These high altitude Swedish dream cookies are a type of traditional Swedish butter cookies that are light, airy, crispy, crunchy, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookies that are absolutely delicious and so easy to make. You’ll love making these cookies for the holidays, and they would make a wonderful addition to a Christmas cookie box.
You might also love these recipes for Swedish visiting cake, julekake (Norwegian Christmas bread), and Danish almond kringle.
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The Secret Ingredient in Swedish Dream Cookies
To make these buttery Swedish cookies the traditional way, you’ll need to buy some baker’s ammonia, also known as ammonium carbonate or hornsalt. This is an old fashioned leavening agent used to add a characteristic crispness and light, airy texture to certain traditional recipes for crackers and cookies such as today’s recipe for drömmar.
A word of caution, though, in its raw, unbaked form, baker’s ammonia does not smell good. Be careful about taking a whiff from the container. In addition, you probably don’t want to taste the raw cookie dough. And when you open the oven to take the baked cookies out of the oven, a wave of ammonia may hit you right in the face, making you wonder how these cookies can possibly taste as good as they look? But, they really do. The smell of the ammonia quickly dissipates, leaving behind the lovely scent of butter, sugar and vanilla, and the baked cookies are truly wonderful.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Mixer, No Chilling. Everything about this butter cookie recipe is super quick and easy. The dough comes together quickly with just a bowl and spoon, and then it’s ready to bake.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter. You’ll need let the butter soften to room temperature so it’s easy to incorporate into the dough by hand.
- Granulated Sugar.
- Vanilla Extract.
- Liquid Coconut Oil. I like the neutral flavor of liquid coconut oil (which is not the same thing as melted solid coconut oil), but you can also use another neutral vegetable oil.
- All Purpose Flour.
- Baker’s Ammonia. If this ingredient is not something you have on hand, you can also make these cookies with baking soda.
The next photo shows the difference in the cookies when you use baker’s ammonia (top cookie) vs baking soda (bottom cookie). You can see that the cookies made with baking soda are ever so slightly more browned and spread out than the batch of cookies made with baker’s ammonia. The baking soda cookies also tasted a little more buttery, while the baker’s ammonia cookies tasted a little more neutral. Both versions are wonderful.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, combine the softened butter, sugar, vanilla extract and liquid coconut oil. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together until smooth.
- Add half the flour and all of the baker’s ammonia, stirring to combine. Add the rest of the flour and stir into a soft dough.
- Use a small cookie scoop with a release lever (1 tbsp capacity) to scoop equal portions of the dough onto the baking sheet, leaving several inches between each. You can roll the dough balls smooth between your hands, or leave the ridges from the cookie scoop. I happen to like the ripply texture on the cookies from the cookie scoop.
- Bake the cookies at 300 F for about 17-20 minutes, until crisp and pale golden brown. Cool for several minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Store the leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for p to 3-6 months.
No, they are not the same thing. Liquid coconut oil is coconut oil that is always in a liquid form. You can find it on the baking aisle of your grocery store. It is NOT the same ingredient as solid coconut oil that has been melted into a liquid. Instead of liquid coconut oil you could also use vegetable oil or another neutral tasting oil. Olive oil may be too strong in flavor. Personally, I feel that liquid coconut oil has the best flavor for these cookies.
If you don’t have baker’s ammonia, you can use baking soda instead. However, note that with baking soda, the cookies are ever so slightly less crisp (but not that noticeably so). With baking soda, my test batch of cookies also spread a little more, had a little more browning, and a more buttery flavor. Whichever ingredient you choose to use, your cookies will be delicious.
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High Altitude Swedish Dream Cookies (Drömmar)
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Small Cookie Scoop with Release Lever (1 tbsp capacity)
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup liquid coconut oil (see notes)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp baker's ammonia (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, combine the softened butter, sugar, vanilla extract and liquid coconut oil. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together until smooth.
- Add half the flour and all of the baker's ammonia, stirring to combine. Add the rest of the flour and stir into a soft dough.
- Use a small cookie scoop with a release lever (1 tbsp capacity) to scoop equal portions of the dough onto the baking sheet, leaving several inches between each. You can roll the dough balls smooth between your hands, or leave the ridges from the cookie scoop. I happen to like the ripply texture on the cookies from the cookie scoop.
- Bake the cookies at 300 F for about 17-20 minutes, until crisp and pale golden brown. Cool for several minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store the leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for p to 3-6 months.
Notes
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