Lemon Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you love lemon and dark chocolate, these lemon chocolate chip cookies are a must-try.  You will definitely love the delectable combination of the citrus flavor in the cookie dough and the generous amount of chocolate chips in the cookies. Yum!

The citrus flavor in these lemon chocolate chip cookies comes from lemon zest that is added to the cookie dough. The chocolate chips, on the other hand, are not only added to the cookie dough, they are also pressed onto the top of each cookie before the cookies are baked.  

These cookies can be made soft and chewy and can also be made soft and crispy if you love them in that way.  All this is possible with the same cookie dough, you just need to adjust the baking time. Both ways, the cookies are deliciously soft and always impossible to stop with just one.

How to Make

These lemon chocolate chip cookies are very easy to put together. 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!

Ingredients

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

• Self-raising flour
• Butter
• Granulated sugar
• Soft light brown sugar
• Finely grated lemon rind
• Egg yolk
• Dark chocolate chips

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.

Notes

Here are my notes for this lemon chocolate chip cookie recipe. Reading these will help you understand the recipe and help in making any adjustments if you wish so.

Sugar

• I used both brown sugar and white sugar in this lemon cookie recipe. Brown sugar gives the cookies a deep, molasses-like flavor and makes an excellent choice of sweetener for chewy chocolate chip cookie.
• White sugar, on the other hand, 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.  

Butter

• The butter used in the recipe is salted. I use salted butter in all my baking. Unsalted butter is also fine but remember to add some extra salt when creaming the butter and sugar.

Flour

• The flour in the recipe is self-raising flour. If you don’t have self-raising flour, plain flour (all purpose flour) will be just as fine. Remember to add ½ teaspoon of baking powder into the flour and either sift or mix with a whisk to incorporate the baking powder into the flour.

Chocolate Chips

• I used dark chocolate chips in this recipe, and if you prefer, you can substitute these for milk chocolate chips or even sweet white chocolate chips. Also, if you are in a warm climate like me, keep the 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. 
• 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.

Lemon zest

• 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.

Baking the cookies

• 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.

Cookie variation

• 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. 

Dough consistency

• 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.

Baking time

• Baking time varies by cookie size and by the texture of the cookies. Each cookie is scooped with a tablespoon and shaped into round balls. If you wish to reduce the size of the cookies, you would need to reduce the baking time accordingly, vice versa.
• For chewy cookies, follow the time indicated in the recipe, and for smaller chewy cookies, you would need to reduce the baking time further. Similarly, for larger chewy cookies, increase the baking time accordingly for the cookies to cook thoroughly but remain chewy. Increase the baking time even more for crispier cookies. 
• 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 all the way, increase the baking time by about 3 to 5 minutes.

Storing the cookie dough and the cookies

• 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.

Like this cookie recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to try out

• Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies - Mini & Bite-Sized
• Old Fashioned Lemon Pound Cake
• Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Cookies
• Candied Lemon Peel - How to Make
• Lemonade Popsicles
• Lemonade Sorbet
• Lemon Curd Cheesecake - The Ultimate Lemon Cheesecake
• Old Fashioned Lemon Pound Cake

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my lemon chocolate chip cookies recipe:

And that's my lemon chocolate chip cookies recipe for you.

Happy Baking 🙂