Butter Cookies Recipe

Course Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American, Southern

Keyword butter-cookies-recipe, christmas-butter-cookie-recipe

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 11

Cooling Time 30

Total Time 56

Servings large cookies

Calories 165kcal

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 tsp almond extract adjust to taste
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all purpose flour
Chocolate:
4 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped Or 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp coconut oil Or 2 tsp melted solid vegetable shortening
nonpareils for decorating

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Cookie Dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together the butter with the sugar on high speed until smooth.
Add the salt, vanilla extract, almond extract and egg yolk. Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes or until combined.
Switch to the paddle attachment. Add the flour on low speed, beating until combined. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl periodically. Beat the dough until it's fully moistened. The cookie dough will be very thick.
Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a large 1M open star pastry tip. Pipe the batter in a circular swirl pattern onto the prepared cookie sheet. Leave at least 2-inches of space between each cookie. (For less spreading, chill for 30 minutes on the pan.)
Bake for 8-11 minutes. The edges will be lightly golden brown and the cookie will appear “dry”.
Cool on the pan for 10-15 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. (Handle carefully, the cookies are fragile when they are warm.)
Melt Chocolate: Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a microwave-safe bowl with the shortening or coconut oil. Microwave at 50% power for 1 minute, then stop and stir. Repeat the process until completely smooth.
Dip one side of the cooled cookie into the melted chocolate. Sprinkle with nonpareils. Have nearby a pan lined with wax paper, lay cookies on the pan.
Let stand for 10-15 minutes or until the chocolate sets, then serve.

Notes

Butter: You can use salted butter for this recipe. When doing so, omit 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Chocolate: You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips for dipping the cookies.

Flavoring: You could use different flavorings such as coconut extract or lemon extract to give the cookies a different flavor profile.

Drop Cookies: If you don't want to pipe the cookie dough, you can still make this recipe as drop cookies. Use a medium cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to divide the cookie dough and bake per the recipe. A thicker cookie may need longer baking time.

Dip or Drizzle: You can dip these cookies in melted chocolate or drizzle it on top after cooling.

Sanding Sugar: You can sprinkle the cookies with turbinado sugar or colored sanding sugar prior to baking and skip the chocolate dip, if preferred.

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