Danish butter cookies recipe | Cooking with my kids (2024)

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If you want a delicious melt in your mouth cookie look no further than these Danish butter cookies. They’re a great biscuit for the festive season, but I’d be happy to eat them at any time of year.

Danish butter cookies are a delicious melt in your mouth biscuit/cookie. They’re the sort of biscuit you get it in biscuit tins at Christmas but are the perfect treat for any time of year.

With only a few ingredients, they’re relatively quick and easy to bake, and make great gifts for friends and family during the festive season.

How can kids help make Danish butter cookies?

Butter biscuits are a fun bake for kids to make. There’s lots of measuring and mixing to do, but no eggs to get messy with. They’ll also have fun getting to pipe the biscuit shapes (my kids love any chance they get to do some piping as they feel like real bakers!)

Can you make these cookies if you don’t have a piping bag?

Yes. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can make all butter cookies with a medium or large resealable bag. Simply add the dough to the bag, and cut one corner to your desired thickness. Somewhere about 1cm or 1/4 – 1/2 inch would work well. Once you’ve done that, pipe as normal. You won’t get any fluted designs without a proper nozzle, but they’ll still look great.

Alternatively, you can make these by rolling small pieces of dough into balls and pressing them. You’ll get nice round biscuits rather than any fancy wreath shapes, but they’ll still taste the same.

What happens if the dough is too hard to pipe?

The dough can be hard to pipe if the butter is too hard/cold. If you’re finding it too difficult, try leaving it out at room temperature for the butter to warm up, or add a tablespoon of warm milk to the dough. Once you’ve mixed it in, it should be easier to pipe.

If you’re kids are very young or are still having trouble piping the cookie shapes, try making them without the piping bag.

How long do Danish butter cookies last?

Once the cookies have cooled down fully, you can store them in an airtight container. They’ll keep for about a week at room temperature, or you can freeze them for up to three months.

What other easy biscuits can I make?

If you enjoy making these Danish butter cookies, why not try one of our other simple kids’ biscuits?

Easy cookie recipe for kids
Gingerbread men
Chocolate thumbprint cookies
Custard biscuits
Empire biscuits
Melting moments
Jammie dodgers
Iced biscuits
Bourbon biscuits
Custard creams

Useful equipment

You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these Danish butter cookies

Digital scales
Wooden spoons
Mixing bowl
Freestanding mixer
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Piping bag
Baking tray
Wire rack

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Ingredients

125g (1/2 cup) butter, at room temperature
40g (1/2 cup) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g (1 cup) plain / all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornflour
* If you have cake flour, just use 125g (1 cup) of that and omit the cornflour.

How to make Danish butter cookies

Preheat your oven to 170C / 160C Fan / 340F and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Cream the butter and icing sugar together

Start by getting your kids to weigh the butter and icing sugar out and add them to a large mixing bowl or freestanding mixer.

The butter needs to be at room temperature for this recipe, otherwise it’ll be really difficult to pipe. If your butter isn’t very soft, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it (not melt it) to make it easier to mix and pipe. Ours had been out the fridge overnight but with it being winter, our kitchen was still a little chilly so our butter wasn’t that soft which it makes it all a bit harder to do (and is why we started using wooden spoons to mix but ended up using our mixer!)

Get your kids to cream the butter and icing sugar together with the k paddle of your mixer, a hand held mixer or just some wooden spoons. Cream them for a few minutes until they are light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla

Get your kids to add the vanilla extract and mix it in to your butter /icing sugar mixture. I find it easiest if I get them to hold the measuring spoon while I pour in the vanilla or vice versa.

Add the flour

Get your kids to measure the flour, and cornflour (or just cake flour if you’re using it) and add it to your bowl.

Mix the flour in until everything comes together in a soft ball of dough.

You might find it easier to use your hands at the end to help it come together, the heat from your hands will also make it easier to pipe later.

If your dough is very dry and not coming together try adding a tbsp or so of milk.

Pipe the butter cookies

Add the butter biscuit dough to a piping bag with a star nozzle attached.

Get your kids to pipe circles of biscuit dough on to your prepared baking tray. The first few we did we found a bit hard to get through the nozzle, but the more you hold the piping bag, the softer the mixture will become and the easier it is to pipe.

If the first few are too hard, you might need to help your children to squeeze the dough out.

Don’t worry if you don’t form perfect circles – ours turned out a little wonky and weren’t all the same size but that’s part of the fun of baking with kids. If you’re feeling adventurous you can even pipe other shapes like figures of eight or swirls.

Pop your baking trays in the fridge to chill the dough a little before you bake them, (20-30 minutes is perfect) just to help them keep their shape (you don’t need to to chill it though, if your eagre chefs can’t wait, they might just spread a little in the oven!)

Bake the butter cookies

Bake the butter cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes. They’re ready when the edges have started to turn golden brown.

Remove them from the oven and leave to cool.

Serve and enjoy!