Simple Butter Cookie Dough for All kinds of Cookies (+VIDEO)

In this post, I am sharing the simple butter cookie dough recipe that you can use for multiple kinds of cookies; such as chewy cookies, snowball cookies, piped cookies, cut-out cookies, icebox cookies, gingerbread man, and Linzer cookies... and so much more!

Bake any cookies with this cookie dough for your next project. (Yes, chewy cookies from butter cookie dough! Check out the hack in this post.)

The butter cookie itself has a buttery, crispy texture that is SO addicting. It is not too crunchy, it is crispy yet very light.

Check out this post to see how you can make 10 kinds of holiday cookies from this dough. - You no longer need to make a few kinds of dough to make multiple kinds of cookies! Make chewy to crispy cookies with just one batch of the recipe all at the same time!

Jump to:

• 📌 Frequently asked questions
• 📌 Learn how to make it visually!
• 📌 Ingredients for butter cookie dough
• 📌 How to make butter cookie dough
• 📌 Step 1: Mix soft butter, powdered sugar, and salt in a bowl until everything looks even.
• 📌 Step 2. Add a whole egg and yolk and mix until it looks nice and smooth. (Clean the side and the bottom of a bowl on the way.)
• 📌 Step 3. Add all-purpose flour and almond flour and mix until the dough looks even. (Clean the pedal and the bowl on the way.)
• 📌 How to roll the dough
• 📌 Bake!
• 📌 How to enjoy
• 📌 Printable recipe
• Simple butter cookie dough

📌 Frequently asked questions

📌 Learn how to make it visually!

To learn how to make this cookie dough visually and have a deeper understanding of all, watch this video.

I appreciate it if you can leave feedback on the video if it was helpful😉

📌 Ingredients for butter cookie dough

Makes about 800g | 28.2oz of the dough

• Unsalted butter: 226g | 8oz or 2 US sticks
  • Use soft butter so that everything blends easily!
• Powdered sugar: 142g | 5oz
  • If you don't have powdered sugar, use granulated sugar. By using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar, you can enjoy a more crumbly, flakier texture.
• Salt: ¼ tsp
• Whole egg: 1 egg
• Egg yolk: 1
  • Save the egg white for egg wash when the cookie recipe requires it.
• All-purpose flour: 285g | 10oz
• Almond flour: 85g | 3oz
  • By adding almond flour, the texture of the cookies gets crumbly and not too crunchy. About more flavorful!
  • If you can not consume nuts, alternate with about ⅓-3/4 amount of all-purpose flour as you like. The more flour you add, the texture of the cookies gets crunchier and spread less in the oven.

📌 How to make butter cookie dough

The simple 3 steps:

1. Mix soft butter, powdered sugar, and salt in a bowl until everything looks even.
2. Add a whole egg and yolk and mix until it looks nice and smooth. (Clean the side and the bottom of a bowl on the way so that the pedal can pick up all the butter.)
3. Add all-purpose flour and almond flour and mix until the dough looks even. (Clean the pedal and the bowl on the way again.) Done!

📍 The printable recipe with instructions is at the very end of this post.

Jump to Recipe

Check out below to see the steps with more detailed tips and images

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The detailed steps with images:

📌 Step 1: Mix soft butter, powdered sugar, and salt in a bowl until everything looks even.

💡 The most important thing in the process is to use SOFT butter. That allows all the ingredients to blend a lot easier.

👩🏻‍🍳 Mix the butter and powdered sugar at a lower speed first so that the sugar does not scatter everywhere. And gradually turn up the speed!

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📌 Step 2. Add a whole egg and yolk and mix until it looks nice and smooth. (Clean the side and the bottom of a bowl on the way.)

💬 The butter and eggs look very separated at first since oil and liquids don't get along well! But no worry, clean off the side and the bottom of a bowl and continue mixing. It'll come together shortly!

👩🏻‍🍳 The more you whip, the more it contains air in it and the cookies expand in the oven as you bake. The texture gets lighter as well. Today, I stopped right after it looks smooth. Chose how much you want to mix depending on the result you want!

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📌 Step 3. Add all-purpose flour and almond flour and mix until the dough looks even. (Clean the pedal and the bowl on the way.)

💬 All-purpose flour is not as lumpy as cake flour, so it is not a deal-breaker even if you don't sift. But just in case, sift or mix well with a whisk when you can!

💬 Some butter and flour are left around the pedal and the bowl at this point. It is so important to clean on the way to make an even dough!

💡 Clean off all the dough stuck to the bowl and pedal. You should be able to get 800g | 28.2oz of the dough in total.

📌 How to roll the dough

The dough is very soft at room temperature.

• If you want to roll it right away, use parchment paper so that your rolling pin does not touch the dough directly.
• Or chill the dough in a fridge first and roll it later!

📌 Bake!

🔥 Bake at 345F | 174C for about 6-15 minutes (or more!).

• Adjust the time and temperature depending on the oven and the size and thickness of your cookies.
• To enjoy the light and crispy texture, bake the cookies until you see nice golden caramelization around the edge.

👩🏻‍🍳 Chill the cut-out or piped cookie dough completely until right before baking By doing that, they don't spread too much in the oven. I like to freeze them to maximize the result!

📌 How to enjoy

You can make multiple kinds of cookies with this dough such as cut-out cookies, piped cookies, snowball cookies, icing cookies, Linzer cookies, chewy cookies, etc!

Check out this post to see how you can make the festive holiday cookie box from one batch of this recipe.

💬 If you loved this recipe, please share your feedback on this post! I always love to hear how you enjoyed it at home with your friends and family.

📌 Printable recipe

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