3 Ingredient Butter Cookies

These butter cookies are crispy, buttery and melt in your mouth as you eat them. They only need 3 ingredients and they don’t require any eggs. The cookies can be made ahead of time and store well for gifting or bringing to an event.

I love eating butter cookies this time of year and I prefer making homemade butter cookies which are more crispy and melt-in-your-mouth compared to store bought ones. These cookies can be customized into different shapes, dipped in chocolate or decorated with sprinkles.

Ingredients

• Flour
• Butter
• Powdered sugar

Flour: This recipe can be made with all purpose flour or cake flour. Cake flour will result in a lighter, more delicate cookie, while all purpose flour will result in a firmer, crunchier cookie.

Butter: The cookies use unsalted butter to get their buttery flavor and melty texture.

Powdered sugar: Powdered sugar sweetens the cookies, helps firm up the dough and creates the melt-in-your-mouth texture.

How to Make Butter Cookies

• The butter and sugar are creamed together until light and fluffy. The flour is then added in until a thick paste forms.
• There are a few options for shaping the cookies:
  • If piping the cookies, transfer the mixture to a piping bag with an open star tip and pipe round circles or whatever shape you prefer.
  • You can also roll the dough into a log, refrigerate the dough until firm, and cut into slices for round cookies.
  • You can also roll the dough into smooth balls and flatten the balls into disks for more natural round shaped cookies.
• Place the cookies into the fridge for about 30-60 minutes until the dough is firm. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes or until golden. Allow the cookies to fully cool before removing them from the baking sheet. Keep the cookies stored in an airtight container so they don’t soften.

Texture

These cookies have a texture like classic butter cookies. They are crisp on the outside and buttery and melt-in-your-mouth as you eat them.

Expert Tips

• The easiest and quickest way to make these cookies is to make them as round cookies either by rolling the dough into balls and flattening the dough balls into disks, or rolling the dough into a log and cutting into slices. The most time consuming method is piping the cookies but they do come out quite nice and look more like classic butter cookies if you pipe them.
• I recommend using a US brand of butter if possible. I found that some European brands caused the cookies to spread more.
• Cookies made with cake flour will spread a little more so the dough does not work as well for piping. If you want to pipe the cookies, I would make them with all purpose flour so they don’t spread as much.

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5 from 6 votes

3 Ingredient Butter Cookies

These butter cookies are crispy, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth. They need just 3 ingredients and don't require any eggs. The cookies store well and are great for gifting.

Servings: 32 cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 15 minutes mins

Chilling Time: 30 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup (225g) unsalted butter, softened, see note
• ▢ 1 cup (116g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 2 cups (250g) all purpose flour or cake flour (240g), see note before starting

Instructions

 

• Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a large mixing bowl, add butter and sugar. Cream at highest speed for 3-4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Stop and scrape the sides of your bowl a few times with a spatula to get all the butter incorporated.
• Add in the flour. Mix in at low speed and then gradually increase speed once flour is incorporated. The dough should look like a thick paste.
• There are a few options for cookie shapes: 1)The easiest method is to scoop the dough with a 1 tbsp cookie scoop and roll into balls. Flatten the dough balls into thick disks, about 1/2 inch thick. Space cookies 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet. If your dough is too soft to roll and shape, you can refrigerate the dough for a few minutes until firm enough to scoop and shape. 2) Roll the dough into a log, about 1 to 1.5 inches wide. Wrap in plastic and place into fridge until firm, about 30 minutes. Slice the dough into rounds about 1/2 inch thick. Space the rounds 1 inch apart on the cookie sheets. 3) Transfer the dough to a piping bag with an open star tip (I used one with a 1/2 inch opening). The dough is very thick, but it should be pipable with some force. If you’re having trouble moving the dough through the piping bag, I found it helps to massage the dough back and forth inside the piping bag so that it is more soft. If you are still having issues with the dough being too firm, you can add a tiny bit of melted butter (about 1 tbsp) into the dough. Pipe a circle shape, about 1 1/2 inches wide. Space the cookies about 1 inch apart.
• Place cookie sheets into fridge for 30-60 minutes until the dough is firm. This is needed no matter what cookie shape you made. This will help prevent the cookies from spreading too much during baking. While your cookies are in the fridge, Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
• Place one cookie sheet into the middle of your oven (keep the other in the fridge until ready to bake). Bake cookies for about 15-20 minutes or until edges and surface start to turn a light brown. You may need to rotate the cookie sheet halfway so that the cookies brown evenly. Remove cookies from oven and bake the second tray. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet before removing. Once cookies are fully cooled, keep them stored in an airtight container. This prevents them from softening. Cookies can be stored a few days at room temperature and longer in the freezer.

Notes

• Flour note: The cookies can be made with all purpose flour or cake flour. If using all purpose flour, make sure to use all purpose flour with 3 grams of protein per 1/4 cup serving. This is standard protein amount for all purpose flour in the US, but there are some brands like King Arthur Flour and Bob's Red Mill that make a high protein all purpose flour, which will make the dough too firm for this recipe. Also be careful when measuring the flour. It's best to use a scale. If not using a scale, make sure to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level off the top. Adding too much flour will make the dough difficult to work with.
  • Cake flour will result in a lighter, more delicate cookie. However, the cake flour does spread a bit more, so I don't recommend using cake flour for piping cookies. You may want to make your round circles a little smaller if using cake flour since they do spread more.
• Butter note: I use American butter. I found that some European butters cause the cookies to spread more because of the higher fat content. If you are using European butter you may want to add a little more flour to the cookie dough to keep them from spreading too much.
• I used Ateco #826 open star tip* for piping the cookies.
• *These product links are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
• We dipped some of the cookies in melted chocolate to decorate them and added some silver nonpareils.

Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 93kcal, Carbohydrates: 10g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 6g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Fiber: 0.3g, Sugar: 4g, NET CARBS: 10

The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. This is not a comprehensive list of all the nutrients in the recipe (i.e., does not include vitamins, cholesterol, etc). I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.

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