Danish Butter Cookies
Raise your hand if you have memories of that iconic blue tin of butter cookies always making an appearance around Christmas *hand raised*. Well, you’re going to love this recipe! These Danish Butter Cookies taste just like the ones in the Royal Dansk blue tin; this simple recipe makes the best piped butter cookies and will immediately give you all of the warm holiday feels.
Back in September (which seems like a million years ago at this point), I asked readers for holiday recipe requests, and Susan said she would love a recipe for the Danish butter cookies in the blue tin. There was always, always, always that blue tin of assorted butter cookies at my grandma’s during the holidays, and I had totally forgotten about it until she mentioned it.
I immediately put it on my list and started testing some recipes not very long after. I was positively elated when I landed on the perfect combination of butter, sugar, egg, and flour that produced a cookie that tastes exactly like those popular Danish butter cookies!
Ingredients in Danish Butter Cookies
These cookies have a super simple list of ingredients (only six ingredients, to be exact!), it’s all about combining them in the right quantities to give them that ultra-buttery, yet tender and slightly firm texture that we know and love so much. This is all you need:
- Butter, which is arguably the most important ingredient! These are butter cookies, so the butter flavor shines; I recommend using a nice quality butter (my favorite is Kerrygold).
- Sugar to sweeten things up. I experimented with both powdered sugar and granulated sugar, and much preferred the flavor and texture that regular granulated sugar provides. I also sprinkle a little on the top of the unbaked cookies for a little extra crunch.
- Egg to keep the cookies tender and act as a binder. I tried some recipes that did not use an egg, but found them to be too doughy tasting and the texture too crumbly.
- Flour to hold everything together and ensure the cookies keep their shape.
- Vanilla and salt for an extra punch of flavor and balance.
How to Make Danish Butter Cookies
This is an easy butter cookie recipe to mix together; the only extra step is piping the dough into circles, which gives them that characteristic swirl look. Let’s discuss!
Make the Cookie Dough – This dough follows the very familiar mixing steps of creaming together the butter and sugar, then adding the egg, vanilla and salt, then gradually adding the flour. The dough will be quite thick, which the consistency we’re going for.
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Pipe the Cookies – This is where the magic happens for these cookies! In order to get that amazing swirl look, the dough MUST be piped. You will need to use a large open-star piping tip (my preferred tip is the Ateco #827, but you can also use the Wilton 1M), and pipe the cookies into 2-inch circles. If you don’t have piping tips, you can simply put the dough into a plastic baggie and snip off the end. It won’t have the same swirl effect, but you’ll get nice circles. Another alternative is using a cookie press to make different shaped cookies out of the dough.
Bake and Cool the Cookies – Before I put the cookies into the oven, I give them a little extra sprinkle of sugar for a bit of crunch that I love. You only want to bake the cookies until they are barely light brown, so as not to make them crisp; you want them to be nice and tender. Finally, allow the cookies to cool completely before you eat them; the cookies will continue to set as they cool, so it’s an important piece of achieving that wonderfully tender consistency!
Danish Butter Cookies Recipe Notes
A quick recap of all the important tidbits to making the best Danish butter cookies in your own kitchen!
- Use good-quality butter (my favorite is Kerrygold).
- You can substitute an equal amount of vanilla bean paste for the vanilla extract to give the cookies little flecks of vanilla.
- My preferred piping tip for these cookies is the Ateco #827, but you can also use the Wilton 1M.
- You can also use a cookie press to make different shaped cookies out the dough.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before eating or storing them.
- The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 3 months.
I LOVE receiving recipe requests from readers because they often spark a forgotten memory and allow me to recreate something that I otherwise may never have attempted.
I hope everyone enjoys these wonderfully tender butter cookies this holiday season. Those beautiful buttery swirls will add a little extra pop to your Christmas cookie platters!
If You Like These Danish Butter Cookies, Try These Recipes:
- The Best Snickerdoodle Recipe
- Chocolate Chip Tea Cookies
- Snowball Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Cookies
One year ago: 2017 Holiday Gift Guide: Cookbooks
Four years ago: Turtle Candies
Five years ago: Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread)
Six years ago: Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Danish Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheeting with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until combined and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the salt, vanilla and egg, and beat until combined, about 1 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the flour until mostly combined. Give a final few stirs with a rubber spatula to ensure the flour is totally incorporated (the dough will be thick).
- Transfer the dough to a decorating bag fitted with a large open star tip. Pipe the dough into 2-inch circles on the parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake, one pan at a time, until light golden brown, 15 to 17 minutes. Allow to cool completely before storing or serving.
Notes
- Use good-quality butter (my favorite is Kerrygold).
- You can substitute an equal amount of vanilla bean paste for the vanilla extract to give the cookies little flecks of vanilla.
- My preferred piping tip for these cookies is the Ateco #827, but you can also use the Wilton 1M.
- You can also use a cookie press to portion out the dough.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before eating or storing them.
- The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 3 months.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
[photos by Ari of Well Seasoned]
Delicious, easy and fast to make. I loved that there were no “strange or added” ingredients like baking powder. Just delicious basic, natural ingredients. Thank you!
This recipe is very delicious, it tastes almost exactly the same as the store bought Dansk cookies, I really like how prominent the butter flavour is and they were very crispy after cooling. Would recommend, I didn’t bother piping shapes and just spread them out into one big rectangle, cut it up after baking, it worked out fine. A bit brown at the edges but that’s expected if you’re baking such a big shape. The cookies all baked very well, there was no spread and no rise. Using regular white sugar for dusting doesn’t have the exact same crunch though, I suspect that the commercial version uses a different kind of white sugar with bigger grain pieces.
this was sooooo good 😭 I didn’t have unsalted butter so I just used salted butter with the tiniest additional sprinkle of salt. these tasted like they were right out of that blue tin box. thank you so much, I’m gonna be making these all the time probably
Only recipe I follow for butter cookies, they’re so good that after you get used to the procedures to follow, it really is a choice to mess this up or something along the way went terribly (a lot of things to the science behind baking aren’t inherent/“common sense” so you’ve gotta give grace while giving this a go, or three,,, so worth the practice though! I personally found it fulfilling to challenge myself with this in my free time, particularly while I’m craving sugar)
Your Danish cookies are exactly how you described them! The directions were spot on, although I used my cookie dough press because the dough was so dense. I didn’t want to over use the milk. I also melted dark chocolate in my double boiler and half dipped some of them. They both looked so professional! I’m so glad to have this go-to Danish cookie recipe in my file. They remind me of Anna’s Danish Cookies in San Francisco, when I was a kid. Thank you, Brown Eyed Baker!
I was wondering, could the dough be made a day or two in advance and then piped out or would the flour hydrate too much, making the dough too thick?
The Royal Dansk Cookies have coconut in them; how might I go about adding coconut so these taste the same?
Too “floury”. It does not taste like the blue tin cookies and even though I followed the recipe explicitly, it did not turn out well.
I loved this recipe! I had a bit of an issue with the dough being too thick (honestly could have been the lower quality butter or the fact that I live in Canada and my house gets pretty cold) so I ended up using some common sense and sneaking an extra egg yolk in for moisture. The cookies turned out great and I love them a whole lot more than traditional shortbread. 10/10 recipe!
Excellent recipe! If you have never piped cookies before, your cookies will not be perfect, but still delicious. Plenty of YouTube videos to demonstrate how to.
I wasn’t going to leave a comment, because this was over 4 years old, however I have to. You spent time making this recipe for everyone and it is SPOT ON. Thank you!!
Why do these cookies spread during baking?
HELP!!!
I bought the Ateco #827 tip, but even the large coupler does not fit over the tip… is there such a thing as an XL coupler?
thanks you
Phyllis
Hello. You do not need a
coupler when using large tips. Just place the tip in a
decorating bag.
These cookies were hard to pipe (i was using a small five star tip that I have from Cuisinart since it was my best option) but it was honestly worth it in the end! These cookies are so delicious, amazing with coffee. I love that they’re not just stuffed with sugar, which is a baking pet peeve for me. Instead, the buttery and slightly nutty flavor stands out. I will be making them often! :)
1M is a large tip and you should have no issue piping the dough.