Rose butter cookies

Rose butter cookies

These super easy butter cookies use one bowl, six ingredients, and make a tender and buttery butter cookie with a melt in your mouth texture. These butter cookies can be piped out and baked fresh, so ready in just under 30 minutes, or they can be prepared ahead and chilled or frozen until you are ready to bake them. Finish them with granulated sugar, dip half in chocolate, or add your favourite glaze or icing.

The importance of Room temperature ingredients

These are a shortbread based cookie, so they don't have a leavening in them (baking soda or powder, or sometimes egg is used to get lift and provide texture but this is an egg free recipe).

For this reason it is super important that your butter is properly room temperature. 'Standard' Room temperature is 22°c but you just want to make sure that if you press on your butter it leaves an indent of your finger. Using nice soft butter means that the butter and sugar mix will get nice and light and fluffy, giving a nicely textured cookie.

If it's super hot where you live make sure that your butter doesn't get too hot either, as it can get a bit sloppy if it is too warm when you go to make your cookies.

How do you tell when Butter Cookies are baked?

This can depend a little on how you like your butter cookies. If you want something a little softer, bake them for 13-14 minutes until they are set on the outside and just barely going golden.

If you like your butter cookies to be a bit more crunchy and snappy, increase the baking time until they are your desired level of doneness. I love the flavour of them both ways - the more baked ones get a bit more depth of flavour from the browning, but you do you here.

Remember that my baking times are a guide - every oven varies in temperature so make sure that you look for when the cookies are starting to go golden brown for when you pull them from the oven.

How do you store Butter Cookies?

Store your butter cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. Make sure that they are fully cooled before going into the container, as excess moisture that is released from them as they cool can cause them to go soggy.

The cookies will store for up to a week stored in an airtight container - I find that the taste develops super well too after a few days.

If you are wanting to make these to send or to store well, then make sure they are well baked - this will make sure they are nice and sturdy and keep their texture well when stored.

Piping Bag Tips and Tricks for making Piped Cookies

There are a few tips and tricks when it comes to piping out these butter cookies. The first time I did it, I had a total piping bag blowout - which came from the batter being too thick, but also from my piping bag not being sturdy enough.

I was using a compostable piping bag, which didn't work super well, so switched to a more sturdy one. I know you can get the canvas piping bags but I find they always smell weird so I don't use them - I do however wash out my plastic piping bags and re use as many times as I can.

I get my piping bags from a catering supply store - they come in a big roll.

How to fill a Piping Bag

Make sure you use a super sturdy piping bag for piping out these butter cookies. The easiest way to fill a piping bag is to add the piping tip, then place the bag inside a jar or container, and open the bag over the sides. This gives you a nice hole to add the batter too - I find this much easier than trying to hold it with one hand and fill it with the other.

Once the butter cookie dough is in the piping bag, I like to clip the end of the bag with something like a chip clip or a rubber band. This stops the dough from falling out the end of the bag and gives you one less thing to worry about when you are piping out the cookies.

How to Pipe butter Cookies

These butter cookies are pretty easy to pipe out - but you will need to use two hands to pipe them and squeeze pretty hard on the piping bag.

I piped three rows of five cookies - to pipe a rosette, hold the piping bag straight up and down over the surface and pipe a round of the butter cookie dough, finishing when it overlaps on itself. I prefer not to leave a hole in the middle - my rosettes came out at about 4.5cm in diameter. If you have a different sized piping tip or want to pipe them in a different shape you may end up with more or less cookies - make sure that you adjust the baking time if this is the case.

Ingredients

• 200g salted butter, at room temperature
• 70g powdered sugar / icing sugar, sifted if lumpy
• ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 210g all-purpose flour, sifted if lumpy
• 30g corn starch
• ¼ tsp salt (use a little less if you are using table salt rather than kosher salt)
• 20g heavy cream or milk, room temperature.
• Granulated sugar for finishing, optional

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325°f / 165°c. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Fit a large sturdy piping bag with a large open star tip of your choice - I used an ateo #827. 

In a medium bowl using an electric hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla on medium to high speed until light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the bowl once or twice during the process to ensure it is well mixed. 

Add the flour and corn starch, and mix with the mixer to just incorporate. Add in the heavy cream, and mix again to combine. 

Transfer the mixture to the piping bag - I find the best way to do this is to put the piping bag into a glass jar or deli container and fold the edges over the sides of the glass to give an opening. Use a bench scraper or something similar to push all the mixture to the end of the piping bag. Secure the end with a clip if desired. 

If you would like, use a tiny bit of the batter to hold your parchment paper down on each corner to stop it from moving as you pipe. 

Pipe out the cookies - I did three rows of five cookies. Pipe each into a rosette - hold the piping bag straight up and down, then using even pressure, pipe a circle of dough until it loops back onto itself, finishing with a little flick of the wrist. The rosettes should be about 4.5cm in diameter but this will depend on the size of your piping tip. 

Leave a little room for spreading. Repeat with the rest of the cookies. If you are not happy with one, just scrape it off the parchment paper and pop it back into the bag and try again. 

Once all of the cookies have been piped out, sprinkle with granulated sugar if using, then transfer to the oven. Bake for 13-14 minutes, until the cookies are set and lightly golden brown around the edges. If you like a more golden brown and crunchy cookie, increase the cooking time slightly. 

Remove from the oven, and if you put sugar on them before the oven, give them another coating hot from the oven. 

Leave to cool on the pan for 15-20 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Store butter cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Notes

If you only have unsalted butter, use that and include ¼ tsp salt in the recipe - add it with the flour.

Corn Starch is called cornflour in New Zealand and some other places. 

Heavy cream is the one that you use to make whipped cream. If you do not have any, you can use full fat milk, or I have also made them without and they worked ok, they were just a little harder to pipe.

If you are having a hard time working with all of the dough in the piping bag at once, you can take a little out and add as needed - this will make it a little easier to pipe.