Danish Butter Cookies Recipe

Why I Like This Recipe

• Easy to customize. Add different extracts, dip in chocolate, or add sprinkles.
• Simple ingredients. You only need a few ingredients to make these buttery cookies.
• No chill recipe. There is no need to chill the dough; it bakes up beautifully on its own!
• Cookies stay crispy for days. The cookies will crisp as they cool. You can enjoy them warm or cold — I prefer them cold because the flavors really shine through! They will stay crisp for a couple of days, then soften slightly.

Tips and Tricks

We're not piping frosting, we're piping cookie dough, so the tip that you use matters. Here are a few options:

• Wilton 2D: Grab a set of small pliers and straighten the prongs. This will make it an open-star tip.
• Ateco 826: This is a large open star. Ideal for piping the cookie rosettes.
• Ateco 849: Large closed star. Gives a slightly different appearance, but is still large enough to pipe rosette cookie shapes.
• Wilton 8B: large open star. I used this tip for making my pumpkin shortbread cookies. The prongs are shorter so it won't give the same rosette appearance, but it's easy to pipe cookies using this tip in a different pattern.

Note: If you don't want to deal with tips and pastry bags, you can slice and bake these cookies or use a cookie press. 

Ingredients

• Butter: 2 sticks of salted butter. You can use unsalted, but I always use salted butter in my baking recipes. Make sure that your butter is at room temperature. You don't want chilled butter for this recipe. If the dough is cold it will be harder to pipe the cookies.
• Powdered sugar: yes, powdered sugar, not granulated.
• Vanilla extract
• Almond extract: if you don't like almond extract you can omit it and double the vanilla extract.
• All-purpose flour
• Milk: I don't use milk in my shortbread cookies because they are rolled out and cut with cookie cutters. However, since these cookies are piped, you'll need a few tablespoons to soften the dough.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How To Make Piped Danish Cookies

Step 1: Combine butter, powdered sugar, and extracts in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined and fluffy. Add flour. Mix thoroughly. Add milk and mix. The dough might look crumbly, but it will come together just fine. Just keep mixing.

Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula and press the dough together.

Step 2: Fit a sturdy pastry bag (if using a disposable bag you can double it up for strength) with a large star frosting tip. Add a few spoonfuls of cookie dough.

Note: DO NOT fill the bag more than ½ full. ⅓ full is ideal. Refill the bag as needed. 

Step 3: With firm pressure, pipe cookies into a rosette shape on an ungreased baking sheet (or silpat-lined baking sheet). Space cookies 2" apart.

Step 4: Bake cookies for 15 minutes. Edges should be slightly golden. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes, then remove from the baking sheets and place onto a wire cooling rack.

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 7 days. Cookies freeze well and can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.

This recipe makes 22-24 (2") cookies. The cookies will crisp as they cool. You can enjoy them warm or cold---I prefer them cold because the flavors really shine through! They will stay crisp for a couple of days then soften slightly. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Danish Cookies FAQs

More Shaped Cookies To Make

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