Soft Butter Cookies - The Best Recipe OwlbBaking.com (2024)

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These Soft Butter Cookies are delicate, tender and are melt in your mouth buttery! These cookies have a classic swirl design that is impressive and so easy to make at home! This is the best, soft butter cookie recipe.

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*this post was updated on 3/3/20*

You know those beautiful, swirly butter cookies in the blue tin? They are just so pretty and seriously, who doesn't love a classic butter cookie?! They are the perfect cookie for anything & everything.

I love butter cookies. My main issue with store bought butter cookies is that they are usually extremely dry, crumbly and sandy in texture.

I'm not a huge crunchy-cookie kind of person, so I really wanted to do a recipe on my blog for homemade soft butter cookies.

This one makes such a difference. They are absolutely delicious!

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How to make soft butter cookies

As far as list of ingredients goes, this recipe is super simple.

You'll have everything you need in your pantry.

  • Unsalted butter (if you only have salted, omit the added salt in the recipe)
  • Sugar (granulated, brown sugar cannot be used!)
  • Egg yolks
  • Vanilla Extract
  • Flour
  • Salt
  • A small amount of milk

As you can see, this recipe does not use any leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda, since we don't want the cookie to rise or puff up!

The only special tools you'll need are a large, star piping tip and a heavy duty piping bag.

Having heavy duty piping bags on hand is always great because you don't have to worry about them popping at the seams, even when you're working with a thicker batter like this one.

No matter how much pressure I push on the bag, it never breaks.

The piping tip you use should be on the larger size. I like this one. I also use it to make the perfect frosting swirl for cupcakes.

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Ingredients aside, these are the questions that may pop up when making this recipe:

Is piping cookie dough difficult?

The only thing that makes it a little more challenging to work with is the fact that the dough is obviously going to be thicker to pipe, versus, say buttercream.

It's more stiff to work with and takes a little muscle to work it out of the piping tip, but as long as you get the consistency of the dough right you'll be fine!

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How will I know what the right consistency is?

The first time I made these cookies, I had made a perfect, cookie dough ball and it felt soft enough.

When I went to pipe it, the dough was literally impossible to push through the piping bag. It took me a couple of tries to get it right.

The key here is that the dough should not form a ball shape.

You should be looking for the dough to be the consistency of stiff American buttercream (or rather, a bit more stiff than you would use for buttercream).

The dough should be sticky and stick to the sides of the bowl.

You can test it by running your spatula through the dough. It should have light resistance, but otherwise feel smooth to stir around.

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The key is to add enough milk. If your flour is on the dry side, you can add more milk to loosen it up. The catch is, to add as little milk as possible.

More milk will make the cookies spread you do not want these cookies spread, otherwise you'll lose the piped shape.

Help, my dough is too thick!

Before unloading all of the dough into the piping bag, test a small amount of dough first to see if how it works out.

That way, if you do have to go back and fix it, you won't have to deal with the mess of getting it out of the piping bag and back in again!

If the dough is too thick, simply add a teaspoon of milk at a time to the rest of the dough in the bowl, until it becomes sticky and turns into more of a thick batter.

This cookie dough is very forgiving and it's easy to go back and try again.

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How to make swirly, soft butter cookies

After finally nailing down the right consistency, it then took me a few tries to get the hang of the shape.

The trick to making these is to start by holding your piping bag straight up, applying pressure to push some dough out and pulling it up just a little bit, before wrapping the swirl around the center.

Because this recipe is so butter-heavy, I recommend keeping an extra close watch on them in the oven. I found that it helped to turn the tray halfway through baking so that all the cookies bake evenly.

If you want to keep your cookies soft, bake them until they are VERY light golden brown on the edges. If you want a crisper cookie, these can hang in the oven for a little longer.

You're New Favorite Cookie

This recipe for Soft Butter Cookies is everything I hoped for and more. It's one of my favorite and most versatile cookie recipes, also great for Christmas cookies!

Sometimes I like to dress them up with melted chocolate, chocolate chips, or white chocolate chips. I might drizzle some chocolate on top but dipping the bottoms in chocolate is also a great!

I haven't experimented with using this dough in a cookie press yet, but it should also work well.

If you're not up for making the swirl shape, you can also dollop the dough onto the cookie sheet to make drop cookies.

They are butter cookie perfection for a sweet tooth like mine!

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Looking for another fancy butter cookie idea? Try my Italian Butter Cookies!

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Soft Butter Cookies

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These Soft Butter Cookies are delicate, tender and are melt in your mouth buttery! These cookies have a classic swirl design that is impressive and so easy to make at home! This is the best, soft butter cookie recipe.

Soft Butter Cookies - The Best Recipe OwlbBaking.com (10)

  • Total Time: 28 minutes
  • Yield: 18 cookies 1x

Ingredients

Scale

  • 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
  • ⅔ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (other extracts can be used)
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ tsp salt (if you need to use salted butter, omit this)
  • 2 Tbsp milk (whole or 2%) (more if needed, but the amount of milk will vary by batch due to the moisture level in the other ingredients)

Use fruit jam or chocolate to sandwich cookies together or dip in chocolate (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line cookie trays with parchment (if the air temp is on the warmer side, it is a good idea to chill the cookies for 30 minutes before baking, so be sure to plan accordingly).
  2. In a large bowl, cream the butter & sugar until light and fluffy using a hand mixer.
  3. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and mix on medium speed until well combined.
  4. Next, add the flour & salt to the mixture and mix on low speed until large crumbles form.
  5. Add the 2 tablespoons of milk and mix until the milk is absorbed. If the dough is not sticky, add another TEASPOON of milk until it is sticky and has the consistency of thick buttercream. Avoid using too much milk as this can cause the cookies to spread too much!
  6. Transfer the dough to an extra large, heavy dutypiping bagfitted with a large open star tip.
  7. Pipe the dough into rosettes by using the following motion; holding the bag upright, pipe the dough onto the tray and pull up slightly, then wrap around the center and pull gently to release.
  8. Chill if needed.
  9. Bake in the oven until light golden brown on the edges, about 13 – 15 minutes.
  10. Allow to fully cool on baking sheet.

Notes

Links to supplies you'll need for this recipe:

Piping Tips
Heavy Duty Piping Bags

  • Author: Liz at Owlbbaking.com
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 13 minutes
  • Category: Cookies
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1
  • Calories: 176
  • Sugar: 8g

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©2022 Owlbbaking, LLC. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from owner is strictly prohibited. Photography & video may not be used without consent (Click here for round-up feature consent).

Soft Butter Cookies - The Best Recipe OwlbBaking.com (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to soft cookies? ›

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

What makes cookies soft and fluffy? ›

Baking soda

When added to dough, baking soda releases a carbon dioxide gas which helps leaven the dough, creating a soft, fluffy cookie. Baking soda is generally used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient such as vinegar, sour cream or citrus.

What makes a softer cookie butter or Crisco? ›

Shortening traps more air bubbles and has a higher melting point than butter, so recipes using shortening tend to produce baked goods with more lift and that hold their shape during baking. Interior texture will also be softer and lighter.

How do you make cookies soft instead of hard? ›

There are a few things you can try to get soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies:
  1. Use a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar. ...
  2. Use more egg yolks and less egg whites. ...
  3. Add a bit of cornstarch to the dough. ...
  4. Make sure you're using the right type of flour. ...
  5. Don't over-bake the cookies.
Oct 26, 2022

What makes cookies stay soft and chewy? ›

Use Brown Sugar

Add two tablespoons of light or dark brown sugar to your cookie recipe. Brown sugar can hold extra moisture because of its molecular structure (science!). The glucose and fructose found in it are hygroscopic, which means they suck up and hang onto moisture and moisture = soft, chewy cookies.

Should I use baking soda or baking powder in cookies? ›

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

What is the best sugar for baking cookies? ›

Granulated sugar: Derived from either sugarcane or sugar beets, this is the most commonly used sugar in baking, and for good reason. It's neutral in flavor and has medium-sized, uniform crystals that are small enough to dissolve into batters and large enough to create air pockets when creamed with butter.

What happens if you use melted butter instead of softened for cookies? ›

In cookies, softened butter will result in a cakier and airier cookie than using melted butter. This is due to the fact that softened butter will create air bubbles that expand in the oven during baking. Melted butter will make your cookies delightfully dense on the inside and crisp on the edges.

Why are my butter cookies tough? ›

Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly. You should use unsalted butter to control the salt content, but if you only have salted on hand, reduce the amount of added salt accordingly. Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown.

How do you soften butter cookie dough? ›

The easiest way is to keep the butter at room temperature for some time. If you are in a hurry, then microwave butter for just 5–10 seconds, not more than that.

Should you chill cookie dough before baking? ›

Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.

How long should you leave butter out to soften for cookies? ›

To soften butter, we recommend leaving it on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes to an hour. Keep in mind that the speed at which your butter will soften depends on the temperature of your kitchen. If it's wintertime, you might need to leave your butter on the counter overnight to fully soften.

What does vanilla extract do in cookies? ›

The primary purpose of vanilla extract is to add flavour to baked goods. Lacking it, baked goods tend to have a bland and boring taste. Vanilla extract can also contribute moisture to create a soft and fluffy texture.

What makes cookies chewy and not hard? ›

Chewy cookies

Sugar dissolved in baking forms a syrup as the dough heats up. Different types of sugars affect the texture because they absorb different amounts of water. Remember moisture is the key! White sugar creates crispier cookies and brown sugar creates chewier cookies.

What determines the moistness of a cookie? ›

Butter contributes milk solids and water to a cookie, both of which soften it. Brown sugar contributes molasses – again, a softener. Using lower-moisture sugar (granulated) and fat (vegetable shortening), plus a longer, slower bake than normal, produces light, crunchy cookies.

What makes a hard cookie soft? ›

The best way to soften up those hard cookies is something you probably already have in your kitchen… bread! That's right, a piece of fresh bread will make those tough treats soft and chewy.

Is it OK to use melted butter instead of softened? ›

Softened butter and melted butter are not the same. Using melted butter will change the texture of whatever you're baking. If you only want the butter to soften for spreading, microwave it on the Defrost setting (30%) in 5-second increments until it's softened as desired.

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