These dome-shaped lemony zucchini cookies are so tender they make me think of little bites of cake. They're super easy to make and a great way to use your garden zucchini!
🏃♀️ Post Summary
In a hurry? This summary covers the essential points for making zucchini cookies.
- Meal Prep: 20 minutes. Cook Time: 10-12 minutes.
- No fancy ingredients
- Weigh the flour for best and most consistent results.
- You'll need a grater for the zucchini and a zester to zest the lemon.
- The combination of lemon zest and zucchini in a cookie is fantastic. And these cookies aren't overly sweet. Finish with a lemon glaze to make them a little sweeter if that's what you prefer.
Want to make this recipe perfectly the first time? I want to help with that. So, check out this Table of Contents to see which sections of this post will help you the most.
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There are so many ways to use zucchini and folding them into cookie dough is one of my favorite zucchini recipes. Cookies are a great home for fruits and veggies. I make these zucchini cookies in the summer months and pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips in the fall. When winter arrives with fresh fuyu persimmons I make persimmon cookies with dried figs.
❤️ Why You'll Love These Zucchini Cookies
- No fancy ingredients.
- Fun way to use zucchini from the garden.
- These cookies are easy to make and there's no need to peel the zucchini before adding to the wet ingredients.
- These zucchini cookies are seriously addictive.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
This list only covers ingredients that require some notes. For all of the ingredients, measurements, and directions for making these easy zucchini cookies, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Fresh zucchini - Medium zucchini is best for this recipe. Small zucchini will include more skin as a ratio to the "meat" of the zucchini. Large zucchini may be too watery.
- Lemon zest - The lemony flavor is what makes these cookies special, so use fresh firm lemons without blemishes. Firm lemons are easier to zest than softer ones.
👩🍳 Tips for Success
- When creaming the butter and sugar, use a high speed stand or hand electric mixer. When folding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, always use a low speed or do it by hand using a rubber spatula to keep the finished cookies tender.
- The grated zucchini should be very moist but not pooling in excess liquid. If your zucchini is too wet as you grate it, roll it in a paper towel, and gently squeeze out the excess moisture.
- Using a cookie scoop instead of a spoon ensures the cookies are all the same size so they'll all bake in the same amount of time.
🧊 How to Store Zucchini Cookies
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 - 5 days.
- Freeze in a freezer safe container for 2 - 3 months.
💡Ideas for Possible Variations
- Spread the zucchini cookies with a lemon glaze when completely cooled.
- Make zucchini chocolate chip cookies by eliminating the lemon zest and adding ¾ cup of chocolate chips to the batter after the dry ingredients are incorporated.
🏔️ Making This Recipe at High Altitude
Even though this zucchini cookie recipe calls for baking powder, you don't need to adjust the amount for baking these at high altitude. They may take an additional minute to bake.
Best Lemony Zucchini Cookies (So Easy!)
These lemony zucchini cookies bake up like tender little cake bites similar to English tea cakes. They have a big burst of lemon with a subtle zucchini flavor.
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Servings: 24
Calories: 117kcal
Equipment
- Kitchen scales to weigh the flour
- hand mixer or standing mixer
- zester or Microplane
- Medium cookie scooper 1 ½ - inches in diameter
- Wire rack or other cooking rack
Ingredients
- 2 cups (9 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter room temperature room temperature
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (2 large lemons)
- 1 cup shredded, unpeeled zucchini
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Pro tip: I do not use a dark cookie sheet. If you do, start the cookies at 375˚F but lower the temperature to 350˚F for the final 3 minutes of baking.
- Weigh the flour and whisk it together with the baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. It's best to start on a medium-low speed on your electric mixer to keep the sugar and pieces of butter from flying across the counter. As the sugar is incorporated into the butter, move the mixer to a high speed. This beats more air into the butter, making it fluffy and a lighter color. Both a hand mixer and standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment work fine for this. Add the egg and lemon zest and beat until they are completely incorporated into the butter.
- Grate the zucchini using the largest holes on a box grater. Fold the zucchini into the batter using a rubber spatula. Continue folding it in until it's evenly dispersed.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold it in with a rubber spatula. Add the remaining dry ingredients and continue folding into the batter until completely mixed in. There should not be any dry ingredients left at the bottom of the bowl.Pro tip: Once the dry ingredients are mixed into the batter, stop. Overworking the batter can result in tougher cookies.
- Use the ice cream scooper (sometime called a cookie scoop) or a spoon to scoop out the cookie dough onto the parchment lined cookie sheets. Space the mounds 1 ½ inches apart as the cookies will spread a little during baking.You can also use a larger scooper that's 2 inches in diameter for larger cookies.
- Bake for 12 - 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies turn a light golden brown.For larger cookies, bake for 15-16 minutes.
Nutrition
Calories: 117kcal | Carbohydrates: 14.5g | Protein: 1.5g | Fat: 6.1g | Saturated Fat: 3.7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.6g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 23mg | Sodium: 70.6mg | Potassium: 30.2mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 6.4g | Vitamin A: 199.1IU | Vitamin C: 1.6mg | Calcium: 15.8mg | Iron: 0.6mg
Dawn
Howdy, Just wondrerin' how many eggs?!?! to use and if flax/chia seed could be substituted instead of the eggs These cookies sound refreshing yet light. Thanks-
Susan Pridmore
I am so sorry! I see that I left it out of the ingredients list. It’s 1 large egg. I’m sorry I don’t know how much chia/flax seed substitute to use.
Dani
Can you freeze the dough before baking?
Susan Pridmore
Thanks for your question. I haven't done it, but you should be able to do that.