Basic Recipe for German Butter Cookies

Hi there! Let me tell you about these German Butter Cookies.

Butterplätzchen (butter cookies) are old fashioned German Christmas cookies. They are a favourite easy cookie recipe for kids. You only need a few ingredients for the dough. Also, you can prepare it in advance, so little fingers cannot accidentally add salt to the flour (do not laugh, it happened to me!)

For me, one of my first childhood memories is making butter cookies with my mother. I spent
ages selecting the cookie cutters, and it was so fun cutting them. After that, I would decorate
them with sprinkles and jam.

How to make butter cookie dough

This recipe is super easy to make. The ingredients are butter, sugar, a pinch of salt, lemon peel, egg yolks, and plain flour. Ensure that you have measured the ingredients accurately.

Mix the butter, sugar, salt, and lemon peel with a dough hook. Add the egg yolks one by one. Now sieve the flour and combine with the mixture. Leave to cool in the fridge for an hour.

This cookie dough is quite elastic and not very crumbly. It is good for rolling and shape with cookie cutters. We have two sets of cookie cutters at home, one for Christmas and one for Easter.

The dough is made of sweet crust pastry. Once baked the butter cookies are hard, not soft like shortbread cookies. To make soft butter Christmas cookies, I would recommend my Heidesand cookies recipe.

How to use cookie cutters? 

It all starts with rolling out the dough. If you cover your work surfaces and rolling pin in flour in advance, your dough shouldn't stick.

There are two tips I want to share with you to avoid the dough from sticking.

• Firstly place a sheet of clingfilm over the dough when rolling it out.
• Secondly buy an inexpensive silicone baking mat. They prevent you from having to scrape the cookie dough from your work surface later and you can wash them in the dishwasher.

Roll out the dough so that it is around 3 mm thick. Now you can cut out the cookies, by pressing the cutters in the dough. Carefully lift them onto a prepared tray lined with baking parchment.  

German Butter Cookies Essential Equipment (Affiliate links)

Tips and Tricks for the Best German Butter Cookies

• If the cookie dough is too soft, you can always add a little more flour. If the dough is too hard, you can add more butter and knead it to shape.
• Do not knead the dough for too long, as it may lose shape and fall apart when you roll it out.
• You can prepare the dough in advance and leave it to rest in the fridge.
• Cover your hands, your work surface, cookie cutters, and the rolling pin with flour. That will prevent the dough from sticking. Alternatively, use clingfilm and a silicone baking mat.
• If you make large quantities of cookies, try to cool excess dough in the fridge, as it is easier to work with cooled dough.

How to decorate German butter cookies

There are several ways you can decorate these cookies.

• The traditional German cookie decoration is just to brush them with some egg yolk before placing them in the oven. Optionally you can also decorate them with some sprinkles on top of the egg yolk.
• Decorate them with some melted chocolate, once they have been baked. 
• Another traditional German cookie decoration is to add some lemon icing. Just mix 100 gr of icing sugar and 2 spoons of lemon juice, to a thick mass and spread evenly over the cookies. 
• Spread them with jam. Just take two of the same shape, spread some jam on one of them and sandwich them together.

How to store the cookies 

Germans start making these types of cookies (Butterplätzchen) around four weeks before Christmas. They can last a long time. 

In Germany, we store them in biscuit tins. Make sure you store them in an airtight container and at room temperature. You can store different kinds of cookies in one cookie tin. If you don’t want to store different kinds of cookies in one tin, you can separate them with a sheet of baking parchment, so the flavours do not mix. 

How to use up left over egg whites?

Here are some recipe suggestions that will help you use your leftover egg whites in a delicious way:

• Mini Pavlova with Lime Curd and Blueberries by Casual Foodist
• Chocolate Swirled Meringue Cookies by Casual Foodist
• German Coconut Macaroons
• Baiser Recipe - German Meringues

More German Christmas Recipes?