Soft Butter Danish Cookies

These easy butter cookies will melt in your mouth – they’re deliciously soft and crumbly. They’re a great biscuit for the festive season, but I’d be happy to eat them at any time of year. Make and give these as a homemade edible gift

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.

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.

Ingredients

• 250g salted butter softened
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 75g icing sugar
• 250g plain flour

Method

• STEP 1Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Beat the salted butter, vanilla and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Sift over the flour and beat again until just combined. Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a medium star nozzle.
• STEP 2Pipe the dough in small 5cm swirls on one large or two smaller baking trays lined with baking parchment, spacing them apart to allow for them to spread. Bake for 15-20 mins until pale golden.

• STEP 3Leave to cool on the trays for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.