Perfect for indulging with tea, Butter Cookies are crumbly and crunchy with a delicious buttery flavour that will melt in your mouth. These cookies use only three main ingredients; powdered sugar, flour, and butter. The egg whites and milk are mainly used to combine all the main ingredients and make the batter pipeable.
The best part about butter cookies is that it is so easy to incorporate different flavours. Add 2 tablespoons of ground Cinnamon for cinnamon-spiced cookies and add a few grams of cocoa powder for chocolate butter cookies. Sometimes I like to go extra and Sandwich them with Coffee ganache or a simple chocolate ganache or chocolate buttercream.
How to make the best Butter Cookies.
- Use good quality ingredients.
- Flour. Use plain purpose flour for the perfect Cookie texture. Corn flour will make the cookies very light and crumbly due to the lack of gluten.
- Powdered sugar. You can use any kind of sugar for butter cookies however, I prefer using powdered sugar. This is because powdered Sugar has cornstarch, which will inhibit the cookies from spreading during baking, thus getting the perfect shape. In addition, it is easier to combine powdered sugar with the other ingredients without overmixing.
- Butter. For tasty melt in your mouth cookie, use good quality butter. This is because the cookies’ taste relies heavily on the butter used. Shortening works just fine, but it will limit the bust of the buttery flavor of the cookies.
- Egg whites. The egg whites used in butter cookies are mainly used to combine the icing sugar, flour, and eggs and make it easy to pipe the cookies. However, use sparingly since too much will result in cakey cookies.
- Milk. Used to make the cookie batter pipeable. Do not be tempeted to add more milk into your batter otherwise you will end up with butter cakes.
- Vanilla extract. As always, use good quality extract.
- Salt. to balance out the sugar.
2. Remove the cookies from the oven immediately after they start to brown.
Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 160 Celsius for 20-25 minutes just until the cookies brown around the edges.
You will notice that the cookies will not harden completely while in the oven and waiting for them to harden will most likely result in burnt cookies. This is because cookies continue to bake even after they are removed from the oven.
Remove the cookies from the oven and set them on a cooling rack, they will harden as they cool.
3. After piping the cookies, before baking put the cookies in the fridge for a few minutes.
After piping the cookies on the baking tray place the tray in the fridge for a few minutes. This enables the cookies to maintain the perfect swirls and shape while baking since it will limit spreading during the first few minutes of baking.
4. Do not Grease the parchment paper on the baking tray otherwise, you will burn the cookies.
5. Do not overcrowd your cookies on the baking tray.
Equipments needed when making Butter cookies
- Piping bag.
- Large piping tip.
- Hand mixer or stand mixer.
- Mixing bowl.
- Baking tray.
How to store Butter Cookies.
The first rule in storing butter cookies is; always make sure the cookies are completely cooled before putting them in a container. This is because storing warm cookies in a sealed container leads to sweating thus, the cookies will come out sticky and almost cakey.
What I usually do is, after the cookies have completely cooled, I wrap them with clean dry parchment paper, then I put the wrapped cookies into a container and seal them tightly.
Stored cookies can be kept at room temperature or refrigerated for longer storage periods.
Butter Cookies Recipe
Ingredients.
- 300 grams unsalted butter
- 120 grams powdered sugar
- 400 grams flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 egg whites
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3-4 tbs milk
procedure.
- Sift the flour and the icing sugar then set aside.
- In another bowl, mix the butter and egg whites, salt, and Vanilla extract thoroughly.
- Now pour in the sifted flour mix and mix for another 5-10 minutes (scraping on the sides of the bowl) until everything is incorporated. Add the milk while mixing.
- Fill your piping bag with the cookie butter, and pipe medium sized swirls( or preffered shape) on a baking tray.
- Refrigerate for 15-25.
- Bake at 160 celsius for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges start to brown. Remove from the oven then set them on a cooling rack for atleast 10 minutes to cool. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container lined with baking paper.
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