Homemade cookies are not only much more beneficial to health than industrial goods, but their preparation may also be very entertaining and enjoyable, especially for children.
Butter cookies are one of the easiest recipes to make at home. So, the following article will present an easy, healthy and delicious butter cookies recipe.
How to make butter cookies?
The famous butter cookies also known as Danish cookies stand out for their delicious taste as well as their soft and exquisite texture. Making homemade butter cookies is extremely easy and fun especially if the children participate. Besides, they are perfect to be served to your guests if you want to surprise them with something tasty.
The first thing you should do is to have all the ingredients and tools at hand. Weighting them and preparing the right quantities beforehand will help you make everything quickly, avoid forgetting something and making mistakes.
If you are going to be helped by children, you should pay attention to what they are doing, make sure that they do not have within reach some tool that may be dangerous for them or with which they can hurt themselves, as well as keep them away from the oven.
Butter cookies recipe
Next, we will describe how to make the classic butter cookies step by step. Let’s see what ingredients you will need for this recipe.
Ingredients
350 gr of pastry flour
300 gr of butter
250 gr of sugar
2 large eggs
Ground cinnamon
Salt
Preparation
First of all, take the butter and eggs out of the fridge, since it is better if they are at room temperature.
1. Mix the ingredients
To begin with, you need a large bowl to mix the different ingredients. In order to make the dough for the cookies, you can use either a whisk or a blender.
The good thing about using a blender is that you do not only get less tired, but you also finish the recipe more quickly and get a more homogeneous and soft cookie dough.
2. Cream the mixture
Put the butter and sugar in the bowl and cream them together until it becomes fluffy and homogeneous. Then, add the two eggs and keep beating until everything is well mixed, making sure that there are no lumps.
In case of doubt, it would be better if you mix them a little longer since, otherwise, the butter cookies may have small lumps of sugar that are cloying when you eat them.
3. Sift the flour
For the next step you will need another bowl to sift the flour through a sieve. This process consists of separating by means of a sieve the thick and large pieces of flour from its fine powder.
In this way, you will sieve the flour to avoid large lumps in the dough. After doing this, pour the flour little by little into the bowl that contains the butter, sugar and eggs, and mix it all slowly with the whisk.
4. Add cinnamon
At this point, you should add a bit of ground cinnamon to the cookie dough. Depending on your taste, you can add either one or two teaspoons of cinnamon, or even a little more if you want the cookies to have a stronger flavour.
You can taste the dough to make sure that the amount of cinnamon is the correct one. Once it is settled, mix the dough slowly until it forms a homogeneous and somehow sticky texture.
5. Knead the cookie dough
Once you get the texture you want for the cookie dough, knead it with your hands. First, dust some flour on the surface where you are going to knead the dough so that it does not get sticky.
Then, slowly and patiently, knead the cookie dough for a few minutes. When you finish it, form the dough into a ball. If you think it is easier, you can divide the dough into three or four balls.
Place the ball or balls of dough on a baking parchment paper and cover them with another paper. With a rolling pin or something similar, roll out the dough until it is well extended.
6. Leave the dough chill
Now, you should leave the cookie dough chill for about an hour. It is recommended to put it in the fridge, because the cold temperature will make the butter cookies have much more consistency.
7. Preheat the oven
Preheat the oven to 180ºC so that the heat is evenly distributed above and below too.
8. Roll out the cookie dough
Take the dough out from the fridge and roll it out with the rolling pin until it becomes as thick as you want. You should keep in mind that if you make it too thick, there is the possibility that the cookies will not be properly baked. However, if you make it too thin, the cookies may be very dry or hard.
9. Cut out the dough
Remove the baking paper from the top of the dough and then, cut out the cookies. It is recommended to use cookie cutters, since it is easier and faster and so, you make sure that the dough does not stick. However, you can also use a glass or any other similar tool.
10. Bake the butter cookies
Next, put the butter cookies on the baking sheet, which should be previously greased with butter. When the oven reaches the correct temperature (180ºC), put the baking sheet inside the oven and bake the cookies for about 15 to 20 minutes.
You will know that the butter cookies are baked when they turn golden in the middle and golden brown around the edges. At this point, take out the cookies from the oven and let them cool.
And this is it: when they cool completely, the butter cookies will be ready to eat and enjoy.
Garnish and variations
Although the classic butter cookies are already quite tasty, if you have a sweet tooth, you can garnish them with icing sugar or chocolate sprinkles.
Moreover, if you want to make chocolate butter cookies, you only need to add some chocolate chips to the dough. You can find them already cut and prepared. You should add them after mixing the flour with the butter, sugar and eggs, that is, after the third step of the recipe.