Paper Lemon Cookies

“Paper” isn’t an exaggeration. These lemon cookies are sliced ⅛ inch thin and bake into translucent, crisp wafers with caramelized golden edges. They shatter when you bite into them and flood your mouth with bright, concentrated lemon flavor.

Two tablespoons of lemon zest and a quarter cup of lemon juice go into the dough. That’s an aggressive amount of citrus for a cookie this size, and it’s exactly right. The thin format means a high surface-to-volume ratio, so you need bold flavor baked into every millimeter.

This is a slice-and-bake cookie, meaning the dough gets shaped into logs and chilled for at least two hours (or frozen for later). Cold dough slices cleanly with a sharp knife. Warm dough squishes and gives you uneven cookies that bake unevenly.

Space them three inches apart on ungreased sheets. These spread significantly during baking because of the high butter-to-flour ratio. That spread is what creates the paper-thin result. Seven to eight minutes is all they need. Pull them when the edges are golden and the centers still look slightly translucent. They crisp as they cool.

Pro Tips

• Use a sharp, thin knife to slice the dough. A dull blade drags and deforms the rounds.
• Slice only enough to fill one baking sheet at a time. Keep the rest of the dough log cold.
• Don’t grease the cookie sheets. Added fat causes excess spreading and greasy bottoms.
• A sugar sprinkle before baking adds sparkle and a sweet crunch that complements the tart lemon.

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of poppy seeds to the dough for a lemon-poppy seed version.
• Drizzle cooled cookies with a thin lemon glaze (powdered sugar plus lemon juice) for extra citrus punch.
• Swap the lemon for lime zest and juice for a sharp, tropical twist.