Easy Shortbread Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good shortbread cookies? ›

The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour. The less you work the dough, the more crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth your shortbread cookies will be.

Cornstarch provides the shortbread with structure, but its biggest job is keeping the cookies extra soft, tender, and light. I love adding a small amount to chocolate chip cookies too. Optional Coarse Sugar Topping: For an optional sparkly crunch on your shortbread wedges, add a sprinkle of coarse sugar before baking.

Butter cookies are very similar to shortbread, with the main variation being an increase in sugar. In addition to making them taste awesome, the higher ratio of sugar to butter means a butter cookie is cookie-cutter-ready and bakes beautifully without any tendency to crumble.

Why do you poke holes in shortbread? The holes allow the moisture to escape during baking and more even heat distribution.

Fine Cooking explains that the butter should be at refrigerator temperature. While many cookie recipes call for softened butter or at room temperature, if your butter isn't cold when making shortbread, it's likely to turn out greasy or be difficult to roll out.

Evenly coating the flour particles with fat in the form of melted butter makes it harder for gluten chains to form, resulting in buttery shortbread that melts in your mouth.

Sugar provides a fast source of energy. There are rarely any artificial additives. Cons: Shortbread is a weight watcher's nightmare because it is extremely high in saturated fat and calories. Saturated fat is the 'bad' fat which is linked to artery-clogging high cholesterol and heart disease.

Why do you put shortbread cut-out cookies in the fridge before baking? This is to resolidify the butter. The butter is at room temperature when making the dough resulting in a soft dough. If baked straight away, the butter would melt away immediately when hitting the hot oven and the shortbread would spread.

After shaping the cookies, don't rush to the oven! Instead, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so (overnight is OK, too). A short stay in the fridge will firm up the cookies and solidify the butter. This will help keep them from spreading too much.

Can you over mix shortbread cookies? ›

It's important to avoid over-mixing shortbread dough, which will develop gluten and make the finished product tough, not tender.

Rice flour works especially well in puddings and in shortbread cookies. Like with all-purpose flour, substitute 2 tablespoons rice flour for every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.

Shortbread is now Trefoils®! April Bowen that's a good point. April Bowen I agree. We have people ask for cookies by name because they prefer ABC over Little Brownie.

Spend extra when it really counts: If you're making a recipe where butter really is the star (think shortbread or biscuits), splashing out for a package of Kerrygold or Vital Farms is worth the expense. The fine differences in the flavor are most impactful in these recipes.

The name "millionaire's shortbread" appears to have originated in Scotland. The "millionaire" prefix to millionaire's shortbread or millionaires slice implies a level of decadence and wealth to the sweet treat, that it is an upgrade from regular shortbread.

It's all in the quality of the ingredients. With such a short ingredient list, the quality makes a big difference. The perfect shortbread cookie should be crumbly, but not dry, buttery but not greasy and sweet but not sickly.

Just like shortcake or shortcrust pastry, shortbread cookies get their “short” prefix because of the crumbly texture. The large amount of butter in the cookies makes them crumbly, while also giving them a nice buttery flavor. Shortbread cookies are insanely popular throughout the world. They originated in Scotland.

Step 3: The Secret to the Absolute Best Shortbread

After shaping the cookies, don't rush to the oven! Instead, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so (overnight is OK, too).

These proportions make shortbread a lot more dense compared to cookies, which means you could easily end up with shortbread that's hard and crunchy rather than buttery and crumbly. Per Cooktop Cove, this can occur when the dough has either been overworked or not chilled for long enough.