Danish Butter Cookies – What Jessica Baked Next

Butter Cookies are a wonderfully delicious bake all year round, but they’re extra special baked over Christmas. Serve with a light dusting of icing sugar or dipped/drizzled with chocolate. It’s love at first bite with these cookies…

I’ve been working on perfecting these Butter Cookies for over a year now. There’s been many struggles to find a recipe I was one hundred percent happy to share. When you finally get a recipe perfected, it’s the best feeling!

When I first made these, every time I tried to pipe the dough on my baking trays, I could never easily pipe the dough and countless times, my piping bag would end up splitting! Even though I was feeling frustrated, I wasn’t going to give up, so I kept experimenting with different methods of making these cookies.

I’m so glad I did, because the cookies are absolutely divine.

This recipe doesn’t involve creaming the softened butter and sugar like most butter cookie recipes instruct. Here we’re combining all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and creaming on medium speed until super light and fluffy – this takes just 30 seconds to achieve and, best of all, it’s EASY!

These are the biscuits you get around Christmas, very similar to Danish butter cookies, with a beautiful texture that’s like shortbread. Though I love buying tins of biscuits at Christmas, making your own is a fun activity and of course, they taste amazing because they’re homemade.

Why You’ll Love These Butter Cookies

Deliciously soft and buttery
Crispy edges
Quick to make with no chilling time required, the cookies keep their defined swirls even without chilling. These cookies are ready in 30 minutes!

These cookies look chic, they take only half an hour to make and all you’ll need is 4 ingredients! Swap the vanilla extract for almond or orange for a flavour twist if you like.

Decoration is where the fun continues. Before baking, top each cookie with half a glacé cherry. Once baked, dip half in melted chocolate or drizzle with (dark, milk or white) chocolate. Then top the chocolate with toasted nuts or sprinkles.

Butter Cookies

Four ingredient Butter Cookies are soft, buttery and will just melt in your mouth.

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings 12

Ingredients

175 g butter (salted or unsalted) softened
175 g plain flour sifted
50 g icing sugar sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 170°C / 150°C Fan / 300°F / Gas Mark 2. Line two large baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the softened butter, flour, icing sugar and vanilla. Cream on medium speed for 30 seconds, then stop the mixer, scrap down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again for a few seconds to fully combine. The mixture should be creamy and light.
Fit a piping bag with a medium sized star nozzle and fill the piping bag with the cookie dough. Pipe even swirls of cookie dough on the baking trays. This recipe makes 10-12 cookies, depending on how big or small you pipe the cookies.
Bake the cookies for 20 minutes or until a light golden colour. All ovens are different, so yours might not need as long in the oven. Leave the cookies to cool on the trays for 5 minutes, before transporting to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Decorate with melted chocolate or dusting with icing sugar before enjoying.
The cookies will keep for up to 2 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Now grab your apron, put some festive music on and get baking these gorgeous Butter Cookies!