Description
These Piped Butter Cookies are buttery, tender, and delicately crisp, with beautiful bakery-style swirls and rich vanilla-almond flavor. Made with simple ingredients and piped into elegant rosettes, they bake into golden-edged cookies with a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Perfect for holiday cookie trays, special occasions, or enjoying with a cup of tea or coffee, these homemade butter cookies are as beautiful as they are delicious.
Ingredients
Scale
- 226 g (1 cup / 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 150 g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp pure almond extract
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 281 g (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened unsalted butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes until light, pale, and creamy.
- Beat in Egg and Extracts: Add the egg, pure vanilla extract, and pure almond extract, beating continuously until completely smooth and incorporated.
- Incorporate Flour, Salt, and Milk: Mix in the all-purpose flour and salt on low speed just until combined. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of whole milk. Test piping a small amount of dough. If the dough feels excessively stiff or difficult to push, mix in the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of milk.
- Pipe Swirls onto Baking Sheets: Transfer the dough into a sturdy piping bag fitted with a large open-star tip. Pipe 1-to-2-inch rosettes or swirls onto parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches of space between cookies.
- Chill Piped Cookies for 30 Minutes: Place the baking sheets with the piped cookie swirls into the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes until firm. This helps preserve the decorative star ridges during baking.
- Preheat Oven and Bake: Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C). Bake the chilled cookies for 12–15 minutes, or until the bottom edges turn a light golden brown.
- Cool and Set: Let the cookies cool and firm up directly on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Pipe BEFORE Chilling: Always fill your piping bag and pipe the dough while it is at room temperature. Chilled butter cookie dough is far too stiff and can split piping bags or make it extremely difficult to push through a star tip.
- Test the Viscosity: Start with 1 1/2 tablespoons of milk. If the dough is too stiff to pipe comfortably, add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon. Avoid adding excess milk, which can cause the piped swirls to spread and lose their star definition in the oven.
- Use a Sturdy Piping Bag: Butter cookie dough is dense. Use a heavyweight canvas or reinforced silicone piping bag paired with a metal open-star tip, such as an Ateco 826 or Wilton 1M, to prevent the bag from bursting.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 105
- Sugar: 4g
- Sodium: 35mg
- Fat: 6g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 12g
- Fiber: 0.3g
- Protein: 1g
- Cholesterol: 20mg