These cookies are the most delicious and buttery cookie. They are good plain, but I prefer them with the powdered sugar glaze or rolled in sprinkles before baking.
What is a pastry blender?
Until I started making these cookies, I had never heard of a pastry blender. A pastry blender is a kitchen tool intended to combine fat and flour (in this case butter and flour) by had to avoid touching it and melting the fat from the heat of your hands.
Growing up, I simply used two forks to mix flour and butter together and now that I have a food processor with a big bowl, I blend them together with that.
It doesn’t matter which method you use, it’s just important to coat the flour with the fat before adding the liquid ingredients.
Is chilling the dough necessary?
Yes. These cookies have a high amount of butter and chilling the dough before your roll and cut ensures your cookies won’t spread into unrecognizable blobs.
If I have the time, I chill the dough for an hour, roll and cut the cookies, place them on the cookie sheet and flash freeze them for 5-10 minutes to help them keep their shape even more.
Rolled Butter Cookies
Equipment
- Pastry blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Put flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Cut in softened butter with a pastry blender until the particles are fine. (I actually usually do this in my food processor, but a pastry blender by hand will do just fine.)
- After the butter is mixed in, add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour or up to three days.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it’s 1/8 inch thick. Cut into shapes as desired.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 5-8 minutes. Cool completely and frost as desired.
Happy Baking!