Butter Cookies with Cinnamon Glaze

These super tender Butter Cookies with Cinnamon Glaze are the ultimate Christmas cookie! Topped with warm spices and sweet frosting, these melt-in-your-mouth cookies are perfect for the holiday season!

this Recipe

 

This post is sponsored by Challenge Butter. All recipes, tips, and opinions are cooked up right here at Easy Family Recipes.

Butter Cookies – The EASY Way!

Butter cookies are one of the most simple cookies to make, yet they are so perfect with their rich flavor and tender texture.

Why I LOVE this recipe!

• Buttery- These have THE BEST butter flavor- the secret is using salted butter from Challenge! It has incredible flavor that carries right through to the cookie.
• Melts in your mouth– One of the things that make these cookies so irresistible is how they melt in your mouth. The soft buttery texture makes them so light but so delectable.
• Bite-sized – I like to make these easy Christmas cookies small so they are perfect to eat in a bite or two! You can make them regular-sized or even oversized as well, but there is just something about popping one bite-sized cookie in your mouth that can quench my sweet tooth perfectly!
• Portable– These cookies travel super well! They can be kept at room temperature, in the fridge, or in the freezer making them perfect for gifting, shipping, driving to a friend’s house, or just keeping in the freezer for Christmas Day.
• Freezable- I find that these cookies stay fresh in an air-tight container really well, but if you want to make them last even longer, they can be frozen. They taste just as fresh as the day they were baked once thawed.

Recipe Notes

This easy butter cookie recipe is as simple as promised! Just a few staple ingredients for tender, delicious holiday cookies.

In this section I am going to go through a few tips and tricks I use when making this recipe to get the absolute best and most delicious results.

Make sure to scroll to the bottom for the FULL recipe card.

Ingredients + Substitutions

For the cookies:

• Butter – Even though it is not traditional in baking, I prefer to use salted butter to make these cookies. I LOVE the flavor of Challenge salted butter, so using it in these cookies helps to give them a flavor that is rich and amazing, and it is made even better because it is what I keep on hand every day in my kitchen, so I don’t need anything special to make them. Challenge is always my butter of choice because it is made with simple ingredients and the best rich, buttery flavor. It’s farmer-owned and churned fresh daily.
• Sugar– I use white granulated sugar to keep them very bright in color, but raw cane sugar could be used too.
• Eggs– This recipe is designed for using large eggs.
• All-purpose flour 
• Baking powder
• Salt – Yes, even with using salted butter, we still want to add a little more salt to help balance the sweetness. Trust, me, it comes together like magic!

For the glaze:

• Powdered sugar – Powdered sugar is perfect for this recipe because it dissolves under room temperature liquid but then will set hard. This makes a great way to create a glaze that is flowable but then sets hard on the cookies so that you can store or travel with them easily.
• Cinnamon–Any ground cinnamon will work here. I also always use a little extra for dusting the tops of the cookies so they are extra festive.
• Heavy cream or milk- While you can use either cream or milk to make the glaze, I prefer cream for the richness it adds. Milk will work well too though you may need a little less milk since it is thinner than cream.
• Salt– A tiny bit of salt really goes a long way in flavoring the glaze! Don’t overdo it!

Recipe Tips

1. Use softened butter– Making sure that your butter is softened (not melted, or still hard) will vastly improve the texture of your cookie and help it to keep the shape you want while baking rather than spreading too thin.
2. Shape the dough– Use your hands to shape the dough into a ball for perfectly shaped cookies. If you want a flatter cookie, gently press down on the top slightly before baking. If you want fluffier cookies, simply scoop the dough onto the tray without rolling.
3. Adjust the cream – Depending on how packed the powdered sugar is when you measure it and if you use cream or milk, you may need to add more or less cream or milk to reach the desired glaze consistency.
4. Decorate – To keep these cookies simple yet beautiful, use a fine mesh strainer to lightly dust the top with ground cinnamon while the glaze is still wet.
5. Cool the cookies– Let the cookies cool before trying to glaze them. This helps for two reasons. First, the cookies are soft. I mean super soft. So if you try to glaze them warm they often break. They will be more stable once cool. Second, the glaze will run off more when they are warm. It is a thin glaze and will drip down the side regardless, but when they are cool it leaves the perfect amount of glaze to cookie ratio

Recipe Short Cuts

If you need to make this recipe but are extra short on time, here are a few ideas that can help make this recipe even faster!

• Make the dough in advance – Cookie dough can be made up to 2 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. When ready to bake form cookies into balls and bake as directed. Cookies may need up to an extra minute of baking if they are coming straight from the fridge.
• Freeze the dough– Cookie dough can be made up to 3 months in advance and baked when needed. Simply shape the dough and freeze it on a flat tray, covered with plastic wrap. When ready to make, place on a baking tray and bake for 9-12 minutes and then make the glaze and glaze as directed.
• Freeze the cookies– Cookies can be made and frozen for up to a month before glazing to save time. Just be sure to let them cool and set completely before freezing.

Recipe Variations

If you love this recipe as much as we do and want some quick ways to change it up for variety, these little tips will do the trick for more Christmas cookie ideas!

• Chocolate Peppermint Butter Cookies– By substituting the cinnamon in the glaze for a little cocoa powder and a splash of peppermint extract, you will have delicious chocolate peppermint butter cookies.
• Gingerbread Butter Cookies– By adding a little molasses and ground ginger to the glaze, these cookies will be screaming gingerbread with way less work!
• Cafe Latte Butter Cookies– Add a little instant espresso powder to the glaze instead of cinnamon for a coffee-infused butter cookie.
• Orange Cranberry Bread – Not a cookie, but the cinnamon glaze on top of this bread is INCREDIBLE!

How to Store Christmas Butter Cookies

After making the best Christmas cookies you will ever eat, you can store them to enjoy over the week. To save leftovers, place them in an airtight container and store:

• at room temperature for 3-4 days
• in the freezer up to a month

More Easy Cookie Recipes

If you enjoyed this recipe, I really hope you will take a moment to grab a few more easy recipes for another busy night!

You can check out all of my EASY dessert recipes here, or see a few of our readers favorite recipes below.

• Lemon Meltaway Cookies
• Bakery Style Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Softest Sugar Cookies
• Favorite No Bake Cookies