German Butter Cookies



I was wondering aloud what to bake next when butter cookies came to mind. Sunshine readily expressed his approval, saying that he likes butter cookies. This is quite a surprise because Sunshine is a person who eat to live and rarely has any favourite food. Now that he mentions he has something he likes to eat, I will definitely bake them for him! With this determination to make butter cookies for my Sunshine, I set out to find a recipe I am confident of succeeding.

Recipe with Pictures

Makes about 78 cookies

Ingredient list:

  • 125g of softened butter (recipe calls for premium unsalted butter but I used salted butter)
  • 40g of icing sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste (recipe calls for vanilla extract or essence)
  • 80g of plain flour
  • 125g of potato starch
  • For chocolate flavoured cookies, add 1 tbsp. of cocca powder (recipe also said to add 2 tbsp. of icing sugar to balance the cocca powder’s bitterness but I omitted it)
  • For matcha flavoured cookies, add 1 tbsp of matcha powder
German Butter Cookies - Ingredients needed
Ingredients needed

My Oven Settings:

150°C; top and bottom heat with fan mode; about 12 minutes
(Settings would differ from oven to oven. Please experiment with yours!)

Steps:

1. Beat butter and icing sugar in a mixing bowl until the mixture is pale and fluffy.

German butter cookies - butter and sugar

2. Add vanilla and mix well.

German butter cookies - add vanilla

3. Sift in flour and potato starch and use a spatula to mix till a dough is formed. Chill the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes to harden it a little for easier handling.

German butter cookies - dough

4. Add in the different powders for flavours and mix well. (Optional)

German butter cookies - add flavour

5. Divide and shape the dough into small balls of about 5g each and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

German butter cookies - before baking

6. Use a fork to lightly press down on the shaped dough for decoration. (Dip the fork into water before pressing on the dough to prevent it from sticking to the fork.)

German butter cookies - before baking 1

7. Bake them in a preheated oven at the settings mentioned above.

German butter cookies - in the oven

8. Cool the cookies on the trays itself for about 5 minutes to prevent them from breaking before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

Recipe Only

Click to show/hide recipe

Makes about 78 cookies

Ingredient list:

  • 125g of softened butter (recipe calls for premium unsalted butter but I used salted butter)
  • 40g of icing sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste (recipe calls for vanilla extract or essence)
  • 80g of plain flour
  • 125g of potato starch
  • For chocolate flavoured cookies, add 1 tbsp. of cocca powder (recipe also said to add 2 tbsp. of icing sugar to balance the cocca powder’s bitterness but I omitted it)
  • For matcha flavoured cookies, add 1 tbsp of matcha powder

My Oven Settings:

150°C; top and bottom heat with fan mode; about 12 minutes
(Settings would differ from oven to oven. Please experiment with yours!)

Steps:

  1. Beat butter and icing sugar in a mixing bowl until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
  2. Add vanilla and mix well.
  3. Sift in flour and potato starch and use a spatula to mix till a dough is formed. Chill the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes to harden it a little for easier handling.
  4. Add in the different powders for flavours and mix well. (Optional)
  5. Divide and shape the dough into small balls of about 5g each and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
  6. Use a fork to lightly press down on the shaped dough for decoration. (Dip the fork into water before pressing on the dough to prevent it from sticking to the fork.)
  7. Bake them in a preheated oven at the settings mentioned above.
  8. Cool the cookies on the trays itself for about 5 minutes to prevent them from breaking before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

 

Comments: 

As its name suggests, these cookies are really very buttery. I love it! I read a few blogs and all the authors said to use premium butter since butter is the main ingredient here and would affect its final taste. I bought and first tried this recipe using SCS Butter and they literally melt in my mouth! I even taught my family how to eat them so that this melt-in-the-mouth property is not wasted when they eat them. First, place the cookie in the middle of your mouth, use your palate (the roof of your mouth) to give it a little pressure so as to break it. Thereafter, the whole cookie would melt away by itself! No other work is needed on your part! Try it! My mum enjoyed them so much that she has already “placed her order” for Chinese New Year! These are her exact words: “Woah! Good good! You can make these for Chinese New Year already.”

Germn butter cookies - final product 3

As this recipe is easy to follow, with simple ingredients and takes only a relatively short amount of time, I tried making another batch immediately. This time round, I tried using a butter of a lower quality to test if the quality of the butter would really affect the taste of the cookies. My findings are listed below:

  1. The dough is much harder. I do not have to refrigerate it in the fridge for it to harden before I can shape it into balls. (This made me happy and I thought maybe using butter of a lower quality is not bad after all!)
  2. While the original/plain cookies still hold its shape when I lightly flatten it with a fork, both the cocca and matcha flavoured ones crack slightly at their edges upon slight pressure. (My heart also broke bit by bit whenever they crack).

    Top: Cookies from 1st batch Bottom: Cookies from 2nd batch

        Top: Cookies from 1st batch
      Bottom: Cookies from 2nd batch
  3. The final (and most important) difference lies in their taste. Cookies made using butter of a lower quality were harder and crunchier than cookies made using good butter. On its own, these cookies are delicious. They still taste buttery and wonderful. If you love crunchy cookies, you may try using butter of a lower quality.

Final verdict: Cookies from my second batch taste and look great on its own. Had I not made my first batch using SCS Butter, I would have thought cookies from my second batch were superb too! However, they pale in comparison to the cookies in my first batch, both in terms of taste and looks; I prefer the former’s melt-in-the-mouth texture and their clean edges.

German butter cookies - final product 1

PS. I heard that cake flour would result in softer cookies. I will try using cake flour instead of plain flour the next time. 😉

Recipe Source: Baking Taitai


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Rainbow

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