Sugar plus ¼ cup reserved
- ¾ Cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 Tablespoon Water
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 Eggs
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Cream of Tarter
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 5½ Cup Flour
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 package cream cheese 8 oz, softened
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 cups confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tarter, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, vegetable oil, sugar (1¼ C), powdered sugar, and water. Add in lemon juice and lemon zest.. Add in eggs.
- Slowly add in flour mixture until combined. Roll the dough into golf sized balls and place onto a non stick cookie sheet.
- To give the cookies their signature rough edge, dip the bottom of a glass into the reserved ¼ cup sugar and press onto the cookie ball to flatten the cookie. You still want the cookie to be thicker so don't press them to thin.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottom is lightly brown. The cookies stay soft so do not over bake.
To make the lemon cream cheese frosting:
- Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla together until smooth and fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar. Beat until creamy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The recipe for the swig cookies must have a mistake in the amount of salt. I used the teaspoon it called for and had to throw it out. I don’t think it needs any salt.
The cookies are delicious with no salt in the frosting.
Hi Lisha thank you for your comment. These cookies don’t have any salt in the frosting. Did you see it somewhere? Let me know!
Would this dough hold up well with cookie cutters? I’d like to give these a shape, if possible. Thanks!
I think it would! You’ll have to tell me how it turns out. 😊
Hi there! I am wondering if I use salted or unsalted butter for these? What do you recommend? Thank you!!
I like to use unsalted butter.
OMG! After eating a “lemon” cookie at a national sandwich and bagel place that starts with P, I was determined to find a recipe that was like theirs but also actually tasted like lemon as theirs was super disappointing. Your recipe is amazing just as it is! The frosting is off the charts yummy! Next time I’ll make 36 cookies rather than 24 because these were huge cookies! Anyone on the fence about this recipe should jump right in and try them!
These are delicious cookies! A friend made them and I made some and both turned out just like the picture and tasted so great with a light lemony flavor.
These are so good! The lemon is perfect and they might just be a new tradition! Thank you so much!
YAY! That is awesome to hear! Traditions are my favorite! Thanks so much for sharing! XOXO
Must I refrigerate these cookies?
Can you substitute olive oil for vegetable oil?
I would use avocado oil instead of olive oil. Olive oil does have a taste to it where as avocado oil has a neutral flavor like vegetable oil.
Made these cookies and they are SO GOOD!! They turned out perfect! Thanks for a great recipe!
These were delicious! My whole family loved them. Storage is a bit tricky, but well worth the effort.
Would love to know if these are stackable? Does the frosting harden??
The frosting stays pretty soft..
These look SO GOOD…HAVE TO MAKE THEM! Two questions though: Do they have to be refrigerated as would think so due to the cream cheese frosting. Also, does the frosting harden as they are shown stacked up on themselves? If they don’t harden, all the stacked cookie bottoms would have the frosting on them, right? Thanks
Awesome questions I would like to know as well. A benefit I’m helping hoast is having a bake sale to raise money and if they are stackable I would love to use these!!
These look like the most amazing cookies ever!!! Can’t wait to make them. MMMmmm…
Hi, Im in Australia and presuming the cup measurements are US cups, which I can convert to grams, but I notice the recipe says 5 1/2 C flour…. is that correct… it just seems like an awful lot of flour compared to the amount of butter/oil.. also could i use all butter.. not keen on veg oil!
Thanks, they do look yummy
Fiona, Sydney Australia
These look delicious.