Milk cookies
Milk cookies are crisp, crumbly cookies with a rich milky aroma from milk powder mixed straight into the dough, bringing back memories of childhood treats. They're gently sweet and melt quickly in your mouth, so kids love them. You can cut the dough into all sorts of fun shapes with cookie cutters.
- Difficulty
- Very easy
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 16 min
- Rising or chilling
- 30 min
- Total time
- 1 hr 16 min
- Method
- Oven-baked
Ingredients
Instructions
Step 1
Beat 110 g softened butter with 80 g powdered sugar and a pinch of salt on low speed, then gradually increase the speed, for about three minutes. Moderate beating makes the cookies light while still keeping the shape of the cutters. The mixture is ready when it's smooth, pale and clings in a soft layer around the bowl.
Step 2
Add 50 g beaten eggs in two additions, then add 15 g whole milk and 3 g vanilla extract and beat until blended. The eggs and milk should be at room temperature so the butter doesn't seize into little lumps. The mixture is ready when it's silky and slightly glossy with no liquid separating out.
Step 3
Sift 50 g milk powder, 220 g all-purpose flour, 30 g cornstarch and 3 g baking powder into the bowl, mix with a spatula, then press gently with your hands into a ball. Milk powder clumps easily, so sift it thoroughly to avoid hard spots in the cookies. The dough is ready when it's soft and smooth, doesn't stick to your hands and is a pale cream color.
Step 4
Divide the dough in half, flatten each piece, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Chilled, rested dough rolls out thin without sticking, and the cookies keep their sharp edges in the oven. The dough is ready when it has firmed up but still bends without cracking.
Step 5
Preheat the oven to 165°C, roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about five millimeters thick, cut out shapes with cookie cutters and arrange them on a baking sheet two centimeters apart. Rolling between parchment means you don't need to dust with extra flour, which would make the cookies hard. The tray is ready when the cookies are evenly thick and the cut edges are crisp.
Step 6
Bake the cookies at 165°C for about 14 to 16 minutes, until the edges turn pale golden. Milk cookies are best when the tops are still a light cream color; baking too long makes them lose their milky aroma. They're done when the bottoms are lightly golden and the tops are dry, no longer shiny.
Step 7
Leave the cookies on the sheet for about five minutes, then gently move them to a rack to cool completely. Hot cookies are very soft, so lifting them too soon makes them warp or break. They're ready when they're firm and crisp, sound dry when tapped and have a light, crumbly texture inside.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Hand mixer
- Spatula
- Sieve
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutter
- Mixing bowl
- Kitchen scale
- Plastic wrap
- Refrigerator
Tips
- Whole milk powder gives a far richer aroma than nonfat milk powder, and it's the ingredient that creates this cookie's signature flavor.
- You can brush the tops with egg yolk mixed with a little milk before baking for shinier, more golden cookies.
- Gather up the dough scraps left after cutting and chill them for ten minutes before rolling again, so the cookies don't turn hard.
Storage
Let the cookies cool completely, then store them in an airtight container somewhere dry, where they'll stay crisp for about two weeks. Don't store them with soft or moist baked goods, because milk cookies will absorb the moisture and go soft.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The cookies puff up and lose the shape of the cutter.
- The dough was too warm or the butter was beaten too fluffy. Beat the butter moderately and put the whole tray of cut cookies in the fridge for ten minutes before baking.
- The cookies have hard white specks.
- The milk powder wasn't sifted, so it was still lumpy. Sift the milk powder thoroughly together with the flour before adding it to the butter.
This recipe is based on the common ratios for this bake and is written entirely in our own words.
