Lemon Pudding Cookies with Meringue Pieces

Lemony and light, soft and chewy with crispy vanilla meringue pieces and sweet white chocolate chips, these Lemon Pudding Cookies with Meringue Pieces are sure to become your favorite. It’s hard to have just one cookie; believe me, I tried. These are good for all seasons; lemon and vanilla flavor reminds me of early spring and summer, all things fresh, but if you are a lemon lover, then who’s to say when you should make these? Make them for Christmas cookie exchange, gift them to your lemon lover friends or co-workers.

Several years ago, I took an online baking class with Christina Tosi, which was fantastic. I love the way she taught and how she inspired, and to this day, my head is brimming with ideas about dessert flavor combinations. It just won’t stop. This cookie idea is a product of that class. The inspiration was your classic lemon meringue pie but in a cookie.

To recreate the meringue part of the pie, I tried to add crushed meringue cookies, one of my first posts on this blog. You can find the recipe here: Meringue Cookies, or as we affectionately call them, the Egg White Cookies. And it worked so well; the crispy yet light meringue pieces added another dimension to a simple cookie. Follow the recipe and skip the chocolate part, as you need them plain for these cookies. They are easy to make, but if you are short on time and know of an excellent store-bought meringue, use those. However, I recommend making your own, as using the best, freshest ingredients makes a difference. The best part about the Meringue Cookies is that you can make them a few days before, cool down, and store them in an air-tight container until ready to use.

A couple of things to keep in mind about the ingredients.

Butter – must be room temperature, or it will not cream properly. If you are baking in the morning, leave the butter out on a plate on the counter overnight. If you are baking in the evening, leave it out in the morning. Use the actual unsalted butter, not a margarine; it affects the texture and flavor of the cookies.

Meringue Cookies – my recipe (which I hope to update soon) calls for 1.5 hours of baking time. This baking time will leave the inside of the cookies a bit chewy. The breaking up of the meringues could be messy, which is fine since they will be baking once again inside the Lemon Cookie. 

Lemon Pudding Cookies With Meringue Pieces

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Lemony, light, soft, and chewy with crispy vanilla meringue pieces and sweet white chocolate chips make the perfect flavor combo in one bite.

• Author: Olga Lang
• Prep Time: 15 minutes*
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 24 cookies 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

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• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 (4 oz) box instant lemon pudding mix
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature (3/4 cup)
• 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup meringue cookies crushed into small pieces

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees—line two large baking sheets with the parchment paper and set aside.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt) in a medium bowl. 
3. In a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars on medium speed for 6-7 minutes, stopping halfway through to scrape the escaped butter off the sides. After 7 minutes, add the egg and lemon zest. Mix for 3 more minutes. Scrape the sides and mix with a spatula.
4. Add the dry ingredients, start the mixer on low, mix for about 30 seconds, until the dough becomes shaggy, and add the white chocolate chips and broken meringue cookies. Mix until everything comes together, about 30 seconds more. Turn the mixer off. Give the mixture once over with a spatula to ensure there are no dry pockets of flour. 
5. Scoop the cookie dough with a small ice cream scoop and place the cookies on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. 
6. Bake the cookies at 350 Fahrenheit for 9-10 minutes until the edges are light brown. 
7. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool off completely. 

Notes

You can store the cookies in an air-tight container for up to 4-5 days. If they will last that long.

*Prep time does not include the making of the meringue cookies. Those can be made a day before to save some time.