French Butter Cookies
My French Butter cookies recipe creates crisp, rich, buttery, melt in your mouth deliciousness. These classic cookies are super easy to make with just 5 basic ingredients!
Servings 18 - 20 cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened to room temperature see note 1
- ½ cup powdered sugar sift the powdered before measuring
- 1 egg yolk at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ⅛ cups all-purpose or cake flour see note 2
- ¼ cup granulated sugar for coating the shaped dough, before baking
Instructions
Make the dough
- Cream the butter and sugar: Use a spatula to mix the butter and sugar until it turns pale in color and light in texture.
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract: Mix in until combined.
- Sift in the flour: Add the sifted flour and mix to form a soft dough.
Refrigerate the dough
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. see note 3
Divide and roll the dough
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it in 2 pieces
- Roll each piece into a log shape of approximately 4 inches (10cm) in length and 1 inch (3cm) in diameter. See note 4
Freeze the log-shaped dough
- Wrap the log shapes separately in plastic wrap and freeze for 45 minutes.
Roll in sugar, slice and bake.
- Preheat the oven to 356° F / 180° C (160° C fan)
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking silicone mat
- Remove from the freezer and unwrap the shaped dough
- Sprinkle ¼ cup of granulated sugar onto a tray or large plate.
- Roll each of the log-shaped dough in the sugar, coating them evenly.
- Cut each log into slices that are ⅜ inch (1 cm) thick, and then arrange them on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden.
Cool and store
- Remove from the oven but leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. The baked cookies will be soft when you take it out of the oven but crisp as they cool.
- After 5 minutes on the baking tray, the cookies will be firm and crisp enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
- Once completely cool, store the cookies in an airtight jar for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Butter: Use what you have, either salted or unsalted. If you are using unsalted butter, then add a pinch of salt to your flour. Salted butter will not require adding salt to the recipe. Get the butter out of the fridge at least 1 hour before baking. All the ingredients are incorporated much easier and quicker in soft butter. This also prevents overworking the dough, which produces dense instead of crispy cookies.
- Flour: Use either cake flour, all purpose or plain flour. Do not use self-rising flour. Self-rising flour is not recommended as it changes the flavor and texture, making it dense instead of crisp and light.
- Do not skip the steps of chilling the dough. First after mixing (refrigerated for 20 minutes) and second after dividing and shaping into a cylinder (freezing for 45 minutes) These are important steps. The first refrigeration firms the dough, making it easy to roll into a cylinder. The second time (freezing) cools and firms the cylinder shapes making it easy to slice into disks.
- Refrigerate the dough if it becomes difficult to handle: The dough has a high ratio of butter and can get difficult to work with if it gets too warm. If the dough gets too warm, simply put it back into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes. This helps to cool the butter, making the dough much easier to work with.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 101kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 60mg | Potassium: 12mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 6g | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.4mg
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