You’ll love this old fashioned butter cookie recipe. They’re buttery and crunchy and will delight the whole family. And similar to a shortbread cookie, they’re also egg-free!
Today I’ll show you the oven baking method and pressure cooker baking method for one of the most treasured cookies – butter cookies.
The butter cookie is a classic cookie that has become a favorite treat for both young and old! They’re perfect for Christmas or any time of year.
This crunchy butter cookie recipe is prepared by baking all-purpose flour, butter, and sugar. This recipe does not contain any egg, so it’s a great alternative to traditional butter cookie recipes. These eggless butter cookies are so delicious because of the richness of the butter.
Why butter cookies without eggs are special:
Many butter cookie recipes contain egg yolk. This recipe does not contain any egg, so it’s a great alternative to the traditional recipes.
- They are crunchy and not chewy. Kids like this biscuity texture and it’s a great party snack.
- The rich taste of these butter cookies is uniquely delicious. This treat is all you need with a good cup of coffee or tea.
- These butter cookies don’t smell eggy.
- Perfectly suitable for those who are on a special diet like a no eggs vegetarian diet. Folks allergic to eggs can also enjoy this no egg butter cookie without issues.
If you prefer soft and chewy cookies, you might try these chewy vanilla butter cookies instead. Ours are a crispy, melt-in-your-mouth type of biscuit. Call it a butter biscuit or butter cookie, either way, they taste absolutely great!
These eggless butter cookies taste great as a tea time snack and make a good treat for your kids’ lunchbox.
Old Fashioned Butter Cookie Recipe
Although I baked this butter cookie today using my oven, I’ll also explain how to bake them using a pressure cooker. Almost all baking recipes can be baked using the pressure cooker with the same basic method.
Ingredients for the Old Fashioned Butter Cookies:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp milk or oil (for kneading the dough)
Advance Preparation:
Measure the butter & keep it at room temperature till soft.
Directions
- In a large mixing bowl, measure and take butter at room temperature (softened or slightly melted). Add the powdered sugar. Cream together using an electric mixer (low speed) or a hand mixer. Mix the softened butter and sugar thoroughly, until the butter mixture has a fine paste consistency.
- Sift and add the flour. Mix half a teaspoon of baking soda into the flour. If using self-rising flour, don’t use baking soda — replace it with 1/4 tsp of plain salt.
- Mix again (cut and fold method) using a spatula. The dough will turn into a wet crumbly texture. Do not overmix.
- Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix well. You can also use almond extract if you prefer that flavor.
- Start kneading again to form a smooth ball. If your dough is still powdery and unable to knead together, you can add a few tablespoons of oil or milk. I used 2 tablespoons of milk to form the dough. You can use warm water or oil in place of milk, just to hold the dough together.
- Now shape the dough lengthwise and roll the dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap tightly. You roll it rounded or squared to either make round or square-shaped butter cookies.
- Place the tightly wrapped dough inside a refrigerator for 30 mins or freezer for 15 mins to harden a bit.
How to bake the perfect eggless cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Grease or line a baking sheet or cookie sheet.
- After 30 mins, take out the dough from the freezer, remove the wrap and cut into slices that are slightly under 1/2 inch (or about 1 cm) thick using a sharp knife. Place the cookie dough slices on the prepared baking sheet, giving enough space.
- Bake for 15 mins (in a convection oven) or 20 mins (in a regular oven).
- Once done, let them cool for at least a half hour on a cooling rack. Initially, the cookies will be soft, but when they completely cool, they are crispy.
If you’d like, you can melt chocolate chips and dip the cookies in the sauce. Let the chocolate cool and harden before serving.
How to bake in a pressure cooker
If you don’t have an oven, we have a second way for you to prepare these cookies. You can use a pressure cooker.
- Pour 1.5 cups of salt into the pressure cooker. Spread the salt evenly across the bottom of the pressure cooker.
- Heat the salt in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes (do not pressure cook). Now your preheated oven-like-cooker is ready to bake!
- Place a stand/plate, which comes along with a cooker, above the hot salt.
- Put the sliced cookie dough pieces on a greased aluminum or stainless steel plate and keep it on top of the stand.
- Remove the gasket and pressure weight from the lid of the pressure cooker.
- Close with the lid and bake the cookies for 15 mins.
Tips:
- Don’t use more than 2 tablespoons of milk for kneading the dough. Usually the butter itself will be enough for kneading.
- Be sure to cool the dough in the refrigerator or freezer. This gives a nice texture to the butter cookies.
- Adding salt and vanilla extract gives an excellent flavor to the butter cookies.
- For a sugar cookie style, sprinkle on decorative sanding sugar or colored sugar right before baking. You can also add sprinkles, icing, or melted chocolate for a more festive cookie.
- Do not bake more than 20 minutes, or you will get harder cookies.
- Wait for the cookies to completely cool down before serving or storing.
We hope you’ll enjoy our old fashioned butter cookie recipe!
Old Fashioned Butter Cookies (without eggs)
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp milk or oil to knead
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, measure and take butter at room temperature (softened or slightly melted). Add the powdered sugar. Cream together using an electric mixer (low speed) or a hand mixer. Mix the softened butter and sugar thoroughly, until the butter mixture has a fine paste consistency.
- Sift and add the flour. Mix half a teaspoon of baking soda into the flour. If using self-rising flour, don’t use baking soda — replace it with 1/4 tsp of plain salt.
- Mix again (cut and fold method) using a spatula. The dough will turn into a wet crumbly texture. Do not overmix.
- Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix well. You can also use almond extract if you prefer that flavor.
- Start kneading again to form a smooth ball. If your dough is still powdery and unable to knead together, you can add a few tablespoons of oil, water, or milk.
- Now shape the dough lengthwise and roll the dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap tightly. You roll it rounded or squared to either make round or square-shaped butter cookies.
- Place the tightly wrapped dough inside a refrigerator for 30 mins or freezer for 15 mins to harden a bit.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Grease or line a baking sheet or cookie sheet.
- After 30 mins, take out the dough from the freezer, remove the wrap and cut into slices that are slightly under 1/2 inch (or about 1 cm) thick, using a sharp knife. Place the cookie dough slices on the prepared baking sheet, giving enough space.
- Bake for 15 mins in a convection oven or 20 mins in a regular oven.
- Once done, let them cool down for half an hour. (Will become crispy after cooling.)
Tried the butter cookie/biscuit. I cut the role of dough in 1 inch pieces as your recipe stated. This must be wrong as they came out much too large and did not resemble the ones in your picture. Please change the directions.
Thanks
Mike, thank you for the comment and I apologize for the error. It has been corrected; the slices should be a little less than a half inch thick.