If you enjoy lemon desserts, you’ll love our gluten free white chocolate chip lemon cookies! These are a spring twist on regular chocolate chip cookies, with fresh lemon and white chocolate chips. Our lemon cookies are gluten free, nut free, and vegan!
We’re loving all things lemon this spring, and these cookies are no exception! Our white chocolate chip lemon cookies are a fun spring twist on our regular chocolate chip cookies (which are a reader favorite).
Our lemon cookies have a hint of tartness and the perfect amount of lemon flavor. They’re chewy in the middle and crisp on the edges with melty white chocolate throughout. If you want a soft frosted sugar cookie style lemon cookie, check out our recipe for frosted lemon cookies.
I was inspired to make this cookie after seeing a similar recipe on Instagram and I wanted to create my own allergy friendly version, but I can’t remember who the creator was that posted their recipe so I could mention them in this post. I’ll add them here if I can find out who it was!
Food allergy notes:
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Egg free and vegan
- Peanut free
- Tree nut free
- Soy free (depending on the type of dairy free butter and white chocolate chips you use)
How to make white chocolate chip lemon cookies
The steps to make our lemon cookies are very similar to our other chocolate chip cookie recipes! Here’s an overview of the steps (the full recipe card is at the end of the post):
- Soften your dairy free butter so it’s about room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter with the sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest using a hand blender.
- Mix in the gluten free baking mix and baking soda.
- Add the fresh lemon juice, rice milk (or any dairy free milk), the sorghum flour, natural yellow color (if using), and the dairy free white chocolate chips. Mix again until thoroughly blended.
- Scoop by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes.
- Cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
These lemon white chocolate chip cookies are chewy in the middle crisp edges. If you’d like these to be thicker and softer, you can add about 2 Tablespoons more gluten free baking mix to thicken the dough a bit. You can roll these into balls then flatten slightly and bake for the same amount of time.
The natural yellow coloring is completely optional but it’s nice to add to the cookies for a nice light yellow color. If you do use the McCormick natural color powders (which is what we use regularly and used in this recipe), note that the color will deepen as these cookies bake.
So use the color sparingly and start out small (1/8th teaspoon or less for a batch of cookies). Don’t get carried away with the color powder unless you want super yellow cookies (speaking from experience!).
Adjusting the amount of lemon juice in this cookie recipe
Our chocolate chip cookie base recipe uses 1/4 cup of liquid. We wrote this with 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice + 1 Tablespoon of rice milk, but I also tried using a full 1/4 cup of lemon juice and I liked that as well.
If you want more lemon flavor, use a full 1/4 cup of lemon juice. I didn’t think it was too tart when we tried it, but you can play around with the ratio to see how much you prefer!
What kind of allergy friendly white chocolate chips can I use?
We have a pretty good list of dairy free and allergy friendly white chocolate chip options on our post about replacing dairy in cooking, but our favorite white chocolate chip options are the Enjoy Life white chocolate chips (they’re mini, no full sized ones yet) or the Great Value allergy friendly white chocolate chips.
There are a few other brands (such as Pascha and Nestle) that make dairy free versions, but our favorites are still the Enjoy Life and Great Value ones. They seem to have the best taste, texture, and they both bake and melt well.
Check out our recipe roundup of allergy friendly lemon recipes!
Gluten Free White Chocolate Chip Lemon Cookies (Vegan)
Ingredients
- ½ cup dairy free/vegan butter, softened* (we recommend the Country Crock Plant Butter sticks)*
- ½ cup unbleached cane sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 medium lemon
- 1 cup gluten free all purpose baking mix** (we used King Arthur Flour gluten free all purpose baking mix)
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon rice milk or other dairy free milk
- ¾ cup sorghum flour OR brown rice flour
- ⅛ teaspoon sunflower yellow McCormick natural food color powder (optional)
- ⅓ – ½ cup allergy friendly white chocolate chips (we like the Great Value allergy friendly white chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the dairy free butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and lemon zest.
- Add the all purpose gluten free baking mix to the butter mixture and mix until blended.
- Add the the sorghum flour, the lemon juice, the dairy free milk, and the white chocolate chips and mix again until smooth and a thick dough forms.
- Scoop cookie dough out with a silverware teaspoon (or measuring tablespoon) and drop on the cookie sheet by spoonfuls about 2 inches apart. You can flatten the dough slightly.
- If you'd like more uniform cookies, roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls then flatten slightly on the cookie sheet.
- Bake 10-11 minutes for soft cookies, or 12-13 minutes for crispier cookies.
- Allow to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days (if they last that long!) or freeze them. These store well in the freezer.
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Is it possible to sub the butter for coconut oil? My daughters allergic to sunflower and all the vegan butters use sunflower oil.
Hi Melissa, I think that you could use coconut oil, but you may have to use a bit less of it since coconut oil is more liquid than dairy free butter and can make the cookies spread more. You might start with 1/3 cup of coconut oil in this recipe and then add a little more as needed if the dough seems dry. I’d bake a couple test cookies at first to see how it holds up and make any adjustments if needed before baking the rest of the batch.