Those lovely Danish Butter cookies which come in tins at this time of year are so delicious. I wanted to make some, as similar to those as possible.
So I needed a biscuit that was buttery, with a slightly crisp but soft texture. The sort of melt-in-the-mouth texture that is so good to eat.
The ones available in stores come in various shapes. Indeed almost any shape would work fine. The dough it such that it can easily pass through a cookie press, if you have one of those.
I do have a cookie press but decided to pipe my shapes, since not everyone has a press. But the dough doesn’t even have to be piped. It can be shaped into cookies in whatever way you wish. For instance rolled into small balls and then flattened, with fingers or with a fork etc.
For mine I used a piping bag with a star nozzle and made two shapes, keeping things as simple as possible.
The recipe is very easy indeed, using only a small number of ingredients. They are flour, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and a little salt.
The ingredients are mixed together and then piped or shaped as desired. Then the shapes are chilled as the oven preheats.
Baking only takes 12 to 15 minutes too, so the cookies are quickly ready to eat. They are also great to put into small bags and offer as gifts at this time of year.
My Cookies
I baked my cookies for about 14 minutes, until the edges had started to colour just a little. The dough did spread a little, as I expected. I am not quite sure how to prevent that with such a high ratio of butter to dry ingredients. But the cookies still retained some of the shape I wanted.
I cooled the cookies on a wire rack before sampling. The cookies had a great texture and flavour. They were crisp on the outside, but still soft and crumbly on the inside. In fact they had that almost melting texture in the mouth.
I found it difficult not to eat more than is good for me. Indeed I am sure I did just that.
Another very easy cookie/biscuit recipe for Christmas is Ricciarelli – Italian Almond Cookies.
Danish Style Butter Cookies
Course: Biscuits, Cookies, ChristmasDifficulty: Easy36
servings15
minutes15
minutesIngredients
287g(1 2/3 cups+1/4 cup, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour
227g(1 cup) softened unsalted butter
113g(1 cups minutes 1 1/2 tbsp) icing sugar, sifted
1 medium egg(large in USA)
15ml(1 tbsp) vanilla extract (or milk or other flavour)
1/5g(1/4 tsp) salt
Directions
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat again, until fully incorporated.
- Add the salt to the flour and pour into the wet mixture, then fold in until just combined.
- Place the dough into a piping bag, fitted with a star nozzle, and pipe the shapes of your choice, with the cookies being about 2 inches(5cm) in diameter, onto a parchment lined baking tray. Or shape however you wish without a piping bag.
- Chill the cookies in the fridge as you preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F.
- Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges just begin to colour a little.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and leave on the tray for a few minutes, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container, they will be good for about 5 days. They can also be frozen.