These Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies are a fun spin on my SUPER popular recipe for Kentucky Butter Cake. They’re soft, buttery, glazed and just like little bites of delicious cake!
So I might be unreasonably excited about today’s post. First because cookies. Second because cookies based on the most popular recent recipe on my website, Kentucky Butter Cake. And third because the reason I made these cookies was because I got so many emails requesting me to turn the cake INTO cookies.
So basically these little love nuggets came about because you smart people invented them. Which makes you basically geniuses. You turned a dessert made to be eaten with a fork on a plate into a dessert I can shove into my face as fast as I can get them off the baking sheet.
Major win.
I do have to say I love turning my favorite cakes into cookie versions…these Texas Sheet Cake Cookies are a prime example.
The original cake recipe is an easy one, but requires cooling time (as all cakes do). Which means the time from oven to tummy is usually a few hours.
These gems on the other hand will be in your belly pretty dang quickly. As God intended.
The cookie dough is really simple. I wanted to get the cookie to really replicate the texture of the cake and I think I nailed it! It’s both dense and soft. Don’t let them over-bake. You want them to be just done or maybe even a little underdone.
While they’re baking whip up your glaze. The cake is glazed while warm…same situation here.
Just a teaspoon or so of glaze works perfect! The glaze half melts into the cookie and half makes a sugary crust. PERFECTION.
It won’t take long for the glaze to set up.
Then dust them with some powdered sugar. Because it’s pretty.
And really….look at that cookie…
These literally melt in your mouth. Please please make them! And then say thank you to yourself 🙂
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Kentucky Butter Cake Cookies
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
Glaze
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- optional ~ powdered sugar to dust
Instructions
Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C
- Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat. Set aside.
- In the bowl of the stand mixer beat butter and sugar together for 1 minute until mixed. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated, scraping sides as necessary.
- Add in baking powder and salt, continuing to mix and finally the flour. Mix until dough just comes together.
- Using a medium (2 tablespoon) cookie scoop drop the dough onto the lined baking sheet. Alternately you can roll the dough into balls if you want a thicker cookie.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until the edges are slightly golden. Don’t over-bake.
Glaze
- While the cookies are baking combine all ingredients into a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir continuously until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Do not bring to a boil.
- Allow the glaze to cool slightly (about 5 minutes) to thicken.
- When the cookies are done spoon one teaspoon of the glaze onto each cookie while they’re warm. If the glaze gets too thick just heat it up a bit more.
- Dust with powdered sugar after the glaze has set if desired.
Great cookie, but I am on calorie counting so it will be awhile before making them again!
Butter cookie? Um, yess! I made these last night & browned the butter for the glaze and just YuM! Had to “try” a few then my belly said no more but my mouth Really still wanted more.lol (Shh, had 1 with coffee this morning- still amazing.) Thanks for the recipe! How long do you cook the glaze tho and should the sugar be melted?? I stirred and cooked for several minutes but it wasn’t really melted into the butter so there’s kind of a crunch to the glaze.. it’s a mouth watering crunch tho.
I had the same experience. I couldn’t get the sugar to dissolve and melt into the butter mixture.
Can you freeze these cookies?
Sure!
One of my absolute favorite cookie recipes. Taste like the perfect cross between a sugar cookie and a butter cookie. Absolutely AMAZING.
I saved this recipe awhile ago. I had a function at church. I needed a dessert. I had all the ingredients. The cookies are delicious. My husband told me, “These are some of the best cookies you have made. Make these again.” The people at the function loved them! Thank you for sharing!
Do you think I could use salted butter and leave out the salt?
Uh, yow. These are fantastic. Just learning how to do the glaze alone was worth it, but when added to the cookie, it was even better. We’ll be coming back to these.
Amazing!! You can’t go wrong with these. I make the Kentucky butter cake all the time so of course I had to try them in cookie form. My husband says I need to bake these every week. So delicious!
I made these today and they were delicious! I added a tbsp of sweetened lime juice instead of water to the glaze and zested a lime. This really made the glaze tangy and was a nice compliment to the cookie.
So good and easy to make with the kids. Next time I’ll add something to the glaze to spice it up. Maybe lime?