These roll out brown butter corn cookies are so easy to make and full of flavor! They have a great texture from the cornmeal, bold flavor from the sweet corn powder, and a hint of nuttiness from the brown butter. You can cut out any shape you like or follow along my recipe for bear cookies.
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❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You won’t need any special equipment. The butter is browned over the stovetop and the cookie dough is all mixed together in one bowl!
- It’s perfect for corn lovers. The cookies have cornmeal and sweet corn powder, which add great texture and flavor.
- It’s versatile. Zhuzh it up however you like! For example, you could mix in half a cup of sprinkles or use other fun cookie cutters you have on hand!
Looking for more another cut-out cookie recipe? Try out my rolled matcha cookie recipe!
Ingredients
To make roll out corn cookies from scratch, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- First, you’ll brown unsalted butter, which will add a nice toasty, nutty flavor to the cookies. Since we’re using it in its melted form, it’ll make mixing the cookies by hand pretty easy.
- I like to use a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar to create the perfect balance of flavor and chew. You can use light or dark brown sugar; dark brown sugar will just give you a deeper butterscotch flavor.
- I love adding medium-grind cornmeal to this recipe because it adds that iconic gritty texture normally found in cornbread.
- The sweet corn powder adds a beautiful rich corn flavor, giving these cookies a super distinct corn flavor.
- Adding in both baking powder and baking soda gives us the exact texture and rise we’re aiming for!
- You can use either vanilla extract or vanilla paste (1:1) in this recipe.
For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
💡 Baking Tip
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
How to Make Soft Cut Out Corn Cookies
Step 1: Brown the butter on medium-low heat until nice and toasty, then transfer to a large heat-safe bowl to cool to room temperature (full brown butter tutorial here). Mix in brown and granulated sugars until fully combined.
Step 2: Add in egg, malted milk powder, and vanilla until smooth.
Step 3: Stir in dry ingredients until no dry spots remain. Roll dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it is about ¼-inch thick. Transfer the entire stack to a baking tray and freeze for ~15 minutes, or until dough is a bit firmer. Transfer stack onto your work surface. Remove top parchment layer then lightly stick it back on (this helps loosen the dough for when you remove cut-out shapes). Flip entire stack over to completely remove the other layer of parchment paper. Cut out shapes. Re-roll extra dough and repeat.
Step 4: Place cut-out cookies on lined baking tray, about 3 inches apart. Bake at 350°F/177°C for 11-13 minutes, or until edges are set. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack and decorating with melted chocolates. Enjoy!
For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
“This feels like eating Doritos, where you have one piece and can’t stop eating and keep going back for more and more!” – one of my taste testers, who ate 4 of them at once 😂
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Thank you so much! -Bianca ❤️
📖 Recipe & Video
Cut-Out Corn Cookies
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Equipment
- 1 Small light-colored saucepan for browning butter
- 1 large mixing bowl for mixing dough
- Parchment Paper
- cookie cutters I used bear cookie cutters
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cups (156.25 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (35 g) cornmeal
- ¼ cup (40 g) sweet corn powder
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) fine sea salt or table salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup (66.67 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (55 g) brown sugar packed; light or dark
- 3 tablespoons (21 g) malted milk powder
- 1 tablespoon (13 g) vanilla extract or paste
- 1 (1) egg room temperature
Decorations:
- 3 tablespoons (45 g) white chocolate chips
- ½ tablespoon (7.5 g) chocolate chips milk or dark
- oil-based pink/red food coloring
Instructions
Brown the butter:
- (Feel free to check out my more in-depth post about brown butter)In a light-colored pan over medium heat, add ½ cup unsalted butter. Continuously stir with a silicone spatula. After the butter melts, it will begin to foam. Then, the foaming will subside and brown specks will start to form at the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring. The color change will be fairly quick, so keep an eye on the butter. Remove the pan from heat once you smell a nutty aroma and the butter becomes golden brown.Transfer to a heat-safe bowl and let cool until room temperature, about 10-15 minutes.
Make the cookie dough:
- In a large bowl, use silicone spatula to mix the cooled, melted brown butter with ⅓ cup granulated sugar and ¼ cup brown sugar until combined.
- Stir in 3 tablespoons malted milk powder, 1 tablespoon vanilla, and 1 egg until smooth.
- Add in all of the dry ingredients: 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, ¼ cup cornmeal, ¼ cup sweet corn powder, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt. Mix until no dry spots remain. The dough will be thick.
Roll out cookie dough:
- Now, you will make a "parchment stack". The bottom layer will be a large piece of parchment paper, the cookie dough in the middle, then parchment paper on top. This will make rolling out the dough much easier + mess free.Lay large piece of parchment paper down on work surface. Plop on all of the cookie dough, then lay another piece of parchment on top of it.Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a large rectangle, until dough reaches desired thickness. I rolled my dough out to about ¼-inch thick.
- Pop the parchment stack into the freezer for 15-20 minutes. This will make the dough easier to work with, especially if you are working in a warm kitchen!Towards the end of the freezing time, preheat oven to 350°F/177°C and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- This step will help loosen the shortbread from the parchment paper layers. So when you cut out dough pieces, the dough doesn't stick to the paper and is easier to transfer to your lined baking tray.Peel off top parchment paper, then lightly stick it back on. Flip the entire parchment-shortbread-parchment stack over so you can peel off the bottom parchment paper.
- Use bear cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes. If dough is getting too soft, pop it back in freezer for a few minutes.Knead together any dough scraps, roll out, and cut out more bear cookies.
Bake cookies:
- Transfer cookies to baking sheets, about 2-3 inches apart. The cookies will not spread much while baking.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes. Cookies should have slightly firm edges and look set (no wet/underbaked spots in dough). Let cool on pan for about 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.
Decorate cookies:
- Note: You can a piping bag, toothpick, or cookie scribe to add on the details. I used piping bags.
- Add 3 tablespoons white chocolate chips to small microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until fully melted.
- Leave about a tablespoon of melted white chocolate and transfer the rest to a piping bag. Use this for the snouts and ears.
- To the remaining white chocolate, add a drop of oil-based pink/red food coloring. Transfer to piping bag and use this for the blush.If you don't have oil-based food coloring, then the chocolate will seize/become lumpy. To counter this, stir in a tsp of neutral oil (canola, vegetable) at a time, until it becomes smooth again.
- Melt ½ tablespoon chocolate chips in another bowl, transfer to piping bag, and use this to draw on the eyes and nose.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- Room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing instructions: Store cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Allow frozen cookies to thaw at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
