Danish Butter Cookies

These cookies taste just as amazing as the Royal Dansk Danish butter cookies and they're super customizable! They can be piped into all different kinds of shapes and sizes, or even pressed with any shape cookie press. You can also top them with anything you like! Use this recipe to make classic swirled cookies or pipe fun shapes like Christmas trees, Santa hats, or polar bears.

I remember growing up, it was always a mini party whenever my dad brought home a tin of Royal Dansk Danish butter cookies. But blink, and you would miss the cookies! And then the blue cookie tin would turn into a blue sewing tin. So this recipe for Danish butter cookies is really a childhood dream come true.

These cookies aren't difficult to make and the pipeable butter cookie dough comes together in a flash! You'll just need to dedicate a bit of time to actually piping the cookies. But these cookies are such a fun Christmas baking project and you can get really creative with how you pipe the dough!

before starting

Make sure the butter has a chance to fully come up to room temperature before you use it. Soft butter will be able to properly cream together with the sugar and it's this process of creaming that incorporates air into the dough and will help the cookies rise up rather than out.

The temperature of the butter will also decide how much milk you'll need in the end - softer butter will better hydrate the dough so you would end up needing less milk as a result. Just make sure the butter isn't melted or the cookies can overspread. The egg will also need to be room temperature so it doesn't cause the butter to seize when they're combined.

When measuring out the ingredients, be particularly careful when measuring the flour if you're using cups. Flour is best measured by weight for the most accurate results, but if you do use cups, don't scoop the measuring cup directly into your bag of flour. This will pack the flour in and add more weight, which will cause the cookie dough to end up dry! Instead, use a spoon to scoop spoonfuls into your measuring cup so it's not too densely packed.

dry milk powder in butter cookies

A bit of an untraditional ingredient, but it really is the secret to a fail proof butter cookie! Dry milk powder has 2 main functions in this recipe: flavor and structure.

In terms of flavor, milk powder adds a rich, almost creamy taste to the butter cookies, making them taste like they came from a store or bakery. Milk powder is essentially a HIGHLY concentrated version of milk, bringing forth all the flavor and creaminess with zero impact on the liquid in the dough.

The second (very important) function is structure. Because milk powder is so high in protein, it strengthens the structure of the cookie dough which helps the cookies rise evenly and maintain that rise without falling back down. This ultimately leads to a thicker cookie that won't overspread and one that's able to maintain the design you piped!

I didn't chill the cookie dough at all and you can see that, despite that, they really hold their piped shape well!

how to make the Danish butter cookie dough

These butter cookies are made with a handful of ingredients that come together to create a cookie that's crisp, buttery, and absolutely melt in your mouth delicious!

The Danish butter cookie dough is super easy to whip up and comes together in one bowl. Most of the work involved in this recipe is actually piping the cookie dough, but the dough itself is SO easy to make. As always, you can find the full recipe and detailed instructions further down in this post, but here's a quick look at how the dough is made.

1. Butter: The recipe starts by creaming together butter and sugar to combine before whisking in the remaining wet ingredients (which are just an egg and vanilla). It's very important to cream together the butter and sugar for a FULL 2 minutes with a mixer so that it lightens in color. This is one of the keys to a cookie dough that won't overspread!
2. Dry ingredients: After combining the wet ingredients, the dry ingredients are added into the bowl and everything is mixed together until streak free. For the dry ingredients, we're using flour, cornstarch, salt, and milk powder. Flour and salt are quite traditional, but the cornstarch works to absorb excess liquid and will make the cookies more tender while milk power provides structure. They both work to help the cookies keep their shape without the need for chilling in the fridge!
3. Milk: After mixing together the main dough, you can then see if you need to add milk and just how much. The key is to add just enough milk (not too much or the cookies will overspread and not too little or the dough will break when you try to pipe it). The best way to test if you need more milk is by actually trying to pipe the cookies. If they break, then you'll need to add some more milk. But the dough is going to be somewhat stiff (to hold its shape). So it's perfectly natural for the cookies to need some pressure to pipe out, but they should pipe smoothly.

how to pipe butter cookies

Before piping, I like to add a tiny smear of the cookie dough into each corner of the baking sheet and then lay the parchment paper on top and stick it to the dough in the corners. This helps keep the paper in place so it's not constantly lifting up or moving around as you pipe the cookies!

When you pipe the dough, the edges should come out smoothly when you apply a bit of pressure. If they come out kind of jagged or flaky, it means the dough needs a splash more milk.

You can pipe whatever shapes you like with this dough or create an assortment of different cookies. If you pipe different shapes, bake each type of shape with similarly sized cookies so they all bake evenly and at the same rate.

If you want to make the little polar bears, you'll need to color about ⅓ cup of the cookie dough red for the Santa hats. Then to pipe them, use a piping bag fitted with a medium sized open star piping tip (I used the Wilton #32 open star piping tip). First pipe 2 little ears followed by one big circle connected to the ears for the face. Pipe some of the red colored dough between the 2 ears for the hat.

After the cookies have baked and cooled, use melted white chocolate or white candy melts to pipe the white details on the Santa hats and a little blob slightly lower than center on the faces. Use melted semi-sweet chocolate or dark colored candy melts to pipe the eyes directly on the cookie dough then noses and mouths on that little white blob you made with the melted white chocolate / candy melts.

more tips

1. Measure flour carefully: This is so SO important. In order for the cookie dough to be soft enough to pipe but still firm enough to hold the shape of the baked cookies, the flour needs to be almost exact. There is a tiny bit of wiggle room, but not much! If possible, measuring the flour by weight is the best way to get accurate measurements. If using cups, use a spoon to scoop the flour into your measuring cup - don't scoop the measuring cup directly into the bag of flour or this will pack in more weight!
2. Room temperature ingredients: I already briefly talked about this, but it deserves another mention because it really is important. Room temperature ingredients will incorporate more smoothly and will better hydrate the flour. So make sure to give the butter and egg enough time to warm up before using!
3. Piping the dough: The dough will need some pressure to come out when piping it. It will be a bit of a workout! But it shouldn't break when you pipe it out - that's a sign that it needs more milk. It ALSO shouldn't pipe too easily - that means there's too much milk! When it comes to the piping tip, the larger it is, the easier it will be to pipe the dough - so avoid overly small tips.
4. Baking and cooling: The cookies are ready to come out of the oven when the edges are just slightly browned. The centers will still be a pale yellow color. Allow them to cool for a few minutes on the tray then carefully move them onto a wire rack to finish cooling. If you piped little polar bears, be especially careful not to break off their ears or hat when transferring them!
5. (Optional) Decorating: You can leave the cookies plain or add some decorations! Before baking the piped cookies, you can top the cookies with some sugar, sprinkles, or whatever else you like for some added crunch or color. After baking and fully cooling, you could also dip half the cookies in some melted chocolate and top with more sprinkles for some added flavor!

storing Danish butter cookies:

Keep the cookies stored in an airtight container or plastic bag. The plain cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 week. If you dipped the cookies in chocolate, it won't properly set at room temperature unless you tempered the chocolate beforehand. In that case, I would keep the cookies in the fridge (also for about a week).

check out some of these other Christmas cookie recipes!

• Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Classic Sugar Cookies
• Chubby Gingerbread Man Cookies
• Chai Spiced Snowflake Cookies
• Cinnamon Roll Cookies
• Stacked Christmas Sprinkle Cookies

Lastly, if you made this or any of my recipes, be sure to leave a comment and review below! I love hearing your thoughts! Also tag me on Instagram @eatsdelightfulblog so I can see what you're making.

Print

Enjoy!

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Old Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
• ¾ cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats, and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Cream together for about 2 minutes, or until the powdered sugar is fully worked into the butter and it's slightly pale in color. Add the egg and vanilla extract to the butter/sugar mix, and whisk until combined.
3. Add the flour and salt to the bowl in 2 to 3 additions, stirring well to incorporate after each addition. Transfer some batter to a large piping bag fitted with an open star tip. Test pipe a cookie onto your baking sheet in your desired shape. If it cracks or breaks, gradually add milk to the cookie dough until you're able to pipe smooth cookies. The dough should still be quite thick and need some pressure to pipe.
4. Pipe cookies in any shape or pattern you like on the lined baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch of space between each cookie. (NOTE: Larger cookies take longer to bake)
   (Optional) Before baking, top cookies with granulated sugar, coarse sugar, or sprinkles for added shine, texture, and color!
5. Bake in the center of your preheated 350°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a light golden brown color along the edges. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

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