Butter Cookies

These sweet swirled Butter Cookies are a holiday classic. After baking, they’re dipped in warm melted chocolate and decorated with festive seasonal sprinkles. They’ll make the perfect addition to your holiday goodie baking trays and Christmas desserts.

What’s the Difference Between Butter Cookies and Shortbread?

Shortbread is a simpler cookie dough that usually doesn’t call for any egg or leavening. The ratio of butter to flour and sugar is higher, giving them their signature crumbly texture. Shortbread is often made and patted into a baking pan and then cut into squares after baking. The dough for these butter cookies has more flour than classic shortbread, and a smooth and rich texture from the egg yolk. This makes it possible for these piped cookies to hold their classic Danish cookie shape for baking. Both shortbread and butter cookies are delicious!

Ingredients to Make Butter Cookies Recipe

This crisp, light, buttery cookie is a classic around Christmas time and unlike the ones you get in the tin, these are melt-in-your-mouth perfect. Think shortbread cookie with a slight chewiness that you wouldn’t normally get. After baking and cooling, dip each cookie in semi-sweet chocolate and cover them in sprinkles for a gorgeous Christmas treat that will look amazing on your dessert table. Ingredients to make holiday Christmas Butter Cookies: (Scroll down for full printable recipe card.)

• Flour: All purpose flour forms the base of the cookie dough.
• Butter: Softened unsalted butter for richness.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar for sweetness.
• Salt: Salt balances the sweetness and brings the flavors together.
• Flavoring: Two teaspoons vanilla extract plus 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract. Use the real stuff, not imitation.
• Eggs: One large egg yolk.
• Chocolate Dip: Four ounces chopped semi sweet chocolate or 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, coconut oil or solid vegetable shortening.
• Garnish: Seasonal nonpareils for decorating.

How to Make the BEST Butter Cookies Recipe

• Heat Oven and Prepare Pan – Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• Cream Butter and Sugar – In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat softened butter with the sugar on high speed until smooth.
• Egg – Add the salt, vanilla extract, almond extract and egg yolk and beat until combined.
• Incorporate the Flour – Add the all purpose flour on low speed, until combined.
• Pipe the Dough – Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with large 1M open star piping tip. Pipe the batter in a circular pattern onto the prepared cookie sheet.
• Oven – Bake per the recipe until lightly golden brown. Cool on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• Melt the Chocolate: Melt chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl with the shortening or coconut oil until smooth. 
• Decorate – Dip one side of the cooled cookie into the melted chocolate.  Sprinkle with nonpareils.
• Serve – Let stand until the chocolate sets, then serve.

Tips for Making Christmas Butter Cookies

• Kitchen Tools You’ll Need: Large baking sheets, stand mixer with the whisk attachment and paddle attachment, small bowl, medium bowl, large bowl, whisk, pastry piping bag and large 1M open star tip, cookie spatula and wire rack.
• Leave Ample Space for Spreading: This buttery cookie dough will spread quite a bit, so leave at least 2 inches between the cookies.
• Chill the Dough: If you want to avoid the cookies from spreading, pop the cookies into the fridge for 20 minutes after you pipe them onto the cookie sheet before baking. Lay plastic wrap loosely on top.
• Let the Cookies Cool on the Pan: The cookies are fragile when they’re warm so allow them to cool on the pan for 10-15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
• When to Serve: Enjoy these Butter Cookies for holiday parties, cookie swaps, Christmas desserts and give them as homemade gifts.

Recipe Variations

• Butter: You can use salted butter for this recipe. When doing so, omit 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
• Chocolate: You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips for dipping the cookies.
• Flavoring: You could use different flavorings such as coconut extract or lemon extract to give the cookies a different flavor profile.
• Drop Cookies: If you don’t want to pipe the cookie dough, you can still make this recipe as drop cookies. Use a medium cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to divide the cookie dough and bake per the recipe. A thicker cookie may need longer baking time.
• Dip or Drizzle: You can dip these cookies in melted chocolate or drizzle it on top after cooling.
• Sanding Sugar: You can sprinkle the cookies with turbinado sugar or colored sanding sugar prior to baking and skip the chocolate dip, if preferred.

Storage and Leftovers

• Leftovers: Store Butter Cookies leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
• Freezer: You can freeze these cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months.  If you’re going to stack them, I suggest placing some parchment paper between the layers of cookies to keep the chocolate from sticking and transferring onto the other cookies. 
• Thawing: When you’re ready to serve them, thaw on the counter. A word of warning: Some sprinkles can run when they are exposed to moisture. I’ve had mixed results with this depending on the make-up of the sprinkles I’ve used. Just to play it safe, if you are planning on freezing these cookies, leave the sprinkles for another time.

More Christmas Cookie Recipes to Make

• Gingerbread Cookies are edible art for the whole family.
• Kitchen Sink Cookies are filled to the brim with goodies.
• Snowball Cookies have one thousand names and each one spells delicious.
• Buttery homemade Pecan Cookies.
• Cut Out Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies melt in your mouth!
• Chocolate Dipped Pecan Lace Cookies are delicately delicious.
• Cranberry Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies feature fresh cranberries.
• Italian Christmas Cookies from Glorious Treats.

Thanks for visiting come back soon!

Disclosure ~ If a purchase is made using one of the affiliate links on this website we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Helpful Kitchen Items:

• Mixing Bowls
• Baking Sheets
• Measuring Set
• Mixer

Print

Butter Cookies Recipe

Course Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American, Southern

Keyword butter-cookies-recipe, christmas-butter-cookie-recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Cooling Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 56 minutes minutes

Servings 24 large cookies

Calories 165kcal

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/2 tsp almond extract adjust to taste
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• Chocolate:
• 4 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped Or 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil Or 2 tsp melted solid vegetable shortening
• nonpareils for decorating

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• Cookie Dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together the butter with the sugar on high speed until smooth.
• Add the salt, vanilla extract, almond extract and egg yolk. Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes or until combined.
• Switch to the paddle attachment. Add the flour on low speed, beating until combined. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl periodically. Beat the dough until it's fully moistened. The cookie dough will be very thick.
• Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large 1M open star pastry tip.  Pipe the batter in a circular swirl pattern onto the prepared cookie sheet. Leave at least 2-inches of space between each cookie. (For less spreading, chill for 30 minutes on the pan.)
• Bake for 8-11 minutes. The edges will be lightly golden brown and the cookie will appear “dry”.
• Cool on the pan for 10-15 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. (Handle carefully, the cookies are fragile when they are warm.)
• Melt Chocolate: Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a microwave-safe bowl with the shortening or coconut oil. Microwave at 50% power for 1 minute, then stop and stir. Repeat the process until completely smooth.
• Dip one side of the cooled cookie into the melted chocolate.  Sprinkle with nonpareils. Have nearby a pan lined with wax paper, lay cookies on the pan.
• Let stand for 10-15 minutes or until the chocolate sets, then serve.

Notes

• Butter: You can use salted butter for this recipe. When doing so, omit 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
• Chocolate: You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips for dipping the cookies.
• Flavoring: You could use different flavorings such as coconut extract or lemon extract to give the cookies a different flavor profile.
• Drop Cookies: If you don’t want to pipe the cookie dough, you can still make this recipe as drop cookies. Use a medium cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to divide the cookie dough and bake per the recipe. A thicker cookie may need longer baking time.
• Dip or Drizzle: You can dip these cookies in melted chocolate or drizzle it on top after cooling.
• Sanding Sugar: You can sprinkle the cookies with turbinado sugar or colored sanding sugar prior to baking and skip the chocolate dip, if preferred.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 165kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 51mg | Potassium: 42mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 249IU | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Butter Cookies appeared first on melissassouthernstylekitchen.com.

https://ift.tt/JFeRVBb