Lemon Easter Bunny Cookies Recipe

When sugar cookie cutouts are a little too mainstream — or too much work — for your Easter holiday table, these colorful bunny cookies are for you. They'll grab everyone's attention and might just be the adorable highlight of your spread. The soft, tender base of these cookies has just the right amount of sweetness, brightened with fresh lemon zest and juice. The bunny-shaped M&M's that sit on top add a cute chocolate crunch to each bite and bring a fun pop of springtime color to the presentation. An easy lemon glaze pulls the flavors together and enhances the rich and buttery cookie. Despite being so eye-catching, these cookies are surprisingly easy to make: They take under an hour, and you won't even need to pull out the stand mixer or food processor.

Recipe developer Miriam Hahn brings us this recipe and says, "One of my favorite things about these cookies is how you can involve the kids in making them. Little hands love pressing in the bunny head and ears, and that makes them that much more fun to eat."

To make this recipe, check your baking cabinet for all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. Then pick up some unsalted butter, eggs, and a few lemons. For the bunnies, look for seasonal M&M's candies or just stick with the regular colors.

Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or 2 medium-sized sheet pans.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Zest the lemons.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar and lemon zest.

Add the butter and beat with a mixer for about 3 minutes or until fluffy.

Add in the egg, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and vanilla, and beat for a couple of minutes.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until a soft dough forms.

Cover and chill the dough for 20 minutes in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Form the dough into balls using about 1 ½ tablespoons of dough and place them on the prepared baking sheet.

With the bottom of a glass, flatten the balls lightly.

Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for 5 minutes.

Cut some of the M&M's in half for the ears.

Bake the cookies for 9 minutes until the bottoms are just becoming lightly golden.

While the cookies are still warm, press the bunny head and ears into the center of each cookie.

In a small bowl, stir together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth.

Using a spoon, lightly drizzle the glaze around the perimeter of the cookies, avoiding the M&M candies, so the colors stay vibrant, and sprinkle lemon zest so it sticks to the glaze.

Serve the bunny cookies.

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Here are a few helpful tips to ensure the cookies come out perfectly. To start, we are going for a moist dough that will result in soft cookies. When measuring the flour, spoon it lightly into the measuring cup to get an accurate amount, as too much flour can dry out the cookies. Make sure to use softened butter so it blends easily with the sugar, but you don't want it to be too soft — it should be cool to the touch. (Try one of these hacks to soften butter if you are short on time.) If it's too soft, the cookies will spread too much and not be supportive enough for the bunny head and ears.

We have two chilling steps, and both are important. The first will firm up the dough so it will form solid balls. The second helps the cookies hold their shape while they cook. When flattening the cookies on the baking sheet, avoid over-flattening. They have to be fairly thick so the bunny heads and ears have plenty of room when you push them in place.

When cutting the M&M's for the ears, use a sharp knife and a rocking motion. Make sure you have plenty of candy because some of them might break when cutting. Press in the bunny heads and ears when the cookies are still warm, so they glide in nicely without cracking the cookie surface. When baking, look at the bottom rim of the cookie, not the tops. Remove the cookies as soon as the bottom edges are lightly golden. It's ok to remove them if the cookie tops are pale and not cracked.

There are a few easy substitutions if you want to use what you have on hand or have trouble finding an ingredient. For gluten-free cookies, choose a flour that is labeled 1:1 baking flour. Chill the dough for 10 minutes more to compensate for the difference.

For the butter, vegan butter will work, and if you only have salted butter, just reduce the added salt or eliminate it altogether. Granulated sugar works best here because it won't affect the light coloring of the cookie, but coconut sugar or light brown sugar will work.

To make the cookies egg-free, make a flax egg by mixing 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 2 ½ tablespoons of water. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to form a gel before you use it. To make these cookies during another season, you can swap the M&M's for another seasonal color, another candy of choice, or you can omit the candy altogether and enjoy the bright lemony sugar cookies as is.

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