Cora's Cottage

It’s the Christmas season and nothing reminds me of Christmas like baking cookies!  Some of my favorite cookies growing up were butter cookies because we would make them in festive red, white, and green each Christmas.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Simple Ingredients: With only 4 required ingredients and two optional ingredients, these cookies are super simple to make for everyone!
• Festive Colors: You can add food coloring to make these cookies more festive!  And of course, those colors can be adjusted based on the holiday or occasion you are celebrating.
• Make Ahead: The dough for these cookies can be made ahead and refrigerated or even frozen if you know you will be needing cookies in the future but don’t know if you will have time to mix them up!

Tips for This Recipe

• Take the butter out of the refrigerator at least 12 hours before you want to make the dough for these cookies as you will need room temperature butter.
• When wrapping the dough log in plastic wrap, lay the plastic wrap on the counter and roll the log over it.  This will nicely wrap the dough for you with minimal effort!

Pairings

• Glass of milk or hot chocolate
• Cold winter days
• Christmas celebrations

Tools

• Mixing Bowl
• Mixing Spoon
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Plastic Wrap
• Cookie Sheets
• Tea Towel and/or Cooling Rack
• Spatula

Ingredients

• Butter
• Powdered Sugar
• Vanilla
• Flour
• Food Coloring (optional)
• Colored Sugar (optional)

How to Make Two-Tone Butter Cookies

Starting with room temperature butter, cream together butter and powdered sugar.  When the butter and powdered sugar are well combined, beat in vanilla. Add in the flour, mixing well. 

If you would like to have true two-toned butter cookies, divide your dough in half.  Color each half the desired color and darkness with food coloring, adjusting the amount of food coloring based on how dark or light you would like each half. 

Shape each half into a log approximately 8-inches long.  You will want both logs to be the same length.  Wrap each log in plastic wrap by laying out the plastic wrap on the counter and rolling the log of dough over it.  This will tightly wrap each log without much effort.

Place the logs in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before removing them and cutting them in half lengthwise.  Place the two different colored halves together and wrap them tightly with plastic wrap. 

Refrigerate the dough for another 30 minutes before removing it from the refrigerator and slicing  1/4-inch slices.  Place the slices on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.  A standard cookie sheet will hold 12 cookies.

Bake the cookies at 325°F for 12-14 minutes.  Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before removing them and placing them on a tea towel or cooling rack to cool completely.  Store the cookies in an airtight container.

You can add a sprinkle of colored sugar to each cookie before baking if you would like as well.   The dough does not have to be colored at all or can be colored without combining the two colors for the two-tone effect.

The butter cookie dough logs can be frozen for up to 6 months or stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.  Each batch makes approximately 24-36 cookies.