How To Make Butter Cookies From Scratch

Learn how to make butter cookies at home with amazing taste and texture. These homemade tasty raisin cookies are easy to make with simple recipe and ingredients, and are the best butter cookies with the afternoon tea or coffee.

Why I ❤️ it • Recipe • Ingredients • Preparation

Why I ❤️ it

Grab some raisin cookies, and a cup of coffee, and welcome to a great afternoon. This is an easy-to-make cookie dough that takes little time and effort and can be made with vanilla or almond flavors.

Summer vacation for us means lazy afternoons, eating out, procrastinating, spending our evenings drinking coffee and cookies and playing cards, and complaining endlessly about the heat.  And coffee time does not get better than with these delicious raisin butter cookies that are easy to make and practically melt in your mouth.

Utensils and tools

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Spatula
• Plastic film
• Silicone mat or parchment paper
• Baking sheet
• Wire rack

Ingredients

• ¾ cup of salted butter at room temperature
• ⅔ cup of sugar (white, granulated)
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 ¾ cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup of raisins, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder (optional)

Preparation

Before starting, please make sure you have all the ingredients and utensils ready.

Step 1

In the stand mixer bowl, combine butter, sugar, and salt. Beat butter over medium speed until it turns creamy and the butter has a lighter color.

Step 2

Add flour, and vanilla extract and mix until it turns into a smooth and uniform mix. Stop half-way and scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is mixed uniformly.

Stop the the mixer. Fold in the raisins with a spatula.

Make the dough into a ball. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Step 3

Remove from the fridge. Divide into halves, then into halves, etc. until you obtain about 24 - 30 balls.

Roll into compact balls and refrigerate again for 3 hours.

Step 4

Preheat oven to 375°F [190 ºC].

Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with silicone mat or parchment paper. Press each slightly with the palm of your hand, making a very shallow dip in the center. Sprinkle with the cinnamon.

Step 5

Immediately place in the oven and bake until the cookies are flatter and golden brown (10 to 15 min).

Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight jar. Best consumed fresh.

Variations

If you dislike cookies, you can leave them out. The recipe works equally well without it.

You can substitute almond extract for vanilla extract.

If you only have unsalted butter at hand, substitute salted butter for unsalted butter and an extra ¼ teaspoon salt.

Top tips

This recipe was adapted from this Epicurious recipe. I made several changes to the preparation.

The most important part of this is respecting the refrigeration time, especially in the summer, so the cookies hold their shape.

Serving suggestions

Aside from a great cookie to go with coffee or tea, they also make great Christmas cookies gifts, put them in a pretty tin or glass jar for a very environmentally-friendly Christmas gift.

Nutritional information

Calories: 553kcal - Carbohydrates: 23g - Protein: 36g - Fat: 35g - Saturated Fat: 14g - Cholesterol: 116mg - Sodium: 1642mg - Potassium: 765mg - Fiber: 2g - Sugar: 13g - Vitamin A: 1030IU - Vitamin C: 9.1mg - Calcium: 587mg - Iron: 2.2mg

More dessert recipes

See all dessert recipes ➜

FAQs

Print card

This is just a printer-friendly summary, some useful details are found in the recipe above.