These salted butter cookies taste like the good old-fashioned bakery but are easy to make at home. Mix a simple dough with butter, sugar, flour and a pinch of sea salt; let it rest; cut out shapes and bake until crisp. You mix a simple dough with butter, sugar, flour and a pinch of sea salt, let it rest and cut out pretty shapes. The oven does the rest. Weekend flavor, weekday effort.
At a glance
- Time: 10 min prep / 25 min bake / 1 hour rest.
- Servings: 25 cookies
- Calories: about 97 kcal per cookie
- Difficulty: easy
- Key ingredients: flour, sugar, sea salt, butter, cold water and egg yolk.
- Allergens contains gluten (flour), milk (butter), and egg. Does not contain nuts, soy, fish (based on ingredients).
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Simple Salted Butter Cookies with Crunchy Edges
There is something about the smell of butter and sugar in the oven that makes everyone drift into the kitchen. While these cookies bake, you can almost hear chairs being dragged closer to the table. The boys wait until they are "just cool enough" and then they disappear, one by one, straight from the cooling rack.
And that pinch of sea salt really makes them special. It keeps the cookies from being too sweet and gives that little "oh, that's good" moment after the first bite. They are simple, honest cookies - the kind that live in your cookie tin for about one afternoon and then are simply gone.
When to Serve these Salted Butter Cookies?
These salted butter cookies are perfect for:
- A simple coffee or tea cookie on busy weekdays.
- Filling your cookie tin for the weekend.
- A small homemade food gift in a tin or cookie bag.
- Baking with kids: cutting out the shapes together is half the fun.
Why this works
- Short ingredient list: Just basic pantry items, so you can bake them any time.
- Pinch of salt: The sea salt sharpens the butter flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Chilled dough: Resting in the fridge makes rolling and cutting much easier.
- Cut-out cookies: Cookie cutters keep everyone happy; nobody fights for the biggest piece.
- Great keepers: They stay crisp in a tin, perfect for make-ahead baking.
What You'll Need
Exact amounts are in the recipe card.
- Flour: Forms the base of the cookie dough.
- Sugar: For sweetness and crisp edges.
- Sea salt: A tiny amount to boost flavor.
- Butter: Gives that rich, buttery bite. I use unsalted butter plus a pinch of sea salt. If you use salted butter, leave out the extra sea salt.
- Cold water: Brings the dough together.
- Egg yolk: For a shiny, golden glaze.
How to Make It
You'll find the full, step-by-step recipe card below.
- Step 1: Mix flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Pulse in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add cold water and pulse until a dough ball forms.
- Step 2: Flatten, wrap and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
- Step 3: Roll out, cut cookies.
- Step 4: Brush with egg yolk and bake until golden. Cool on a wire rack until crisp.
Top Tips
- Keep the butter cold so the dough stays firm and easy to roll.
- Don't skip the resting time; it stops the cookies from shrinking in the oven.
- Roll the dough between two sheets of baking or wax paper to avoid sticking.
- Dip your cookie cutter in flour so it releases the dough cleanly.
- Leave space between cookies; they spread a little while baking.
- Take them out when just golden at the edges; they crisp further while cooling.
- Let them cool completely before storing, so they stay crunchy.
- Bake two trays instead of one huge one, so they brown evenly.
Did you make this delicious recipe? Tag #byandreajanssen via Instagram! I love to see what your creation looks like and regularly share the most beautiful photos of you! Did you like this recipe? Then leave a rating on the recipe card! Your feedback helps other home cooks and me enormously.
Need more inspiration?
- You can find video recipes on my YouTube channel.
- And don't forget to save the recipes on Pinterest, so you can easily find them again next time!
📖 Recipe
RECIPE CARD
Ingredients
- 1⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cups sugar
- ⅙ teaspoon sea salt
- 1¼ stick butter
- 3-5 tablespoons water, cold
- 1 egg yolk, for the glaze
All my recipes are written both in Metric (gram / ml) and US Customary (cups / pounds). Here you can select which type of amount you would like to see.
Instructions
- Put flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to mix.1⅔ cup all-purpose flour, ¾ cups sugar, ⅙ teaspoon sea salt
- Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.1¼ stick butter
- Add the cold water and pulse until a dough ball forms.3-5 tablespoons water
- Place the dough on the work surface, shape it into a circle, flatten it slightly, and wrap it in plastic.
- Chill for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 355 °F.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Let the dough rest 5 minutes at room temperature, then roll between two sheets of waxed paper to about ½ cm thick.
- Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter and place them on the tray, leaving space between them.
- Mix the egg yolk with a few drops of cold water and brush the tops of the cookies.1 egg yolk
- Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- Sugar sprinkle: Dust with a little extra sugar before baking for more crunch.
- Citrus twist: Add grated lemon or orange zest to the dough.
- Room temperature: Keep in an airtight tin for up to 5 days.
- Freezer (baked): Freeze in layers with baking paper between cookies for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature.
- Dough: Wrap well and chill up to 2 days or freeze up to 1 month.
Nutrition
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