Lemon Chocolate Chip Cookies

❤️Why you will love this recipe

• This is an easy recipe, with simple ingredients and quick to make. With a preparation time of 15 minutes and a baking time of 12 minutes, you can literally have a tray of these fresh, lemon-flavored chocolate chip cookies in under 30 minutes!
• The soft chewy lemon cookie texture and melty chocolate chips make a perfect combination in this delicious cookies.
• Simply swapping the dark chocolate chips with sweet white chocolate chips will turn this recipe into amazing white chocolate lemon cookie recipe.
• The use of fresh lemon zest gives these cookies a lovely lemon aroma, there is no need to use vanilla extract in the recipe.
• If you are looking for lemon desserts for a lemon lover, this lemon chocolate chip cookies will be a perfect sweet treat.
• The recipe is so versatile, you can use it to make both soft and chewy cookies or crunchy cookies simply by adjusting the baking time.

📋Ingredients

Here’s what goes into these lemon chocolate chip cookies:

• Self-raising flour - sift first to break any lumps.
• Butter - I use salted butter in all my baking. Unsalted butter is also fine but remember to add a small extra pinch of salt when creaming the butter and sugar.
• Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - helps make the chocolate chip cookies crispy, so with the right amount of baking time, this recipe can be used to make soft chewy lemon cookie, with soft chewy centers and crispy edges. If you increase the baking time slightly more, the chewy centers cook further into totally crispy cookies.  
• Soft light brown sugar - gives the cookies a deep, molasses-like flavor and makes an excellent choice of sweetener for chewy chocolate chip cookie.
• Finely grated lemon rind - the amount of lemon zest used in this recipe, which is from 2 lemons (approximately 2 tablespoons of loosely packed zest) is just nice to give these lemon cookies a noticeable citrus flavor. Anything lesser will give a too-mild a lemon presence in the cookies, it is hard to notice any lemon flavor in them. For best results, use fresh lemons.
• Egg yolk - hold the cookie dough together.
• Dark chocolate chips

🧾Substitution and variations

• If you don’t have self-raising flour, all purpose flour will be just as fine. Remember to add ½ teaspoon of baking powder into the flour. Mix well and sift at least 3 times before using.
• I used dark chocolate chips in this recipe, and if you prefer, you can substitute these for milk chocolate chips.
• To make lemon white chocolate chip cookies, replace the dark chocolate chips with white chips.
• Lemon zest or rind can be replaced with lemon extract. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon extract in place of the zest (please refer to the recipe card below).
• The recipe calls for two-thirds of the chocolate chips to be added into the cookie dough and the remaining one third to be pressed onto the cookies before baking. The pressed chips make the cookies look delectable. You can alternatively, add all the chips into the cookie dough if you wish so.
• These cookies can be customized further by adding nuts or dried fruits to the dough. To keep the proportion of the cookie dough to these additions consistent, reduce the amount of chocolate chips by the amount of nuts you wish to add to the cookies.

Mixing the cookie dough

1. The process starts with the creaming of the butter and both sugars (white and brown sugars) on medium speed until creamy (in a large bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment). Unlike cakes, you need not beat the butter and sugars until they are all light and fluffy, suffice if they are well creamed. In fact, beating too much will make the cookies spread too much during baking.
2. Add in the egg yolk. Beat into the creamed sugar and butter mixture until well incorporated. Scrape the bottom and sides of bowl with a rubber spatula halfway through the creaming process.
3. Next, add in the flour (dry ingredients) into the creamed wet ingredients. You can use your mixer to mix the flour into the creamed mixture. Once the flour is all incorporated, add the grated lemon zest and give it a few seconds more of mixing with the mixer. 
4. Finally, the chocolate chips go in. Use only two-thirds of the chips mentioned in the recipe. Reserve the remaining one-third for later. This time, mix them in with a metal spoon instead of the mixer. You would not want to break your chocolate chips by mixing them with a cake mixer. Mix until the chips are evenly distributed. 

Shaping and baking

1. The lemon chocolate chip cookie dough will be sticky right after mixing. Leave it to rest for about 2 to 3 minutes and then start scooping it to about 1 tablespoon size. Shape the dough into round balls (you need not do this if you are using an ice cream scoop as the dough will be well rounded when scooped with an ice cream scoop) and place them well apart on a parchment paper (or baking sheet / cookie sheet) lined baking tray. Press the earlier reserved one-third of chocolate chips onto the dough balls. 
2. Bake the lemon chocolate chip cookies for 12 minutes until the sides have turned slightly brown. At this stage, the edges of the cookie will be lightly crispy, and the centers chewy. Remove from the oven and let them rest in the tray for a few minutes before removing them.

• The lemon chocolate chip cookies are very soft as soon as they are out of the oven, so the resting time is essential to avoid them from breaking as you lift them. Let the cookies cool down on a wire rack. Store them in an airtight container if not consumed immediately.

🍽️Serving & storage

• This lemon chocolate chip cookie dough can be refrigerated if you do not wish to bake the cookies immediately. You can keep it refrigerated for a good one day. Just do not add the chocolate chips into the dough. Do it the next day once it is at room temperature. That way, the chocolate chips do not get melted in the cookie dough. 
• Keep the cookies stored in an airtight container if not consumed immediately.

💡Expert tips

• If you are in a warm climate, keep the chocolate chips refrigerated until they are ready to go into the dough. Keeping them out at room temperature can soften them and result in your cookie dough turning chocolate as you mix the chips in. 
• As soon as the cookie dough is mixed, it will be a little sticky to the hand. Letting is rest for about 5 to 10 minutes helps to bring it together and manageable.
• These lemon chocolate chip cookies spread considerably when baking, so place them well apart on the baking tray. This is to avoid them from touching and sticking to one another when baking.
• Also, when shaping the cookies, you need not flatten them, the cookies will spread on their own in the oven. If you flatten the cookies, you will end up with cookies that are overly spread and thin.
• The cookies are very soft as soon as you remove them from the oven. Let them rest on the parchment paper for a few minutes before attempting to remove them for cooling.
• The baking time indicated in this recipe will produce cookies that are lightly crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. If you wish to make cookies that are crispy or crunchy all the way, increase the baking time by about 3 to 5 minutes.

💭FAQs