Danish butter cookies
Danish butter cookies are the piped rosettes, rings and pretzel shapes you know from the familiar blue tin that appears every Lunar New Year. Plenty of butter, powdered sugar and a little milk powder make them melt in your mouth with a rich, buttery, milky aroma. Some are sprinkled with sparkling pearl sugar for extra crunch.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 18 min
- Rising or chilling
- 40 min
- Total time
- 1 hr 28 min
- Method
- Oven-baked
Ingredients
Cookie dough
Pearl sugar topping (optional)
Instructions
Step 1
Let 200 g unsalted butter soften at room temperature, then beat it with 80 g powdered sugar and a pinch salt at medium speed for about four minutes. Powdered sugar dissolves quickly into butter, creating the signature fine, melt-in-your-mouth texture. The mixture is ready when it is ivory white, light and fluffy and nearly doubled in volume.
Step 2
Lightly beat 30 g eggs, then slowly add them with 4 g vanilla extract to the butter, mixing well after each addition. The small amount of egg keeps the dough soft enough to pipe without becoming runny. The mixture is ready when it is silky smooth, with no liquid separating around the sides of the bowl.
Step 3
Sift 250 g cake flour and 15 g milk powder into the bowl and fold gently with a spatula until the dry flour has just disappeared. Milk powder gives the cookies a milky aroma and a lovely golden color when baked, while gentle mixing keeps them tender and crumbly. The dough is ready when it is soft and smooth and holds the line when you draw the spatula through it.
Step 4
Fit a piping bag with a large open star tip with many teeth, fill the bag about two-thirds full with dough and twist the top tightly closed. A star tip with many teeth creates the crisp ridges typical of Danish butter cookies. The bag is ready when the dough is packed firmly toward the tip with no air pockets.
Step 5
Hold the bag straight up about one centimeter above a parchment-lined tray and pipe each rosette by squeezing in a full circle, then stop squeezing and lift; sprinkle 15 g pearl sugar over a few if you like. Even pressure and a full stop before lifting the bag give each cookie a neat finish. You've piped them well when the rosettes are the same size, with clear ridges, about two centimeters apart.
Step 6
Put the whole tray of cookies in the fridge for about twenty minutes before baking. Chilled butter keeps the patterns from melting and blurring in the oven. The cookies are ready when they feel firm and no longer sticky to a light touch.
Step 7
While the cookies chill, preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. A moderate heat bakes the cookies through to the center while keeping a beautiful pale golden color. The oven is ready once it has been on for a full fifteen minutes.
Step 8
Put the chilled tray in the oven and bake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 15 to 18 minutes. Butter cookies need to bake through thoroughly to become crisp and crumbly; underbaked, they'll be soft. The cookies are done when the edges and ridge tips are golden brown and the bases are a glossy gold.
Step 9
Leave the cookies on the tray for five minutes to firm up, then move them to a rack and let them cool for about twenty minutes. Warm, buttery cookies crumble very easily if you move them too soon. The cookies are ready when they're completely cool and crisp and crumbly when you bite in.
Equipment
- Oven
- Hand mixer
- Mixing bowl
- Spatula
- Sieve
- Kitchen scale
- Piping bag
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Wire cooling rack
- Refrigerator
Tips
- The butter should be soft enough that a finger presses in easily, but not oily; butter that is too melted will make the cookies lose their shape.
- If the bag feels too hard to squeeze, add a teaspoon of milk to soften the dough.
- Use the star tip to pipe rings or S shapes too, for a tin with a variety of shapes just like the store-bought kind.
Storage
Danish butter cookies stay crisp in a cookie tin or airtight plastic container at room temperature for up to three weeks. Let them cool completely before packing them so moisture doesn't soften them.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The dough is too stiff to squeeze out of the bag.
- The butter wasn't soft enough or the dough was overmixed. Let the dough rest at room temperature for a few minutes and fill the bag with only a little dough at a time so it's easier to squeeze.
- The cookies spread and the patterns blurred during baking.
- The butter was too soft or you skipped the chilling step. Chill the tray of cookies for at least twenty minutes and put them in only once the oven is fully hot.
This recipe is based on the common ratios for this bake and is written entirely in our own words.
