Basic Butter Cookies

Name: Basic Butter Cookies
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 72 cookies
Ingredients: Butter or margarine for greasing cookie sheets; 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/8 teaspoon salt; 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature; 2/3 cup superfine sugar; 1 large egg; 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract; Glaze or flavored sugar (optional; see note below)

By Dena Kleiman

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Rating: 4(58)
Notes: Read community notes

Featured in: The Spirit of Christmas Past Lives On in Traditional Cookies

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Ingredients

Yield:72 cookies

Butter or margarine for greasing cookie sheets
2½cups all-purpose flour
½teaspoon baking powder
⅛teaspoon salt
16tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
⅔cup superfine sugar
1large egg
1½teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
Glaze or flavored sugar (optional; see note below)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets and set aside.
Step 2
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of wax paper and set aside. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until light. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and beat until the dough is smooth.
Step 3
The dough can be shaped in a variety of ways: dropped from a teaspoon, molded into balls or run through the thin setting of a cookie press. It may also be packed into a pastry bag fitted with a large or small star tip to make "spritz cookies" in the shapes of rosettes or wreaths or in S-shapes. Leave 1 inch between cookies.
Step 4
Bake in the middle of the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges begin to turn golden.
Step 5
Transfer the cookies to racks to cool. (Cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to 10 days or in the freezer for two months.)

Tip

Cookies can be glazed after baking or sprinkled with vanilla sugar (see recipes below). For orange- or lemon-flavored cookies, substitute 4 teaspoons of grated orange skin or 2 teaspoons of grated lemon skin and 1 or 2 teaspoons of fresh orange or lemon juice for the extract.

Ratings

4 out of 5

58 user ratings

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Cooking Notes

Amy5 years ago

OMG!! Hands down, my new favorite cookie!! And I thought nothing would ever beat my oecan shortbread, lol Just made these for our Christmas festivities, rolled in red and green sugars, beyond wonderful. Being from the Midwest, we don't buy into the fancy butters, sugars, etc. We cook with straight-up unsalted butter, granulated sugar, etc. These were fabulous without all the fancy ingredients, so don't waste your $$ on "cultured" butter, lol.... Chilled for 2hrs, sliced & baked. Super simple!

sumwug3 years ago

These are slightly richer in butter than the standard sugar cookie recipe in the Times and elsewhere, but the dough is still perfectly easy to roll out and cut. This will be my holiday cookie recipe now. Chill the dough for an hour before rolling, and don’t roll too thinly. I brushed them with a thin glaze while they were still warm and sprinkled the sparkles on then. That worked.

Sherry4 years ago

I found the easiest was to roll the dough into individual balls and then press each one to a circle on the cookie sheets. The dough was too thick for me when I tried to use a pastry bag and a large star tip. I also found I had to bake them for 15 minutes. I thought 375 degrees was a bit too hot so I used 350 degrees. I also brushed them all with egg and sprinkled some cinnamon-sugar on each one before baking. They came out fabulous.

Amy5 years ago

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