Butter Cookies

Name: Butter Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 10
Ingredients: Type 00 flour 2 ½ cups; Butter (cold from the fridge) 7.1 oz; Sugar ¾ cup; Egg yolks 1; Vanilla bean (the seeds) 1; Fine salt 1 pinch

Vegetarian

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Serving: 10
Cost: Low
Note + the resting time of the dough in the fridge (30 min.)

PRESENTATION

Butter cookies are shortbread's Italian cousin — same logic, same restraint, different ratio. The dough is three ingredients: butter, flour, and sugar. What makes them work is the butter itself, which needs to be good quality and at the right temperature — soft enough to cream, cold enough to keep the dough from spreading in the oven. The result is a cookie that holds its shape cleanly, snaps when you break it, and dissolves almost immediately once it hits the tongue.

They keep well in a tin for several days, which makes them worth baking in quantity. Plain and golden is the classic — a dusting of powdered sugar is the only finish they need. For something more elaborate, a dip in melted dark chocolate or a coat of royal icing turns the same dough into something you'd find in a pasticceria window. They work at breakfast alongside jam or honey, in the afternoon with espresso or tea, or as the kind of thing you leave on the counter and slowly finish over three days without noticing.

How to prepare Butter Cookies

To prepare butter cookies, first place the cold butter in the bowl of the stand mixer equipped with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar 1, a pinch of salt, the seeds of the vanilla bean 2, and run the machine for a few seconds. When the butter has softened, add the egg yolk 3 and mix for about a minute.

Now add the flour 4 and run the stand mixer again. Once the flour has been absorbed into the mixture, transfer it to the work surface and compact it to form a dough, being careful not to overwork it to avoid gluten formation 5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap 6 and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After the resting time, take the dough and, using a little flour, roll it out to a thickness of about 5/16 inch 7. If it seems too hard, you can soften it by gently hitting it with the rolling pin. Use a cookie cutter with a 1 1/2-inch diameter to cut out the cookies 8; you will get about 40 of this size. You can reuse the scraps 9 by kneading them again and letting the dough rest in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

After forming the cookies, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, spacing them slightly apart 10. Bake in a static oven at 340°F for about 15 minutes 11, then remove from the oven and let cool. Your butter cookies are ready to be enjoyed 12!

Storage

Butter cookies can be stored at room temperature in a tin box for a week.

You can freeze the raw dough for about a month.

Tip

If you don't have a stand mixer, you can easily work the dough by hand following the same order of ingredients, being careful to knead quickly to avoid warming the butter too much.

As an alternative to vanilla, you can flavor the cookies with citrus zest or cinnamon powder.

Choose your favorite cookie cutters to create themed cookies like Shortbread Faces with Chocolate and Jam, Befanini, or Halloween Shortcrust Cookies!

Looking for a lactose-free alternative? Here's the recipe for Olive Oil Cookies!

For the translation of some texts, artificial intelligence tools may have been used.

Butter Cookies

PRESENTATION

How to prepare Butter Cookies

Storage

Tip

RELATED RECIPES