It's that time of year again, to start thinking about your holiday baking! One of my personal favorites are these holiday butter cookies. They're simple, they're delicious, and they're always a hit with family and friends. Plus, they freeze really well, so you can make them ahead of time and have them on hand for when the holiday cookie cravings strike!
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💭 Why you'll love this recipe
These holiday butter cookies are a must-have this holiday season:
- They're easier than you think. Butter cookies are deceptively simple to whip up. all you need is a bowl, a spatula, some measuring cups and spoons, and a few key ingredients like butter, cornstarch, sugar, salt, vanilla, and flour.
- You can decorate them however you want. They're a blank canvas. You can decorate it on which you would like. Leave them as they are. Got a penchant for pretty stripes? Go for it! Feeling festive and want to add a little green and red? Add it to the dough or add them as frosting. The options are endless!
- They make great gifts. Holiday butter cookies also make lovely homemade gifts for friends and family (if you're willing to share). I love wrapping them up in these holiday cellophane bags or these cookie boxes!
📋 Ingredients and notes
To make these holiday butter cookies, you'll need all-purpose flour, cornstarch, butter, powdered sugar for cookies and toppings, vanilla, and salt.
Notes and Variations
- All purposed flour substitute. If you're looking to make a softer cookie, swap out the all-purpose flour for cake flour. This has more crumb and less gluten,.
- Use unsalted butter. I typically use Kerry Gold in this recipe. European butter tends to have less water compared to regular butter, so the cookies end up a lot richer. You can use any brand, but avoid using salted butter or margarine in this recipe to get best results.
- Options to decorate. I love these cookies as they are, but you can allow the cookies to fully cool and then dip them in melted chocolate, or frost them. You can also use a fork to make a simple criss-cross pattern instead.
- Additional flavors. I keep this recipe quite simple, but you're welcome to add more flavors into the cookie dough (e.g., almond extract).
📖 Make holiday butter cookies!
Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at medium speed for 3 or 4 minutes. You can also use an electric mixer! Then add the vanilla extract and integrate it well.
Pro tip: If your butter is too hard, cut it into small cubes and let it sit on a warm countertop for 15 minutes before creaming with sugar.
Use another bowl to combine salt, flour, and cornstarch and integrate the ingredients. Add it to the butter mixture and mix at medium speed until the dough forms. If the dough is too sticky, transfer the dough to a heavily floured workspace and knead it until it's soft.
Now cover it with plastic paper and chill for at least 1 hour. You can also leave it overnight or the next day. The longer you leave it, the easier to shape it later!
Now, preheat the oven to 370°F for about 10 minutes. I use these awesome non-stick baking sheets, but if you have a baking sheet that might stick, line it with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Divide the dough into even portions using a cookie scoop and shape it into small balls. I typically just use a 1" cookie scoop to make this way easier!
Then place the balls over the baking sheet and cook the cookies for about 12 minutes. The actual cooking time might depend on your oven!
Remove from the oven and let them cool a bit, otherwise, they could break apart when you try to dunk them in powdered sugar. When they are still a little warm, roll the cookies in powdered sugar using a fork. You can also use colored sugar here if you wish!
Once done, allow them to rest a bit on a wire rack. Then, enjoy your holiday butter cookies (ideally with some pumpkin spice latte or hot chocolate)! I love gifting them in these these cute bags during the holiday season!
👩🏽🍳Tips to Make Amazing Holiday Butter Cookies!
There's nothing quite like a plate of fresh-baked cookies during the holidays. With these six tips, you'll be making out the perfect holiday butter cookies that everyone will want to devour!
- Room temperature ingredients! Making sure your ingredients are at the correct temperature. Room-temperature butter will mix more easily with sugar, resulting in a lighter, fluffier cookie!
- Use real butter. This is probably the most important tip of all when it comes to making great butter cookies. Margarine just won't cut it, so make sure to use real, unsalted butter for optimal flavor.
- Don't overmix the dough. When you overmix, the gluten in the flour gets activated and makes the cookies tough. So rather than mixing until the dough is completely smooth, stop as soon as the ingredients are just combined. Your dough should look a little crumbly at this point and that's perfectly normal!
- Chill the cookie dough. After mixing everything together, pop that cookie dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour. This will help prevent your cookies from spreading too much while baking.
- Do not use cookie cutters on this dough. Though you might be tempted to use cookie cutters, using them on this dough typically ends up with a sticky mess. If you want cute shapes, check out these Christmas sugar cookies instead! Or if you want to pipe them, check out my Danish butter cookies!
- Dip or frost after cooling: If you would like to decorate these cookies, say, dipping in chocolate, or frosting it with holiday colors, do so after the cookies have completely cooled. If you want to use sprinkles or crushed nuts, make sure you do that while the dipped chocolate is still wet.
👩🏽🍳Troubleshooting FAQs
While both types of cookies are delicious, butter cookies are made with a higher flour ratio to butter, resulting in a richer flavor. Shortbread cookies, on the other hand, are made with a higher percentage of butter than flour. This gives them a more crumbly texture and a slightly sweeter taste!
Salt can affect the way butter interacts with other ingredients, causing cookies to spread or become tough. As a result, it's generally best to use unsalted butter when baking cookies. That said, in a pinch, you can totally use salted butter!
Unfortunately, given the ratio of ingredients, the dough will likely become too sticky to cut into specific shapes. If you want cute shapes, check out these Christmas sugar cookies instead!
Yes! They're the same. If you don't have powdered sugar on hand, you can throw some granulated sugar into a high-speed blender and just blitz it.
🍴 Serving and storage suggestions
Keeping the holiday butter cookies in an airtight container will allow them to keep for up to 7 days after they have been baked. Do not reheat the cookies.
The cookie dough can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 1 week. The dough can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Let the cookie dough come to room temperature before pressing into cookies and then baking!
Unbaked cookies can also be frozen; simply wrap them individually with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap, and place it in an airtight container.
You can check out our other cookie recipes:
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📖 Recipe
Holiday Butter Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 cup butter
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 2½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt
Toppings
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Using the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and powdered sugar at medium speed for about 3 or 4 minutes. Then add the vanilla and integrate it well.
- Use another bowl to combine salt, flour, and cornstarch and combine the ingredients well. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and combine at medium speed until the dough forms. If the dough is too sticky, transfer to a heavily floured workspace and knead until soft.
- Now cover it with plastic paper and chill it in the fridge for at least 1 hour. You need to chill for at least an hour, but you can chill overnight or even leave it there until the next day. This will make it easier to shape it!
- Now, preheat the oven to 370°F for about 10 minutes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper if necessary.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough and shape it into a small ball. Then place the balls over the baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. You'll notice that the cookies might feel slightly undone, but don't overcook them!
- Remove from the oven and let them cool a bit. When they are still a little warm, roll the cookies in powdered sugar. Enjoy!
Notes
- Room temperature ingredients. Room-temperature butter will mix more easily with sugar, resulting in a lighter, fluffier cookie!
- Use real butter. Margarine just won't cut it, so make sure to use real, unsalted butter for optimal flavor.
- Don't overmix the dough. When you overmix, the gluten in the flour gets activated and makes the cookies tough. So rather than mixing until the dough is completely smooth, stop as soon as the ingredients are just combined. Your dough should look a little crumbly at this point and that's perfectly normal!
- Do not use cookie cutters on this dough. Though you might be tempted to use cookie cutters, using them on this dough typically ends up with a sticky mess. If you want cute shapes, check out these Christmas sugar cookies instead!
- Dip or frost after cooling: If you would like to decorate these cookies, do so after the cookies have completely cooled.
Sounds delicious, can you use gluten free flour?
I've tried making them with the 1:1 gluten free flour and it worked pretty well, but I could notice the difference in the texture a bit.
The wife made these for a party we had last weekend. The cookies were so soft we ended up making another batch that night!