Heidesand (German Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies)

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Heidesand are German brown butter shortbread cookies, which are extremely popular at Christmastime but are delightful any time you want to make them. They feature a crumbly texture and a nutty, caramelized flavor with hints of vanilla.

Round German brown butter shortbread cookies stacked on a winter-themed rectangular platter.

Heidesand are pronounced “hi-deh-sund” which means “heath sand.” They originate in Lüneburger Heide (or Lüneburg Heath in English), a beautiful heathland area in northern Germany with a sandy and slightly hilly terrain, unsurprisingly an inspiration for the cookies.

These slice-and-bake shortbread cookies are tender and crumbly, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Meanwhile, the browned butter gives these otherwise simple cookies a unique and delicious flavor.

Heidesand are ever popular at Christmas and the perfect addition to a Christmas cookie tray! They’re egg-free and pair wonderfully with hot tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and of course mulled wine or cider.

Ingredient notes

Ingredients for heidesand brown butter shortbread cookies on a light grey background.

Butter: Use good quality unsalted butter for this recipe. The butter is the star!
Flour: Ideally, measure your all-purpose flour (and all your other ingredients) by weight for the best results. I’ve included volume measurements though just in case you don’t have a digital scale.
Vanilla: Traditionally, heidesand are made with vanilla sugar, which is typical in many German baking recipes. I find that vanilla extract is a bit easier for bakers outside of Germany, and it works really well for this recipe.
Coarse Sugar: Optionally, you can roll your cookies in coarse sugar before baking. Fine pearl sugar (not the kind you put in Belgian waffles) is an option, but you can also use turbinado or raw sugar, or even white sugar if that’s all you have. For mine, I rolled half of them in raw sugar and left half of them plain.

Heidesand cookies, some with raw sugar on the edges and some without, on a platter.

How to make it

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Gently whisk butter and continue to simmer until you see brown specks appear at the bottom of the pan. The melted butter itself should become a golden brown amber color.

Melted brown butter covered in bubbles in a metal saucepan with a whisk.

Remove the browned butter from the heat and pour it into a bowl, leaving any of the dark brown sediment (the browned milk solids) behind. This way you will have pure brown butter only. Cool the brown butter until the texture is soft, like room temperature butter, but no longer liquid.

Soft brown butter in a metal bowl with a spoon.

Note: You can refrigerate it (but this may take over an hour), or put it in the freezer for short intervals of a few minutes at a time, stirring in between so it doesn’t actually freeze solid but instead rapidly cools to the desired texture.

Transfer the cooled but soft brown butter to the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the butter until creamy and fluffy. Then add sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and salt and beat until smooth.

Soft brown butter beaten until creamy in a metal mixing bowl.

A creamy mixture of brown butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla whipped together in a mixing dough.

Add flour and baking powder and mix on low speed until combined. The mixture will still be quite crumbly but should hold together when pressed between your fingers.

Crumbly and sandy looking dough in a metal mixing bowl.

A lump of dough resting on a person's fingers.

Transfer the dough to a work surface and slightly knead and press the dough together to form a smooth mass. It will seem difficult to work with but this is normal.

Divide the dough into four pieces. Carefully squish and press each piece between your fists and fingers to lengthen it into a log. Then gently roll it to smooth out the edges. The dough may seem fragile, but again this is normal. Just do your best pressing and shaping them into logs. Each should be about 1-inch in diameter.

A big ball of cookie dough cut into two pieces on a wooden board.

Two logs of cookie dough on a wooden surface.

Wrap each dough log with plastic wrap. Then roll the rope back and forth a bit while wrapped in plastic to help smooth out the shape a bit more. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Four logs of cookie dough wrapped in plastic wrap on a grey surface.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Unwrap the dough logs and slice them with a sharp knife into ¼-inch thick rounds.

A log of cookie dough sliced into round discs on a wooden board.

Note: If the dough is too brittle to cut, leave it out at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes to let it soften a bit.

If desired, roll the edges of each slice of dough in turbinado (raw) sugar, pearl sugar, or granulated sugar. It can be a bit difficult to stick since the dough is firm and dry, but press it gently if needed. I recommend rolling on a flat, firm surface like a plate rather than filling a bowl with the sugar.

Arrange the sliced cookies on the prepared baking sheets. Bake each sheet for about 14 to 16 minutes or until the edges are just lightly browned.

Sliced unbaked round shortbread cookies on a baking sheet.

Baked round German shortbread cookies on a baking sheet.

Note: You can bake them one at a time on the center rack, or bake them together in the top and bottom thirds of the oven, swapping pans part way through baking. I find they bake more evenly if you bake one after another instead of simultaneously.

Remove from the oven and cool the cookies for a few minutes on the pan. Transfer heidesand to a rack to finish cooling.

Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.

Round buttery heidesand cookies stacked on a platter on top of red and green linen napkins.

Expert tips and FAQs

Use a lighter colored saucepan to make your browned butter so you can easily see the color contrast of the butter and the dark brown speckles in the bottom. This will make it easier to avoid burning the butter.

Store the unbaked dough rolls wrapped in plastic for up to 2 days in the refrigerator before slicing and baking, or freeze them for up to 3 months. Place frozen rolls of dough in the fridge overnight to allow them to slowly defrost before slicing and baking them. You can also freeze sliced cookies and bake them from a frozen state, but allow an extra minute or two for them to bake.

If your dough logs are too firm to slice straight out of the fridge, leave them out on the counter for about 20 to 30 minutes before slicing them into rounds.

Store baked heidesand cookies in a metal cookie tin or another airtight container for about 3 weeks at room temperature. You can also store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.

What are shortbread cookies?

Shortbread is a type of European cookie with many variations depending on the region where it originates. The most typical shortbread bars people may think of come from Scotland. Shortbread is characterized by a buttery flavor and a firm, crumbly texture. The main ingredients are typically butter, sugar, and flour. Shortbread doesn't contain eggs, and rarely contains leavening, although this German version (Heidsand) does have some baking powder.

Can I replace the butter with a plant-based alternative?

Heidesand are actually butter cookies, making butter the key ingredient. Butter does not simply provide a source of fat to the dough, but it provides a significant amount of the flavor. In this case, I would not recommend replacing the butter with something else.

Heidesand cookies stacked on a festive rectangular platter.

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