Danish Butter Cookies (Vanillekranse)
These Vanillekranse – traditional Danish butter cookies are the ultimate Christmas classic! Buttery, crisp, and infused with natural vanilla, they’re a beloved part of every Danish holiday table.
Servings 46 medium cookies
Calories 62kcal
Ingredients
- 200 grams / 7 ounces butter softened
- 175 grams / ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon superfine/caster sugar
- 8 grams / 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or extract
- 55 grams / 1 large egg room temperature
- 75 grams / ¾ cup ground almonds
- 250 grams / 1 ½ cups + 1 tablespoon plain flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Toss the butter and sugars into a bowl and whip until pale and fluffy.
- Add in the egg and whip until smooth and combined.
- Toss in the ground almonds and flour and whip on low until no dry portions remain at the edges of your bowl.
- Place a C4 or similar sized star shaped piping nozzle into a piping bag and spoon a portion of the cookie dough into the piping bag.
- Press the dough as tightly down towards the nozzle and twist the top tightly to make it easier to hold the bag.
- Hold the piping bag upright and press firmly to pipe, creating a circle of dough and pressing firmly down to finish forming the wreath.
- Allow a 2 centimeter or 1 inch gap between the cookies and bake until golden, approximately 10 minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool on the baking tray for 2 minutes to firm up before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Serve up with your favorite hot drink and enjoy!
Notes
- Ground almonds: Almond meal is a traditional ingredient in these cookies, though, if you’re allergic to or prefer not to eat nuts, you could replace the almonds with an additional 50 grams / ⅓ cup plain flour.
- Vanilla sugar: In most European lands vanilla sugar is easy to source, though you can easily make it with a vanilla pod previously used for homemade vanilla extract and blended with sugar. If you cannot source vanilla sugar, simply replace with 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.
- Piping the dough: The texture of the dough is like a standard drop cookie so can be quite a workout to pipe onto a baking tray. It can be easier to pipe all the cookies onto separate trays in a larger quantity and transferring 8-10 cookies to your baking sheets when ready to bake.
- Piping nozzle: The C4 or S/C4 piping nozzle has a diameter of 8mm. Initially a C10 star piping nozzle with a diameter of 13mm and created much larger cookies that had a fluffy texture than the smaller cookies so it is better to use a smaller nozzle around 8-10mm diameter.
- If the dough spreads too much during baking: Pipe more of the cookie dough and chill before baking to maintain their shape. Aim to chill for no more than 20 minutes otherwise the baking time will increase.
- Best stored: In an airtight tin at room temperature for up to 3 weeks. Their flavor deepens over time!
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 62kcal