bake (+travel) with sonia

The Search for the Perfect Butter Cookie

By sonia May 25, 2011 Cookies
 

When I was younger, my mom would take me to Vons, or the local town bakery, and we would buy bundles of delicious sprinkled butter cookies.  They were small, crumbly, and buttery.  And they were my absolute favorite.

They looked something like this:

 

So I decided to try and re-create these cookies.

The search was on!

I called Vons – they said that they do not bake the cookies in their store.

I called our local bakery – they wouldn’t tell me the recipe!  Grrr.

I went online, and found millions upon millions of butter cookie recipes.  DANG.

So I got out my notebook and started experimenting.

I made 6  types of butter cookies, each differing by only a single ingredient.

 

Batch 1, Dipped in Mr. Petes Chocolate Fudge Sauce
Batches 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6

Which will wiN??

Results

So…none of them hit jackpot.  But I did make some pretty darn good butter cookies.

Click here for the recipes!

If you have the butter cookie recipe I am looking for, or any good recipe for that matter, pass it along!

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6 thoughts on “The Search for the Perfect Butter Cookie”

      1. Gavin P.

        When I was younger I lived in San Diego with my parents before they divorced and I moved to Florida with my mom. The largest disappointment in the move was finding out that the local Publix did not carry the Von’s Butter Cookies that I loved so much. Despite this fact I still look through the cookie section of Publix some 20 years on hoping that I will be able to spot something similar. About 6 months ago I tried to search for the recipe only to find your blog post. Well today, while looking through the cookie section at Publix I spotted what looked like a smaller version of the Von’s Butter cookie, complete with the multi colored sprinkles and all. It was part of what was labeled as assorted italian cookies. I tried them, and while the taste is slightly different (I think they added lemon zest? something fruity, but subtle) it’s flaky and crumbly just the way we remember them. If you have an e-mail I can pass along the information, I’m no chef, but if you could figure out the recipe I would consider it a major win. Let me know.

          1. sonia Post author

            Thank you Gavin! I will definitely give this a try – I am intrigued by the addition of almond paste and confectioner’s sugar. And these definitely look the part. Thanks again for reading and good luck on your butter cookie search :).