These Raspberry Cookies are soft, fluffy, buttery, and bursting with the delicious flavors of fresh lemon and raspberries. Super quick and easy to make and everyone loves them!
Raspberry Cookie Recipe
Soft, pillowy, and cake-like, these amazing raspberry cookies are one of my absolute favorite cookie recipes. Like a breath of fresh air, these lemon raspberry cookies taste different than many of the beloved cookie classics (like chocolate chip or snickerdoodle). They taste like summer.
Don’t worry, though. These are still cookies. Buttery, sweet, and perfectly soft cookies complemented by fresh lemon and tart raspberries.
This is a cookie recipe you will find yourself making over and over.
Recipe Ingredients
- butter
- sugar
- vanilla extract
- egg
- fresh lemon juice
- lemon zest
- baking soda
- baking powder
- all-purpose flour
- fresh or frozen raspberries
I do not recommend making these cookies with bottled lemon juice concentrate. They will not taste good.
I can not speak for flour substitutes (almond flour, for example), plant-based butter or egg replacements, or sugar alternatives as I have not made this recipe any other way other than as it is written.
Fresh or Frozen Raspberries in Cookies?
You can make these raspberry cookies with both fresh and frozen raspberries.
If you choose to use fresh raspberries, make sure they are firm, not mushy. You can also try mixing them in a couple of teaspoons of flour before folding them into the batter. When using frozen raspberries, make sure they are completely frozen before adding them to the batter.
No matter if you use fresh or frozen raspberries, the most important thing is to not overmix in the batter.
Does one taste better than the other? Nope, they taste the exact same.
Recipe Tips
- This is a drop cookie recipe. Scoop and plop using a cookie scoop (approximately 1 tablespoon), that’s the way you do it. This means that we are not rolling these beauties into balls. The batter is far too sticky.
- Before you even START making the cookies, preheat your oven and line your baking sheets. This is especially important if you’re using frozen raspberries.
- Only when the oven is ready, the baking sheets are prepped, and the batter is mixed, should the raspberries be removed from the freezer and immediately added to the batter.
- Very gently fold the raspberries into the batter. It does not have to be perfectly mixed.
- Store the remaining cookie dough in the refrigerator until the first round of cookies has been baked, cooled, and removed from the baking sheet.
- I do not recommend making double or triple batches of this recipe at the same time UNLESS you divide the batter into separate bowls and store each individual bowl in the refrigerator (without the raspberries) until ready to bake.
Have you tried making this Raspberry Cookie Recipe?
Tell me about it in the comments below! I always love to hear your thoughts. And tag me #theforkedspoon on Instagram if you’ve made any of my recipes, I always love to see what you’re cooking in the kitchen.
RECIPE CARD
Raspberry Lemon Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter - softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg - at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 lemon - zested and juiced
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 cup raspberries - frozen
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium power until light and fluffy (approximately 3 minutes). Reduce to low speed and add the vanilla extract, egg, salt, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed.
- In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the baking powder, baking soda, and flour.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined. Use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and mix in the frozen raspberries (do not overmix!)
- Using a cookie scoop, drop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheet (approximately 1 heaping tablespoon per cookie). The dough is extremely sticky so it is much more difficult, messy, and time-consuming to use a regular spoon, so use a scooper if you have one.
- Bake for approximately 14-16 minutes or until they are no longer shiny on the top and they are just starting to turn golden brown around the edges.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Jessica’s Notes
- While the first sheet of cookies is baking, place the second half of cookie dough in the fridge to prevent the raspberries from thawing completely.
- Keep leftover cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Optional: Before adding the raspberries, mix in 3/4 cup of white chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- If you would like to make the cookie dough ahead of time and freeze them for later use, wait to add the raspberries until after you’ve thawed the dough and you’re ready to bake them.
- Recipe adapted from Bake. Eat. Repeat.
Nutritional Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.)
After the salt issue, I mixed in my raspberries. Trying to be gentle and not over mix. But what size cookies are these? What size scoop if it only makes 18? Should I have full berries in a scoop? After cooking I have spots that are berries and jelly-ish. I planned on using these for Christmas in a week, should I freeze them?
I made these cookies last night for a small get together today… I made a double batch for less than 15 people and not one of them remained. I received compliments all day on how delicious these cookies were! My new favorite go-to cookie for any occasion!
Thanks for the delicious feedback and rating Dawn 🙂
These turned out to be amazing, my family loves them!
Every year my mom used to make cookies with my sister and I to bring to the neighbors for Christmas. As an adult I’ve continued this tradition with my own kids but was getting so bored of making the same kinds of cookies. I found this recipe and it is easily my favorite of all the cookies on the cookie plates to our neighbors now!! I had to make an extra batch just for home. It’s even picky toddler approved 😉
Thanks for sharing the kind feedback Mikayla, I hope your neighbors also enjoyed it 🙂
So what do I do with the salt? The recipe calls for 1/4 TSP of salt but the instructions do not mentioned it at all.
Great question Mary, you add the salt with the “dry ingredients” in step 4 🙂
I agree it’s confusing. Ingredients are commonly listed in the order used but salt is skipped over between the egg and lemon zest. When I added it to my recipes, I changed it putting it next to the flour and sifting it with the dry ingredients.
Very good! Make sure to use parchment paper because the raspberries tend to make these stick more than other types of cookies.
Next time I’m going to try making these with half whole wheat flour to increase fiber content.
Very good cookie, with nice fruit flavors. Put a sprinkle of sugar on tops of mine.
Hello! I just made these for a Canada day treat 🙂
I did not have raspberries (I thought I did), so I used strawberries. I sliced them so they would be around the same size as raspberries have. The first batch, I put it right away in the oven (top shelf 350F) and they spread out too much. The second one I put in the freezer for 40 min, then right into the oven. They came out better. I think I should make them smaller for the next time and freeze them completely before baking. Also, I would add half of the vanilla just because I want more lemony flavour 🙂
Thank you very much for posting this!
Have you tried adding honey instead of sugar?
Hi Kristine,
I have not tried this substitution, so I do not know how it will turn out.
Two questions: do you think frozen dried raspberries will work? Also, can I add some creame cheese without messing up the recipe or what can I substitute or add to balance it out?
Hi Allison,
Great question! Please see the section in the body of the post labeled Fresh vs Frozen, which I have copied here:
”
FRESH VS. FROZEN RASPBERRIES?
You can make these cookies one of two ways-
So they’re (hopefully) pretty.
Or, to look however they turn out.
In other words, when it comes time to fold in the raspberries (more on that below) things can get…messy. And they can get messy fast.
So, when you make these lemon raspberry cookies, just take note that frozen raspberries typically result in prettier cookies. After all the raspberries are, well, frozen, and are less likely to get mashed together immediately.
As far as taste is concerned, they taste the same.
”
As for the creme cheese, I have not tried it with creme cheese, so I cant recomend it.
Enjoy 🙂
I think the key difference I was interested in was the **dried** part of the question. I asked shout freeze-dried raspberries, not frozen ones 🙂
Sorry about that Allison, I clearly overlooked the “dried” 😉 .
I haven’t tried making this with freeze-dried raspberries, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. But do keep in mind freeze-dried raspberries tend to be a bit more tart than frozen or fresh.
Has anyone tried these without parchment paper on an air layered cookie sheet?
Hi Carol,
I try to always use parchment paper… but if you don’t have any and are in a pinch for time, a quick google search states aluminum foil with a non-stick spray could be used… I hope that helps 🙂
When I first saw the directions, I thought…”Good grief”. But I went ahead and read everything and so glad you told all. It made making them certainly easier , knowing. Thank you so much for the time you took in informing everyone. They are wonderful. I’m making this my favorite cookie recipe. Merry Christmas to you!!
Do you think you could make the dough ahead of time and freeze until ready to bake?
Hello Helen,
While I have not tried to freeze this dough until ready to bake, I think it will probably work – but I can’t guarantee it as I have not tried this before.
These cookies are very good. I am thinking about making them again, but adding white chocolate chips. Is there any reason this would not be advisable?
Hi Sue,
I don’t see why adding chocolate chips would be unadvisable – good luck! 🙂
Followed the recipe to a T. I used frozen raspberries. These turned out wonderful.