Heidesand - German Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies (2024)

Heidesand are German brown butter shortbread cookies. These tender slice and bake cookies are made with browned butter and rolled in turbinado sugar.

In Germany, Heidesand are a traditional Christmas cookie. These cookies are tender and buttery, with a nutty, caramelized flavor from the brown butter.

The edges are rolled in turbinado sugar or pearl sugar before baking. Simple touches like this help to elevate an otherwise plain cookie into something special.

These simple cookies are a well-loved classic and often a holiday favorite. Serve heidesand on your next Christmas cookie tray next to some zimtsterne, haselnussmakronen, and vanillekipferl.

Ingredients and substitutions

• Unsalted butter - Can be substituted with salted butter (omit the salt listed in the recipe)
• All purpose flour - I haven't tested this recipe with other types of flour, so instead of potentially wasting ingredients, I recommend searching for a recipe that's developed for the ingredients you'd like to use.
• Confectioner's sugar - I find that confectioner's sugar (also called powdered sugar, icing sugar, or 10x sugar) is easier to work with in shortbread cookie recipes. However, ¾ cup of confectioner's sugar can be substituted with ½ cup of granulated sugar if needed.
• Turbinado sugar - Can be substituted with pearl sugar or any large-grained sugar.
• Extracts/Seasoning - Vanilla extract and salt add flavor to your cookies.
• Heavy cream - Also called heavy whipping cream. Heavy cream, whipping cream, double cream, or even half & half would work as a substitute here. This ingredient is optional and should only be added if it looks like your dough is very crumbly and dry. This can happen during colder winter months when your home is very dry, or if too much flour has been measured into the dough. I've added this ingredient to the recipe after several readers had issues with dry, crumbly dough.

Tips and tricks

How to brown butter - Browning butter is as simple as melting your butter in a saucepan and allowing it to slowly brown and create caramelized bits at the bottom of the pan. Keep a careful watch over your butter, because it will brown fairly quickly. It can go from brown to burnt in an instant.

Stir occasionally - Whisk or stir occasionally so that your butter doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. Once you see a good amount of brown specks collecting in the bottom, remove your butter from the heat.

Properly measure your flour - It is extremely important in baking, and especially for shortbread cookies, to properly measure your flour. I suggest using one of two methods. The most accurate way to measure flour is to use a kitchen scale. If you don't have a kitchen scale, I recommend using the spoon and level method. Use a spoon to fill your measuring cup with flour, then level off with a knife.

Dough consistency - Your dough will look slightly crumbly - this is normal. Try pinching some dough between two fingers - does it hold together? If so, your dough is the correct consistency.

Dough not holding together? - If your dough is dry and not holding together, add the listed tablespoon of heavy cream to bring the dough back together. This happens when too much flour is added to the dough.

Rolling and shaping - When rolling your dough, don't worry if it's not exactly round. I have a hard time with this and often my cookies turn out more like a rounded square or oval. That's okay because they'll taste great no matter the shape!

Slicing and sugaring - Slice each refrigerated tube of dough into about ¼ inch slices, then roll the edges in turbinado sugar (or pearl sugar). I found this was easiest to do directly on the counter top.

Frequently asked questions

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