Danish Butter Cookies

These Danish butter cookies are a homemade version of the classic Royal Dansk tin cookies. They’re great for baking into cookie gift boxes!

The holiday season is synonymous with cookies! It’s the best time of year to bake.

There are so many occasions and opportunities to share sweets and baked good with loved ones during this festive time of year. Whether you want to treat loved ones at home, or ship care packages afar, it’s definitely the season to spread cheer!

Growing up, these sweet little butter cookies from the iconic blue tins were a staple at all my holiday family gatherings. From September until January, our house was stocked with Danish butter cookies.

Here’s my homemade version of those nostalgic sweet and crunchy cookies that you can enjoy all year long!

Ingredients and Substitutions

These cookies are made with a handful of ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and egg. As such, it is important to use high-quality ingredients.

These are BUTTER cookies. The right butter makes ALL the difference!

Butter

I highly recommend using a European style butter or extra creamy butter like Plugra .

Plugra has the perfect amount of butterfat that makes these butter cookies SO good. (These brown butter snickerdoodles are also made with European style butter!) 

Different brands of butter have differing amounts of butterfat. Why does it matter? Flavor is best transported through fat.

Think about the difference between the flavors of skim milk milk versus whole milk versus heavy cream. All three products are made with cow’s milk with varying degrees of fat content. The more fat, the richer and distinct the flavor.

NOTE: On the other end of the spectrum, you CAN have too much fat in cookies. That explanation will come in another post.

Flour

This recipe uses a mixture of all-purpose flour and cake flour. The cake flour helps to give these cookies more crumble and crunch (due to the added amount of cornstarch found in cake flour).

Be sure to use relatively fresh flour. Open up a new bag of flour if yours has been sitting on the shelf for a few months.

Vanilla

I like to splurge on vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste during the holiday season. They taste far superior to vanilla extract.

NOTE: Costco offers a great deal on vanilla beans! 5 organic vanilla beans for $16!

When using vanilla extract, seek PURE vanilla extract. Stay away from imitation vanilla extract.

Tips for Mixing Together Cookie Batter

• Be sure to use softened, room temperature butter. The butter should be cool to the touch, but your finger should leave an indentation when you press the butter.
• Leave the butter at room temperature for about 30 minutes to one hour to get that perfect softened, texture.
• To quickly bring cold eggs to room temperature: place egg in a bowl of room temperature water for 5-10 minutes.
• Don’t overmix. Overmixing will cause the batter to toughen up. Stiff dough will be difficult to pipe.

Tools needed for piped butter cookies:

The cookie batter may be mixed together by hand. However, I highly suggest using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer.

Bake the cookies on a parchment lined or reusable silicone baking mat lined sheet tray. Do not bake on wax paper or foil.

Use piping bag fitted with a star piping tip. Or, you may use a cookie press.

Recommended piping tip and piping bag:

I use this large open star piping tip (ateco #826). It has a 1/2-inch opening. This piping tip is paired with an 18-inch piping bag. I recommend these disposable bags or this reusable decorating bag.

Note: The star piping is great size tip to have on hand. It can be used for making churros or cruller donuts.

How to Pipe Cookie Rosettes

1. Keep the piping bag in a vertical position. Hover piping tip a few centimeters off the parchment paper. Squeeze out a little batter until a star forms onto the parchment paper.
2. Using constant, continuous pressure, drag the piping tip in a circular motion, going around the initial star.
3. Let pressure go once you return to the original starting point of your rosette. Pull piping bag in the same direction of circle to quickly release dough and close off the rosette.

Not a fan of rosettes? Pipe the cookie dough into easier shapes like strips, circles, or “s” shape.

If you don’t have a piping bag and piping tip, you may also use a cookie press to portion out the dough.

Cookie Toppings

These butter cookies don’t need any additional toppings. However, if you’d like to add a colorful festive touch, add sprinkles!

Immediately after piping, top cookie dough with desired sprinkles. Colorful nonpareil sprinkles, sanding sugars, or coarse sugar (like turbinado sugar) work best.

Serving Suggestion and Packing Notes

More Holiday Cookie Recipes

These cookies are perfect for gift boxes and sharing with loved ones.

• Decadent Chocolate Cookies
• No Chill Christmas Tree Cookies
• Decorated Sugar Cookies
• Cashew Cookies