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Air Fryer Butter Cookies

Air fryer butter cookies – possibly the easiest baked cookie recipe in existence. 4-ingredients, no need to turn your oven on, quick bake, ready in no time.

Air fryer butter cookies on a black plate
Air fryer butter cookies

How to Bake Butter Cookies in an Air Fryer

Butter cookies are easy to bake, and make a great treat. They have a delicate buttery flavor and texture, and are simple to make with only 4 ingredients:

  • Sugar: white sugar or soft brown are best.
  • Butter: be sure to use good quality unsalted butter. The butter is where the cookies get their flavor from, so don’t skimp on this ingredient (and definitely don’t use a vegetable oil spread or margarine! 😱).
  • Ground almonds: these lighten the texture of the cookies, as well as adding nutritional value.
  • All-purpose flour.

I really love the simplicity of plain butter cookies, but you can also add in other ingredients if you like, try adding:

  • 1/4 cup of chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts
  • 2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
  • 2 tablespoon of chopped dried cranberries and 2 tablespoons of white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions

Step 1: Prepare a baking sheet or pan by greasing or lining with parchment or baking paper.

Step 2: Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. I usually use a mixer to do this. The old fashioned way is good too, but can take quite a bit of effort to get the mixture to be fluffy. This step is pretty key as the texture of the cookie depends on how light you get the butter and sugar.

Step 3: Sift the flour into the creamed mixture and add the ground almonds. Knead until well combined.

Step 4: Refrigerate the dough for at least 20 minutes. This step is important to make the dough easy to work with in the next step, and to ensure that the cookies keep their shape during cooking.

Step 5: Set air fryer to preheat to 320°F (160°C). This isn’t technically a requirement for all air fryers, however with cookies you really do want the air fryer to be hot when you put them in so they don’t start to spread before the air fryer is up to temp.

Step 6: Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out to 1/2 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Use a cookie cutter to cut into cookies, re-rolling as needed to use up all the dough.

Step 7: Place cookies onto prepared baking sheet or pan. Carefully place baking pan into air fryer basket. Air fry the butter cookies for approximately 8-12 minutes until pale golden. Cook any remaining dough in batches.

Storing

Store the baked cookies in an air-tight container, they should stay fresh for up to a week.

You can store uncooked dough in the freezer. Roll the dough and cut into cookies. Freeze on a cookie sheet, and when they are frozen hard pop them into a freezer bag. Then it is as easy as freshly air frying a couple of cookies on demand 😋. See this post for more: Air fryer Frozen cookies.

Air Fryer Butter Cookies Recipe Card

Air fryer butter cookies on a black plate
Yield: 14 (2 BATCHES)

Air Fryer Butter Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

How to bake butter cookies in an air fryer.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter (softened)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup ground almonds
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

Instructions

  1. Prepare a baking sheet or pan by greasing or lining with baking paper.
  2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  3. Sift all-purpose flour into the creamed mixture and add the ground almonds.
  4. Knead until well combined.
  5. Refrigerate dough for 20 minutes.
  6. Set air fryer to preheat to 320°F (160°C).
  7. On a lightly floured surface, roll out to 1/2 inch thickness.
  8. Use a cookie cutter to cut into cookies, re-rolling as needed to use up all the dough.
  9. Place cookies onto prepared baking sheet or pan.
  10. Carefully place baking pan into air fryer basket.
  11. Air fry the butter cookies for approximately 8-12 minutes until pale golden.
  12. Cook any remaining dough in batches, or freeze for later use.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

14

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 119Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 17mgSodium: 65mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 1gSugar: 4gProtein: 2g

Nutrition information is an estimate and provided for informational purposes only.

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