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Dessert

Sweet Butter Cookies in 15 Minutes

A quick butter cookie dough made with butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, baked until lightly browned.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sweet Butter Cookies in 15 Minutes

Oven160–170 degrees
Timeabout 20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Take the butter out of the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature.

  2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with a mixer for about 5–10 minutes.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, continuing to beat.

  4. Add the flour and beat on low speed until the dough is homogeneous and smooth.

  5. Transfer the dough to a bowl.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into cookies on a pan lined with wax paper.

  2. Bake at 160–170 degrees for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides fat that creams with sugar and gives the cookies their tender, rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and, when beaten with butter, helps trap air for a lighter crumb.
Eggs
Add moisture and structure, binding the dough together as they are beaten in.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch structure that holds the cookies' shape as they bake.

The step that matters

Beating the butter and sugar. Beating long enough incorporates air into the fat, which helps the cookies rise slightly and stay tender. Butter that is too cold will not cream properly, so letting it soften to room temperature first matters.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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