Copycat Panera Lemon Drop Cookies Recipe are lemon cookies with a slight cake like texture with chewy edges, studded with white chocolate chips and showered with powdered sugar.
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You're going to love them and want to make them for your next gathering.
These are great picnic cookies with their fresh lemon flavor and durability.
These cookies travel well thanks to their slightly cakey texture.
These lemon white chocolate cookies aren't going to crack or break during transport.
Don't let that mention of cakiness turn you away though. If you don't care for cakelike cookies you'll still enjoy these.
I prefer a cookie to be a cookie and I still liked these.
These are light cookies, despite the size, which by the way you don't need to replicate.
You can use a smaller cookie scoop and reduce the suggested baking time by three minutes.
I used an oversized cookie scoop, a #20 but you can make them with a teaspoon or a regular sized scoop like this #40.
This was inspired by my passion for lemon.
I've shared Lemon Bars with Graham Cracker Crust, Lemon Bar Recipe (Make in One Bowl and Lemon Shortbread Heart Cookies Recipe and my most popular drink recipe Lemon Drop Martini (3-Ingredient Recipe with Limoncello)
Copycat Panera Lemon Drop Cookies Recipe Ingredients
- flour
- cornstarch
- baking soda
- kosher salt
- unsalted butter
- granulated sugar
- egg
- lemon zest
- lemon juice
- vanilla extract
- white chocolate chips or chunks
- powdered sugar
See recipe card for quantities.
copycat-panera-lemon-drop-cookie-recipe Instructions
Hint: The easiest way to zest a lemon is by using a microplane grater.
Variations
- Vanilla extract - you can leave this out if you don't have any.
- White chocolate chips - leave out if you don't like white chocolate.
- Citrus-You can swap out another citrus fruit like limes or oranges in place of the lemon juice and lemon zest if you like.
Equipment
- stand or hand mixer
- Microplane grater
- Powdered Sugar Spoon for giving a light coating of sugar over cookies
Cookie Baking Advice
You may find these baking posts helpful, from Room Temperature Butter for Baking to Salted or Unsalted Butter for Cookies? to Do I Need A Cookie Scoop?, Cookie Size Chart to What Should a Beginner Bake? to Where Can I Buy Sprinkles?, Why is my sugar cookie dough too sticky? and Cookie Holidays.
Storage
Store cookies, in an airtight container, at room temperature for up to three days.
Freeze dough for up to three months.
You can freeze the baked cookies themselves too for up to two months if you'd like but I think they taste better freshly baked.
Did you know you can freeze lemon zest?
Have you been to a Panera? Do you know the history? Panera and I are both St. Louis, Mo. natives.
Are you interested in a different flavor? try Biscoff Cookie Recipe (Easy!).
A Lemon Drop Cookie, made with a #20 cookie scoop, contains approximately 199 calories.
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Recipe
Copycat Panera Lemon Drop Cookies Recipe
If you love a big, lemon drop cookie from Panera, you’ll love this copycat version. If you’ve never had one, Panera Lemon Drop cookies are basically lemon cookies with a slight cake like texture, studded with white chocolate chips and showered with powdered sugar.
Ingredients
- * 1-½ cups all purpose flour
- * ¼ cup corn starch
- * ½ teaspoon baking soda
- * ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- * ½ cup butter, (one stick) room temperature
- * 1-¼ cups granulated sugar
- * 1 egg, large, room temperature
- * 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
- * 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- * ½ teaspoon vanilla
- * ½ cup white chocolate chips or shards
- * ¼ cup powdered sugar for garnish
Instructions
* Measure dry ingredients—flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt—and whisk together in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
* Grate the lemon zest using a Microplane grater then juice the lemons. Use a piece of wax paper to catch the lemon zest and a small bowl for the juice.
* Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a hand mixer or a stand mixer. This may take three to five minutes depending on which you’re using.
* Add the eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract. Beat for one to two minutes or until well combined.
* Add dry ingredients mixing on low speed until the flour is just incorporated. That means you don’t see any white streaks of flour in the dough.
* Add white chocolate chips and stir until combined.
* Turn on oven to 350 F
* Using a ¼ cup, scoop out the cookie dough and drop onto the baking sheet. (I like my cookies to weigh around 55 grams each to keep them equal… a few grams on either side is fine).
* Place the cookies far apart on the cookie sheet – no more than 4 per sheet.
* Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn golden.
* Remove from oven, let rest on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes then and transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.
* Once cool, sprinkle with with powdered sugar.
Notes
You’ll want a #20 large cookie scoop, which holds three tablespoons of dough. If you’ve been around my site, you know I’m not a fan of the big cookie but for this recipe, it really turns out better made large.
If you want to bake smaller cookies, use a #40 scoop, which is a tablespoon and a third of dough and reduce baking time by 3 minutes--the cookies should be done in 12 minutes.
Oven temperatures vary so pay attention to how the cookies smell. Once you smell them, they are nearly done baking.
The cookies will puffed up a bit and the edges will be a golden tan hue.
Nutrition Information
Yield 24 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 199Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 8mgSodium 46mgCarbohydrates 46gFiber 0gSugar 37gProtein 2g
If you make this recipe please leave a comment and/or give the recipe a rating. Thanks! 🙂
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Marybeth
I tried these cookies and scooped 1/4 cup per cookie, as suggested. It also said the recipe makes 24 cookies. I only got 9 cookies! Theyre huge! Has anyone else run into this same dilemma.?
Jennifer
The yield is a mistake on my part Marybeth, I apologize. The recipe should have stated 10 to 12--not 24.
The difference in the three cookies may have been not beating the butter long enough to add plenty of air to the dough.
These are large cookies--thus the quarter cup of dough used per cookie.
Make smaller cookies with a regular #40 cookie scoop.