Easy Recipe for Soft Homemade Italian Butter Cookies, perfect for dunking in afternoon tea or in morning milk and coffee, here’s how to make these sweet and simple shortbread cookies. The dough for the butter cookie recipe is essentially a shortbread dough, these are simple and quick homemade treats to prepare, worth trying with hot chocolate or tea. The crumbly shortbread obtained with the homemade italian butter cookie recipe is a pleasure we can’t let you miss, plus they are a light dessert to offer to your friends. Let’s see how to make easy cookies with this quick recipe, and you can shape and decorate the homemade butter cookies however you prefer. Once you roll out the dough to get the soft butter cookies made with this recipe, you can cut them into any shape and decorate them creatively.

butter cookies easy italian recipe
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Soft and Simple Homemade Butter Cookies

Homemade soft Italian butter cookies are easy to prepare, you can shape them as desired in just a few minutes and bake them in only 10 minutes. Children always give in to the sweet aroma of homemade cookies and would want to taste them immediately, often the same happens to adults, but it’s always good to let them cool.

The homemade Italian cookies we’re talking about today are small cookies that can take any shape but have a characteristic that makes them very similar to Danish cookies: butter. This ingredient gives them an irresistible taste and a soft texture that melts in your mouth.

How to Make Italian Butter Cookies?

How to make Italian cookies with our recipe? To make them, you only need 6 ingredients that almost everyone always has at home: butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and eggs. These homemade butter cookies are kneaded by hand, once you’ve created a smooth dough ball, you’ll need to let it rest for half an hour. This allows the ingredients to bind together and become more resistant when we shape them.

The recipe for these soft butter cookies is particularly useful during holidays, at Christmas, Halloween, and Easter, it’s fun to decorate them with icing and colorful sugar. It’s not difficult to find suitable cookie cutters for every occasion, from reindeer-shaped ones (for Christmas) to heart-shaped ones (for Valentine’s Day) to ghost-shaped ones (for Halloween).

The magic that transforms raw ingredients into simple and tasty treats is called the recipe for soft Italian homemade butter cookies, and now you can finally discover how to make them! Here’s the recipe for soft cookies that you can also enjoy during the upcoming holidays, to add more color to your table!

Simple Italian Recipe for Soft Butter Cookies

By following this recipe for incredibly soft butter cookies, you can create delicious and easy-to-make treats at home. Experiment with different shapes and decorations to create your own customized butter cookies. With this recipe, you can also make incredibly soft shortbread cookies, super quick biscuit bites, and simple soft cookies to enjoy at any time of the day. Here’s how to make simple soft Italian butter cookies with a quick recipe worth trying. Bake your homemade cookies in just one hour.

Soft Butter Cookies: The Italian Recipe

Recipe for simple, quick, Italian soft butter cookies with a few basic ingredients, how to make shortbread cookies to dip or offer to friends.
Course Cookies, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
+ Resting Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Doses for 480 g cookies (1.06 lb))
Calorie per porzione48kcal
Cost Low

Other details

  • Difficulty: Easy (and funny)

Ingredients

Ingredients for preparing simple butter cookies

  • 200 g All-purpose Flour (7.05 oz)
  • 100 g Sugar (3.53 oz)
  • 100 g Butter (3.53 oz)
  • 1 Whole Egg
  • 8 g Baking Powder (0.28 oz)
  • 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract (optional) (15 ml)
  • to taste Salt (recommended: a pinch)

Instructions

Italian Butter Cookies, here's how to prepare them

  • To prepare Italian Butter Cookies start by adding in a container the diced butter and sugar. Work the two ingredients with a fork or your hands to combine them until you obtain a sort of lumpy cream. (Tip: Do not use a whisk to try to speed up the process or you'll cover the kitchen in sugar and butter.)
  • Add the whole egg, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix a little with a fork and then knead with your hands.
  • Continue working the dough on a work surface until you create a homogeneous dough ball.
  • Once you've obtained the ideal dough, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  • After the time has passed, take the dough, dust the work surface with flour, and roll it out with a rolling pin until it reaches a thickness of 3-4 millimeters (0.12-0.16 inches).
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F). Meanwhile, take a baking sheet, place parchment paper on it, and then go back to the dough to start cutting the butter cookies with your favorite cookie cutters.
  • As you cut the cookies, place them on the baking sheet, well spaced apart.
  • Compact the remaining dough scraps and roll it out again to make more cookies until all the dough for the butter cookies is used up.
  • The cookies should bake for 10-12 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C (356°F). You can definitely take them out as soon as they start to have the ideal golden color.
  • Allow the butter cookies to cool for at least fifteen minutes before serving, dusted with powdered sugar, plain, or decorated.

Conservation

After preparing the delicious homemade soft butter cookies, it is important to know how to best store them to ensure they maintain their flavor and texture. Here are some helpful storage tips:
  1. Cooling: After removing them from the oven, let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet. This allows them to set and achieve a soft texture.
  2. Airtight containers: Transfer the cookies to an airtight container, preferably made of glass or plastic, with a tightly sealed lid. This way, you will prevent moisture and keep them fresh for longer.
  3. Separate layers: If you want to stack the cookies in the container, make sure to separate them between each layer with parchment paper or plastic wrap. This will prevent them from sticking together.
  4. Cool and dry place: Store the cookies in a cool and dry place, away from heat sources and humidity. Avoid keeping them near the stove or window, for example.
  5. Freezing: If you have made a large quantity of cookies and don’t consume them all quickly, you can freeze them. Place them in a well-sealed freezer bag and store them in the freezer. They will remain good for several months. When you want to eat them, simply thaw them at room temperature.
You can storage these delicious Italian butter cookies in an ermetic container at room temperature for about a week.

Watching calories

The indicated calories refer to 1 individual butter cookie.

Italian Curiosity about Butter cookies

Italians love to eat butter cookies with a cup of tea of an espresso. We also love to gournish them with apricots or strawberries jam. We love to offer them at friends when they come to our home to drink a coffee.
Even if Italians love butter cookies they’re usually done only for occasions and for weekends when the all family reunite at the grandparents home for the Sunday lunch. Grandma always have some homemade butter cookies ready for the end of the lunch!

Conclusion

The recipe for incredibly soft butter cookies is one of the all-time favorites, especially for their softness that makes them perfect for dipping in afternoon tea or morning milk and coffee. The key to achieving this softness lies in using high-quality shortcrust pastry, which you can easily prepare by following this simple recipe.

Homemade butter cookies are one of the simplest and quickest recipes to prepare, perfect for creating delicious treats to share with friends and family. The dough is easy to work with, and you can shape and decorate your cookies as you prefer. Once the dough is rolled out, you can cut it into any shape and creatively decorate it.

Homemade soft butter cookies are easy to prepare, and in just a few minutes, you can shape them as you like. In only 10 minutes of baking, you’ll have delicious treats ready to be enjoyed. Children will love the sweet aroma of homemade cookies and will want to taste them right away, but it’s always better to let them cool before serving.

To prepare the butter cookies with this recipe, you will only need 6 ingredients:

  1. Butter: Butter is an essential ingredient for making cookies. It is used for both the soft and crumbly texture of the dough and the unique and intense flavor it imparts to the sweet. Butter is rich in fats, which act as a binder in the cookie dough, retaining moisture and creating a soft and crumbly texture. Additionally, butter provides a unique depth of flavor that blends perfectly with the other cookie ingredients. In summary, butter is a fundamental ingredient for creating a soft and tasty shortcrust pastry that gives rise to soft and delicious cookies.
  2. Sugar: Sugar serves several purposes in cookie production. First and foremost, it acts as a natural sweetener and contributes to the typical sweet taste. Additionally, sugar is an important caramelization agent that helps create the outer crispness and internal softness of the cookies. It helps maintain moisture inside the cookie, preventing it from drying out too much during baking. Sugar also contributes to the structure of the cookies, helping the dough rise and maintain its shape during baking.
  3. Flour: Flour is a fundamental ingredient in the preparation of any type of cookie. It serves as the base for the dough and determines its consistency and structure. Soft wheat flour is the most commonly used for cookies.
  4. Baking powder: Baking powder is a key ingredient for making soft butter cookies. It causes the dough to rise during baking, giving volume and softness to the final product. In this case, it is used as a chemical leavening agent, a form of powdered yeast that reacts with the carbonic acid generated by the mixture of other ingredients, causing the dough to rise. This way, the butter cookies puff up and become soft and fluffy, making them delicious to taste.
  5. Salt: Salt is a fundamental ingredient in making soft butter cookies. It primarily serves to balance the sweet taste of the other ingredients and enhance the aroma of the cookies. Additionally, salt also helps regulate the baking of the dough, preventing the cookies from becoming too hard or too soft. It adds a particular crispness to the sweet and helps maintain the freshness of the ingredients. In short, salt is a fundamental ingredient for achieving perfect baking and a perfect taste for soft butter cookies.
  6. Eggs: Eggs are an indispensable ingredient in making soft butter cookies, as they serve various functions. Firstly, eggs help bind the ingredients together, creating a homogeneous and easy-to-work-with dough. Moreover, eggs provide a certain amount of moisture that helps maintain the softness of the butter cookies during baking. Additionally, eggs help give volume and texture to the cookies, making them softer and lighter. Finally, eggs can also be used to decorate the cookies, creating a crispy and golden crust on the surface.

The dough should be prepared by hand, and once you’ve obtained a smooth ball, it should be allowed to rest for half an hour. This will allow the ingredients to compact and become more resilient when you shape the cookies.

By following this recipe for super soft butter cookies, you’ll be able to create delicious and easy homemade treats. Experiment with different shapes and decorations to make your own personalized butter cookies. With this recipe, you can also make super soft butter shortbread cookies, quick little cookies, and simple soft cookies to enjoy at any time of the day.

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