Lemon Cool Whip Cookies – 🍋🙌🏻💛 The EASIEST cake mix cookies with just 4 main ingredients, no mixer is needed, and ready in under 30 minutes! These foolproof lemon cookies use shortcut ingredients to help you create FANTASTIC tasting soft and chewy cookies with very little effort!
Easy Lemon Cool Whip Cookies Recipe
If you’re looking for the easiest lemon cookie recipe ever, this is the recipe for you! With just four main ingredients, these lemon cookies made with Cool Whip and cake mix are the perfect easy treat!
They’re soft and slightly chewy, full of lemon flavor, and are ready from start to finish in under 30 minutes! Also this is no-mixer cookie recipe which is music to my ears – less dirty dishes later to wash.
Use this easy cookie recipe and make Christmas cookies for cookie exchanges. Or save it for the spring for a great Easter dessert, or in for the summer when you’re in the mood for a lighter and fresher tasting dessert, these lemon cake mix cookies with Cool Whip are perfect.
Easy Lemon Cookies from Scratch
Ingredients in Lemon Cookies with Cool Whip
There are only four ingredients in these easy lemon cookies including:
- Lemon cake mix – wondering about this? See the FAQs below for more info
- Cool Whip – curious about this as well? See the FAQs below for more on this too
- Egg
- Confectioners’ sugar
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How To Make Cake Mix Lemon Cookies
- Preheat your oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and lightly fold everything together with a spatula by hand. Tips – Don’t use an electric mixer (stand mixer nor hand mixer) or you will deflate the Cool Whip. If desired, you can chill the bowl in the fridge for an hour or so to reduce the stickiness of the dough.
- Use a small cookie scoop to form cookie dough balls and then drop them directly into a bowl of confectioners’ sugar.
- Place dough balls on baking sheets and bake for about 10 minutes.
- Cool fully on a cooling rack or wire rack, and enjoy!
Flavor Variations
Yes you can use whatever flavor of cake mix you want to change up the flavor including:
Storage
Room Temperature: Cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
In the Freezer: This recipe will keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you do. There is no substitute. I have only tried the recipe with brand-name, Cool Whip (rather than generic or store brands). If you live in an area where Cool Whip isn’t sold or isn’t common, this may not be the lemon cookie recipe for you. See the Tip box above for other lemon cookie recipes.
You can either regular Cool Whip, Lite, or Fat Free. Although, I think the results in terms of taste and texture are a bit better with regular or Lite. If you’re trying to make a compromise to make them a little healthier, I would use Lite over Fat Free Cool Whip, but Fat Free still works.
I do not recommend it because it doesn’t have the stabilizes that store bought whipped topping has and your cookies may not rise properly and they may turn out like deflated blobs.
Again, yes, this is a critical ingredient and I don’t know what to suggest in place of it. See my Tips box above for other lemon cookie recipes that are from scratch.
I use Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist Lemon Supreme Cake Mix. Note that Duncan Hines cake mix is 15.25 ounces per box (there is also another older version of Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Mix that’s 16.5 ounces per box) whereas Betty Crocker is only 13.25 ounces.
Since this dough is already very sticky, if you use 2 ounces less of cake mix, the dough will be even stickier. Therefore, try to purchase a brand that’s closer to the 15.25 ounces called for.
If you would like to add a small packet of instant pudding mix such as lemon or vanilla, or a partial packet (half of a packet from a 3-ounce box), you can. It will make the cookies softer. Make sure it’s instant pudding mix and not cook-and-serve.
This is VERY sticky dough. Make sure you use a 15.25 ounce box of cake mix (not smaller sized boxes such as 13 ounces), refrigerate the dough for 1 hour, use a cookie scoop not your hands to form dough balls, drop them directly into the powdered sugar.
However, if your dough is still too sticky to work with (although it shouldn’t be if you follow the instructions), I suggest adding a bit more cake mix (from another box) or if you have a box of instant pudding on hand (such as lemon, vanilla, French vanilla) – add that to help absorb some of the moisture and reduce the stickiness.
If you want to boost the lemon flavor, feel free to add 1 teaspoon of lemon extract to this recipe. For other flavors of cookies, such as if you’re using chocolate cake mix, I would add a teaspoon of vanilla extract. If I were making strawberry cookies, I’d use an extract like almond extract or coconut extract. You can even add some lemon zest for more intense lemon flavor in this lemon version.
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Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
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To a large bowl, add the cake mix, Cool Whip, egg, and use a spatula to fold to combine and incorporate the ingredients. Tips – Folding will take about 3 minutes. Don’t be surprised that it can take a while to make sure all the cake mix is dissolved. However, don’t use an electric mixer or it will deflate the Cool Whip.
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Optionally, place the bowl in the fridge to chill for 30-60 minutes which will help reduce the stickiness of the dough. It’s not mandatory but will make scooping the dough in the next step a bit easier.
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Add the confectioners’ sugar to a medium bowl and using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, create cookie dough balls. Drop the cookie dough balls directly into the confectioners’ sugar – don’t attempt to roll them in your hands because the dough is very sticky.
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Place the sugar-coated dough balls on the baking sheets, evenly spaced, and baked for about 8 to 10 minutes, or as desired. Baking Tips – Always watch your cookies, and not the clock when determining doneness. Light colored cookies will show the visible signs (burnt look) of overbaking so take care not to overbake. Conversely, don’t underbake. However, if in doubt, I err on the side of underbaking since cookies will continue to firm up as they cool on the baking sheets. I prefer to bake one sheet of cookies at a time, rotating it midway through baking to ensure even baking. If you do bake two sheets of cookies at once, especially with light colored cookies like these, you need to rotate your baking sheets, top and bottom, and front to back, so they all bake uniformly.
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Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes and removing and placing on a rack to cool fully. Tip – To make perfectly shaped cookies, use a glass and swirl it around each cookie when it’s still hot from the oven.
Storage: Cookies will keep airtight at room temp for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls can be frozen for up to 3 months and baked off as desired. You will likely need to re-roll them in sugar before baking since it will “disappear” during the time in the freezer.
Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 112kcal, Carbohydrates: 24g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 1g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 11mg, Sodium: 169mg, Potassium: 26mg, Fiber: 0.3g, Sugar: 14g, Vitamin A: 33IU, Calcium: 59mg, Iron: 0.5mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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