For a certain little boy, a nice big cookie sheet full of still-warm butter cookies was one of life’s best delights!  At any age – as a teenager, as a young man, or even on the far side of fifty years old – the arrival of a package of his mother’s butter cookies brought with it an anticipation that any little boy of any age would understand.  

His loving wife certainly understood; and when his mother willingly passed along the recipe, she tried her hand.  

The recipe is easy enough; just five ingredients.  Combine the first four ingredients, then hand-mix in the flour, let sit for ten minutes, and use a cookie press to force the dough onto a clean, ungreased cookie sheet.  

Except – it took all her strength to push the dough through the cookie press.  

A quick phone-call to Mom – and her response cleared up the problem:  “Oh, I always add extra butter.”  

Problem solved, and a certain little boy – now almost 70 – is still thrilled whenever another sheet full of those wonderful butter cookies is pulled from the oven.

To make butter cookies, you will need a cookie press, and, of course, a cookie sheet or two.  The cookie press will come with a number of template disks.  Using a variety of disks will be appreciated, but some will work, and some will not.

Don’t worry:  the recipe shown here includes the “extra” butter – and a little extra vanilla extract, as well.

Ingredients:  

1 cup + 2 tablespoons of melted butter;

2/3 cup of sugar;

3 egg yolks;

1 1/4 teaspoons of vanilla extract;

2 1/2 cups of flour.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees;

Mix the melted butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract together.  

Mix flour into the mixture with your hands.  

Let sit for about 10 minutes.  

Load dough into a cookie press.  

Press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  

Bake until set or slightly brown – approximately 5 to 6 minutes.

Be warned:  children of all ages will make these butter cookies disappear faster than you could have imagined possible.  ♣