Cookie Press Butter Cookies

Cookie Press Butter Cookies

The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 8 mins
Total: 28 mins
Servings: 60 servings
Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Decorative tins of Danish butter cookies always appear in office kitchens, employee break rooms, and store checkout displays during the Christmas holiday season. But you can resist the impulse and make these traditional Scandinavian treats at home instead.

Often called spritz cookies from the German word spritzen, meaning "to squirt," the cookies rely on butter for their rich flavor and tender texture, so choose a high-quality, unsalted brand for this recipe. You do need a cookie press, a tool widely available through both online and brick-and-mortar kitchen supply retailers. The less-expensive manual models, which serve this recipe just fine, use a hand press to push the dough out of a tube and through the design disks that give the cookies their shape.

Common Christmas-themed designs include trees, wreaths, snowflakes, stars, and even reindeer, but most brands of cookie presses include disk sets for other seasons too, making these cookies a fun choice for Valentine's Day, springtime, Halloween, or even just an ordinary afternoon. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three weeks or freeze them for a couple of months.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

  • 1/2 cup shortening

  • 3/4 cup sugar

  • 1 large egg

  • 1 teaspoon almond extract, or pure vanilla extract

  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • Almond bark, decorative sugar, or sprinkles, for garnish, optional

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Ingredients for press butter cookies

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl with an electric hand beater, cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar until it turns lighter in color and fluffy, approximately doubling in size.

    cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar in a bowl

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

  3. Add the egg and beat well. Add the almond or vanilla extract and beat again.

    egg and vanilla added to the butter mixture in the bowl

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

  4. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl, then add it to the butter mixture gradually, beating just until each addition becomes fully incorporated.

    dry ingredients added to the butter mixture in the bowl

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

  5. Divide the dough into oblong chunks sized to fit the cookie press tube. Following the directions for your brand of cookie press, space the cookies 1-inch apart on an ungreased aluminum cookie sheet.

    cookies on a baking sheet, cookie press tube

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

  6. Bake at 350 F for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until the cookies turn light brown on the edges.

    cookies on a baking sheet

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

  7. Use a spatula to immediately transfer the cookies to a wire rack. Cool completely.

    cookies on a cooling rack

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

  8. Decorate the cooled cookies with melted almond bark, decorative sugar, or colorful sprinkles, if desired.

    Cookie Press Butter Cookies on a cooling rack

    The Spruce / Eric Kleinberg

Recipe Variations

  • Brush the tops of the cooled cookies with an egg wash or light corn syrup, then add decorative sugar, sprinkles, or other candy.
  • Dip the tops of the cooled cookies in melted chocolate, then sprinkle them with finely chopped nuts.
  • Add a few drops of food coloring to the bowl before adding the dry ingredients.
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
57 Calories
3g Fat
6g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 60
Amount per serving
Calories 57
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 3g 4%
Saturated Fat 2g 8%
Cholesterol 8mg 3%
Sodium 14mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate 6g 2%
Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 4mg 0%
Iron 0mg 1%
Potassium 7mg 0%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)