Austrian Butter Cookies

Four ingredients. That’s it. Flour, butter, sugar, and chopped nuts come together into one of the most elegant cookies in the European baking canon. The Austrian tradition is to roll them thin, cut into rounds, and serve plain with afternoon coffee, or to dress them up sandwich-style with jam, chocolate frosting, and a nut on top.

The lack of eggs or leavening is intentional. This puts the cookie firmly in shortbread territory rather than soft-cookie land. The result is tender, slightly crumbly cookies with a pure butter flavor that nothing else interferes with. Use the best butter you can afford, this is its showcase.

The chopped nuts get distributed through the dough rather than just garnishing the tops. Use walnuts for traditional Austrian flavor, pecans for American-leaning sweetness, or almonds for a slightly drier, more biscotti-like texture.

The sandwich variation is what these cookies are most famous for in Austria. Spread thin with apricot or raspberry jam, top with another cookie, then cover the top with chocolate icing and crown with a perfect walnut or pecan half. Suddenly your simple butter cookies become wedding-cookie elegant.

Pro Tips

• Chill the dough fully. The 1-2 hour chill makes it rollable. Warm dough sticks to everything.
• Roll between sheets of parchment to avoid working in extra flour.
• Bake on ungreased sheets. Greased sheets cause cookies to spread too much.
• Watch carefully at 7 minutes. These cookies should be pale gold, not brown.

Variations

• Sandwich with apricot or raspberry jam and dip half in melted chocolate.
• Press a thumbprint into each cookie before baking and fill with jam after baking.
• Dust with powdered sugar after cooling for a snowy holiday-cookie finish.