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These whole wheat butter cookies have a delicate crisp to them from soft wheat, they’re not too sweet, and they’re the perfect cookie to use as a base for any number of fun sandwiches or fancy cookies and tarts.

In all the thousands of butter cookies I’ve made in my life, I’ve met very few butter cookies that stink. I don’t know what it is about such a simple cookie with so few ingredients, but they just shine every time.

The ones I’m sharing today are elevated further with the addition of freshly milled soft wheat. We’ll sift out the bran, but you could leave it in if you wanted more texture. The result would be closer to a British digestive biscuit.

Regardless, you’ll love how quick and easy these whole wheat butter cookies are to make with my painless rolling technique that I use for ALL my roll out cookies. It’s genius, and it makes for cookies that are much less floury and more tender.

So grab your rolling pin and some room temp butter and let’s make some cookies.

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Whole Wheat Butter Cookies

A quick deep dive into soft wheat

TLDR;: Use whole wheat pastry flour!

I have a few baking books now in German. One thing that became clear as I started reading through them is that German flour is NOT the same as American flour.

This bummed me out. Thus far I’ve not been able to track down German 405 flour that I could ship to me without buying a silly amount to justify the price. Amazon has it for like 5x the price likely to account for the shipping problem.

What I do know is that the protein content of German 405 flour is around 8-10%. American all-purpose flour is around 11.7% (King Arthur), 10-12% (Bob’s Red Mill), 10.5% (Central Milling Beehive Organic) to give you an idea.

My German friend who lives here says that she has always used all-purpose flour living in the US. Still, with latent mad scientist genes in me, I’ve been genuinely curious what a lower protein flour would do.

Good news is that soft wheat berries have about 8% protein.

Are my soft wheat butter cookies similar to the ones in my German books? I have no idea (someday I’ll buy a bag of 405), LOL, but I do know they’re melt in your mouth soft, yet tender and crisp all at the same time.

Why use soft wheat in baking

As I’ve been messing around with baking with them after milling the berries, I’ve noticed a couple things:

The soft wheat makes for a delicate crumb that’s ideal for cookies and cakes.
You can sift out the bran for a white whole wheat flour.
The fresh milling makes for some truly delicious cookies.

If you don’t have a grain mill, just use whole wheat pastry flour. It’ll still get you close to the texture of my cookies without the hassle. Further, you can use standard all-purpose flour as well for these cookies–they will just be a little sturdier.

Sifting out bran in fresh milled flour

If you do mill the soft wheat for this recipe, you’ll want to sift out the bran.

To do this, pour the freshly milled flour into a fine mesh sieve. I’m using a very inexpensive small #60 mesh sieve from Amazon.

Working over a piece of parchment or wax paper, tap the edges of the sieve. Alternatively, you can use a large spoon to press the flour through the sieve. This is an oddly satisfying task.

After a short time, you’ll be left with a pile of whiter looking flour and the darker bran left in the sieve.

Weigh out the amount of flour from the sifted pile for your recipe. You may need to sift a little more to get what you need. Every mill is different and every grain is a little different. I usually estimate that I’ll need 20% more in weight of my wheat in a recipe that I’m sifting.

Soft wheat butter cookies ingredients

Soft wheat berries (Use whole wheat pastry flour if you do not have a grain mill)
Butter at room temperature
Powdered sugar: the tiny bit of starch in powdered sugar makes for a soft tender cookie.
Egg yolk: the fat in the egg yolk adds again to tenderness and lends a beautiful color
Vanilla extract or vanilla paste: for flavor
pinch of salt: for flavor

Fun things to do with whole wheat butter cookies

Add jam: make jam sandwiches
Ice cream sandwiches: spread with softened ice cream and freeze
Add chocolate: dip the edges in chocolate or swizzle it on top.
Frost ’em: pipe away.
Eat ’em plain: my preferred!

Whole Wheat Butter Cookies

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Author: Elizabeth Farr
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: about 2 dozen

Print Recipe

Description

Fresh milled soft wheat gives these lightly sweetened butter cookies an addictive soft toothy bite. Combined with the crisp texture, these are a perfect base for any kind of cookie sandwich or fancy cookie.

Ingredients

Scale

1 and 1/4 cups (160 g) of soft wheat berries (see note if you do not have a grain mill)
1 stick of butter at room temperature (113 g)
1/2 cup (60 g) powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
pinch of salt

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Instructions

Make the dough:

Turn on your grain mill and process the wheat berries on the finest setting on your grain mill.
Use a fine mesh sieve (I use this inexpensive #60) to sift out the bran onto a piece of wax paper or parchment.
Weigh the sifted flour. You need 130 grams for this recipe.
Using a paddle attachment on a stand mixer, mix the powdered sugar, butter and egg yolk until just combined.
Add in the vanilla and the salt to the butter to combine. The mixture should be well-combined but not fluffy.
Pour in the flour, then pulse the mixer a few times before letting it run just long enough for the flour to disappear–about 10 seconds. Turn off the mixer, and use a baking spatula to squish in any flour that’s hanging out at the bottom of the bowl.

Rolling the cookies

Get 2 pieces of parchment out and have 2 sheet trays at hand.
Lightly flatten the dough ball with your hands into a flattish round.
Lightly sprinkle one of the sheets of parchment with flour, then sprinkle flour on the top of your dough flat.
Place the dough unfloured side down on top the floured parchment, then cover with the second piece of parchment.
Bring the edge of the parchment to the edge of the counter and hold it in place with your hip.
Roll the dough between the two sheets of parchment into a sheet about 1/8″ thick.
Slide the parchment onto a baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes in the fridge or 10 minutes in the freezer.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
After 15 minutes, peel off the top piece of parchment.
Use a 2″ round cutter to cut cookies. Place the top parchment on the second sheet tray, then place the cut cookies. They will spread a tiny bit, but you should be able to fit 20 on one sheet.
Bake for 5 minutes, then rotate the baking sheet 180 degrees.
Reroll any scraps into a second sheet of dough, then chill while the first batch of cookies is baking.
Bake for 5 more minutes until the edges are set and just beginning to take on color.
Let the cookies sit on the sheet tray until the baking sheet is cool.
Bake the second batch the same way as the first.
Store cookies in an airtight container for up to a week or freeze them for up to 3 months.

Notes

If you do not have a grain mill, replace the wheat berries with 130 grams of whole wheat pastry flour.
Pulsing the mixer is my nifty trick for preventing flour from getting all over the place. Turn the mixer on for a micro second, then off. Do this a few times, and the flour will have incorporated enough that it won’t end up on your counter or your face!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Additional Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Category: Healthier Baking