Recipe of the day: 3-ingredient butter cookies

Butter cookies are a firm favourite on many a baker’s to-do-list for the festive season.

These cookies are probably one of the most popular ones eaten during the Christmas period as they aren’t too sweet, and light enough to snag one or two every time you pass the cookie jar.

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Quick and easy butter cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (227 g) butter softened and slightly melted (see notes)
• 1 cup (118 g) powdered sugar
• 2 cups (256 g) all purpose flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 177°C. Line 2 large baking sheets with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add butter and sugar. Cream at highest speed for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. The mixture should turn from yellow to white and look like whipped cream when you are done. If you are using a stand mixer, make sure to stop and scrape the sides of your bowl a few times with a spatula so that all the butter gets creamed. I used the wire whisk attachment with the stand mixer.
3. Add in the flour. Mix in at low speed and then gradually increase speed once flour is incorporated. The mixture will be crumbly at first but then should form a thick, soft dough, almost like a thick paste. You can stop mixing once the dough comes together.
4. Add dough to a piping bag. Using a large open star tip, pipe swirls or whatever design you prefer. Space cookies 2cm apart. See notes for other options if you don’t wish to pipe the cookies. Place piped cookies into fridge for 30 minutes so the dough is chilled. This will prevent the cookies from spreading too much when they bake.
5. Place one cookie sheet into the middle of your oven. Bake cookies for about 15-20 minutes or until edges and surface start to turn a light brown. (Mine took about 18-20 minutes). Remove cookies from oven and bake the second tray. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet before removing. Store uneaten cookies in an airtight container.

Notes:

• I recommend only baking one sheet of cookies at a time. When I tried baking both, the cookies on the bottom rack did not brown on top as evenly.
• If you want to add some vanilla extract to the cookies, add 1 tsp with the flour.
• Your butter needs to be very soft and slightly melted. I recommend heating it in the microwave for a few seconds to achieve this. The sticks of butter should be very soft and mostly solid, but with about 1 tbsp of liquid butter per stick. This leads to the best consistency for the dough.
• Be careful not to add too much flour, which will cause your dough to be too stiff to pipe. To properly measure the flour, scoop the flour with a spoon into your measuring cup and then level the cup with a knife.
• The dough is thick but it should be soft enough to pipe (with some effort). If you are finding it too stiff to pipe a full spiral, then you can try mixing in 1 tbsp of melted butter into the dough and mixing it again.
• If you don’t want to pipe the dough, you can break off some dough and form balls, then flatten them into discs. Make sure they are very flat, otherwise they won’t be as crispy as the piped cookies.  You can add some patterns with a fork or leave them plain.

This recipe was sourced from www.kirbiecravings.com

3-ingredient butter cookies

These 3-ingredient cookies are quick and easy to make, and don’t require any eggs.

• Author: Kirbie’s Cravings
• Prep Time: 20 min
• Cook Time: 20 min
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Category: Dessert
• Method: oven-bake
• Cuisine: American, Danish

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 cup (227 g) butter softened and slightly melted (see notes)
• 1 cup (118 g) powdered sugar
• 2 cups (256 g) all purpose flour

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 177°C. Line 2 large baking sheets with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add butter and sugar. Cream at highest speed for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. The mixture should turn from yellow to white and look like whipped cream when you are done. If you are using a stand mixer, make sure to stop and scrape the sides of your bowl a few times with a spatula so that all the butter gets creamed. I used the wire whisk attachment with the stand mixer.
3. Add in the flour. Mix in at low speed and then gradually increase speed once flour is incorporated. The mixture will be crumbly at first but then should form a thick, soft dough, almost like a thick paste. You can stop mixing once the dough comes together.
4. Add dough to a piping bag. Using a large open star tip, pipe swirls or whatever design you prefer. Space cookies 2cm apart. See notes for other options if you don’t wish to pipe the cookies. Place piped cookies into fridge for 30 minutes so the dough is chilled. This will prevent the cookies from spreading too much when they bake.
5. Place one cookie sheet into the middle of your oven. Bake cookies for about 15-20 minutes or until edges and surface start to turn a light brown. (Mine took about 18-20 minutes). Remove cookies from oven and bake the second tray. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet before removing. Store uneaten cookies in an airtight container.

Notes

• I recommend only baking one sheet of cookies at a time. When I tried baking both, the cookies on the bottom rack did not brown on top as evenly.
• If you want to add some vanilla extract to the cookies, add 1 tsp with the flour.
• Your butter needs to be very soft and slightly melted. I recommend heating it in the microwave for a few seconds to achieve this. The sticks of butter should be very soft and mostly solid, but with about 1 tbsp of liquid butter per stick. This leads to the best consistency for the dough.
• Be careful not to add too much flour, which will cause your dough to be too stiff to pipe. To properly measure the flour, scoop the flour with a spoon into your measuring cup and then level the cup with a knife.
• The dough is thick but it should be soft enough to pipe (with some effort). If you are finding it too stiff to pipe a full spiral, then you can try mixing in 1 tbsp of melted butter into the dough and mixing it again.
• If you don’t want to pipe the dough, you can break off some dough and form balls, then flatten them into discs. Make sure they are very flat, otherwise they won’t be as crispy as the piped cookies. You can add some patterns with a fork or leave them plain.

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