How To Make All Butter Shortbread Cookies (2024)

🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Simple is best. I love this adage, and it’s oh-so true in this case. You can’t beat the familiarity of biting down on a traditional shortbread cookie. It’s like a warm hug!
• Versatile. Shortbread is a fantastic base to use for all sorts of recipes. Along with cookie rounds, fingers, petticoat tails, and slice n’ bake cookies, you can also make thumbprint cookies, stamped cookies, and shortbread caramel bars.
• Build your own adventure. The options are endless as to what you can flavour the shortbread with but also what you can decorate them with. You just gotta have fun with it!

🧾 Ingredients Needed

I've seen many variations of recipes around on the web using rice flour, cornflour, powdered icing sugar or egg in the dough. I’m not here to say that they're wrong. I just keep falling back to my favourite, easy shortbread cookie recipe that uses butter, sugar and flour at its core.

With so few ingredients my biggest tip when buying them is to go for the best quality that you can, especially when it comes down to the butter that you use. Use a good quality European Butter as they have a far superior taste but also lower water content which benefits the shortbread.

• Butter - I recommend unsalted butter so that you can control the level of salt within the recipe. As my method creams the butter and sugar together, ensure the butter is at room temperature for maximum cream-ability! But make sure it’s not too soft verging on melted otherwise, it won’t cream properly and you’ll be left with greasy, dense cookies.
• Sugar- Granulated or caster sugar is used. The recipe states granulated as it's more mainstream, but I personally go for caster sugar every time as it dissolves better into the butter.
• Flour- Plain (all-purpose) flour creates the perfect structure for the cookies to maintain their shape. Don’t bake with self-raising flour for this recipe as we don’t need the added aeration that it provides.
• Vanilla Extract & Salt - Vanilla extract and salt are not part of the core ingredients needed to make shortbread. If you're a purist then by all means leave them out. But I love the additional flavour and balance these two ingredients bring. Vanilla bean paste or the scraped beans from ½ a vanilla bean is a good substitute for vanilla extract. And use fine salt rather than flaked salt for an even distribution of salt throughout the dough.

📖 Variations

Now that you have your shortbread dough nailed, you have the perfect base recipe to then be able to flavour your shortbread. You can add as much or as little as your like! Here are just some ingredients that you can add.

• Nuts: Any type of chopped nuts can be added to your shortbread mix. Lightly toasted or raw nuts as per your preference, chop them up coarsely for even distribution throughout the dough. Examples you might like are walnuts, pecan, pistachio, almonds, hazelnuts and sesame seeds.
• Herbs: Mixing finely chopped herbs into the dough provides a subtle but herbaceous essence that is delightful. Herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage and lavender are my favourite.
• Spices: such as cardamom, cumin, pumpkin spice, cinnamon or fennel can add an interesting note.
• Teas: Earl Grey tea has to be my favourite to add to the dough, but others might include English breakfast, mint tea, or camomile. (Use crushed-up tea leaves rather than hot water and the leaves.)
• Citrus: Orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit are incredible flavours to add to your shortbread. Do this through the zest, and top tip - make sure to rub the zest into the sugar to release the oils in the zest. Then carry on and cream the sugar and butter as per the instructions. You get maximum flavour this way.
• Extracts: Add coffee, lemon, lavender, orange, peppermint, maple or rum extracts to intensify flavour. Be warned, a little goes a long way.
• Dried fruit: A fantastic addition to any shortbread biscuit is by adding dried fruit. They add amazing sweetness but also amazing little pockets of chewiness too. Make sure to chop the fruit up into small pieces to make it easier to stamp or cut the dough. Dried cherries, raisins, apricots, cranberries, and dates are great options.
• Confectionary: Sweets! The kids (and adults!) are going to love you! Have fun and think of all the fun sweets such as Jelly Beans, M&M's, Smarties, Marshmallows, Sprinkles, and chopped chocolate bars like Mars Bars, Twix, and Snickers Bars. Just typing this list brings a smile to my face!
• Chocolate: Any and all chocolate works incredibly well with the buttery shortbread. Add coarsely chopped chocolate bars, chocolate chips, or chocolate callets into the dough for little pockets of melted heaven throughout! Or the cookies can be dipped or drizzled with chocolate or a combination of various types. Don't just stop at dark, milk, or white chocolate, think about ruby or blonde chocolate and mint or orange chocolate. It's a great chance to have fun and put your own spin on your cookies.

👩🏻‍🍳 How to Make

*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*

I can’t wait for you to dive headlong into this section showing you how to make butter shortbread cookies. Here, you’ll find process images and stepped instructions to make classic shortbread so you know exactly what to expect. This really is the perfect recipe for beginner bakers. You'll see just how simple it is.

Make the All-Butter Shortbread Cookie Dough

You can use either a stand-mixer or hand-held electric beaters. Whatever your preference works great.

TIP: How to soften butter quickly

If you need to soften it quickly, place chopped or sliced butter around the outer edge of a dinner plate, microwave for 10 seconds, and check. If the butter needs a little longer, continue in 5-second bursts.

TIP:

At the start of mixing, it can look like the dough is too dry and will never come together. Be patient and keep the mixer going on low. The flour basically has to start to become coated with the moisture of the creamed butter and sugar. It can take a minute for this to happen.

If the flour and butter look mixed together but there are loads of little clumps still, keep going. Gradually those little lumps will join to form bigger ones and suddenly the dough will be cleaning the sides of the bowl and forming into more of a raggedy mass (Image 3).

STEP 3. Roll out the shortbread dough.On a lightly floured surface roll out your dough with a lightly floured rolling pin (Image 5).Note:I tend to only flour the surface and the rolling pin and not the top surface of the dough itself. This adds even more flour which can dry out the dough.

STEP 4. Cut out rounds and refrigerate. Once the dough is rolled out use a floured, round cookie cutter (or whichever shape you have), press the cutter firmly down into the shortbread dough (Image 6). The flour stops the dough from sticking to the inside edge of the cutter.

Stamp out as many rounds as you can. Lay them onto a baking tray covered in parchment paper. If you need a little help to lift them off the surface, then just slide a floured spatula or off-set spatula under the cookie round and gently lift it up (Image 7).

Bring together any scraps, re-roll, and stamp out more cookies. And then again if needs be. A couple of points though:

• The dough is pretty forgiving to re-roll until you've used as much of it as you can.
• Try not to knead it each time. Simply pressing it together will form it into a disc.
• Also be aware that every time you re-form the dough, it will pull in the flour from the work surface and hence may dry out the dough. If you find this happens, then sprinkle a couple of drops of water onto the dough as you bring it together.

Prick shortbread. Once all the rounds are on the lined baking tray, then use the tines of a fork to press holes about halfway down into the dough (Image 8). This helps the dough from bubbling up whilst baking and allows the steam to release, plus it gives it quite a traditional, signature look!

Refrigerate.Now chill those cutout cookies on a baking sheet for 30 minutes minimum, or until the cutouts have hardened. By doing this, the butter won't melt out when it hits the hot oven and the cookies will retain their shape. The result will be perfectly shaped, buttery cookies.

Note:Make this ahead of time by covering the tray in plastic wrap and then refrigerating it overnight (or even for a couple of days!). You can then pop them in the oven as and when you want.

How Do You Know if Shortbread is Baked Properly?

It can be hard to know when shortbread is baked through. Not baked for long enough and it's wet and claggy, too long and it's dry and crisp.

Aside from the slightly golden edges, another way to tell if the shortbread is cooked through is to lift one up and look at the bottom. If the cookie still looks wet underneath then they are underdone. Pop them back in for another minute or two to bake right through.

Refer to my image below to get a visual idea as to when the shortbread is done. That being said, everyone has their own personal preference on how flakey or crispy shortbread should be. I prefer mine verging on only just baked for that full-on melt-in-the-mouth, tender texture.

TIP:Variables

There are quite a few different factors that will affect how long you bake your cookies and the outcome. Here are points to look out for:

• Different oven temps:Your oven can run at a different temperature to mine and with such a short bake time overall, just a couple of degrees will change the length of bake time.
• Measurements:Were the ingredients measured out properly? Too much flour will dry out the cookie dough and then bake time may need to be reduced.
• The thickness of dough:The thinner you roll out the dough- the crispier it will be.
• Bake time:Use the recommended time in the recipe but my biggest tip is to go by sight. Buttery and 'short', or crisp. I like my shortbread soft and buttery so bake them the minimum time stated. But if you'd prefer yours on the crisper side then leave them in the oven for a couple of minutes longer.

Your best bet is to use your eyes as a guide. (Refer to my image above for visual clues.)

💭 Recipe Pro Tips

1. Re-roll the dough.Once you've cut out the first round of cookies, make sure to bring the dough back together again with your hand, re-shape it then re-roll and cut out more cookies. I do this twice to get the maximum number of cookies from the dough.
2. Flour your cookie cutters.When making the Shortbread Cookie Rounds, this stops the dough from sticking to them and avoids you from having to peel the dough from the cutter, ruining the cookie shape.
3. Refrigerate the cookie dough.Unless you what a tray of odd-shaped cookies that have spread all over the place, the doughneedsto be chilled where stated in the recipe.
4. Keep an eye on the bake time.Everyone's oven runs at a slightly different temperature. With such a short bake time, a minute or two either way will make a difference.

What is the difference between Scottish Shortbread and regular shortbread?

Scottish shortbread traditionally uses shortening as the fat or a combination of both butter and shortening. This results in a slightly different flavour, but also texture which is a little firmer and crisper than regular shortbread.

What is the difference between sugar cookies and shortbread cookies? They look the same.

True, they do look the same! The main difference is in the ingredients list. Sugar cookies have baking powder in them acting as a leavener making them lighter in texture. Shortbread doesn't have this making them more crumbly and denser.

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. By chilling the dough, the butter takes a lot longer to melt in the heat, and this allows the outside of the dough to set in place before the butter fully melts inside, leaving you with perfectly cut-out shortbread cookies.

What makes a good 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.

4.94 from 60 votes

Metric - US Customary

• ▢ 130 g unsalted butter, room temperature
• ▢ 60 g granulated sugar, caster sugar is preferred if you have access to it.
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 180 g plain flour (all-purpose)
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon fine salt

• Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract.Line one or two baking trays with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar and cream for about 2 to 3 minutes on medium speed until pale and light. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through. Add in the vanilla extract and mix again.

• Add in flour beat them together.Sift in the flour and add the salt then mix at low speed until they are combined and the dough starts to come together. The dough will look quite raggedy but you’ll know it's ready when it starts to clean the sides of the bowl and clumps in the middle.

  With your hands, squeeze the shortbread dough together into a mass. Shape it into a rough disc.

• Roll out the shortbread dough.On a lightly floured surface, roll it out to a ½ cm (¼ inch) thick.Note: if the dough is too soft at this point then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or longer until it firms up slightly and makes it easier to roll out. Keep an eye on it as if the dough is too hard, it will crack when you try to roll it out.

• Cut out cookie shapes and chill.Once the dough is rolled out, use a cookie cutter (I used a round one) to stamp out the cookies. Lay the cutouts onto the prepared baking tray.

  Bring together any scraps, re-roll and stamp out more cookies. And then, do it again if needs be. Just be aware that every time you re-form the dough, it will pull in the flour from the benchtop and hence may dry out the dough. Add a couple of drops of water to the dough if this happens. Try not to overwork the dough by kneading it. Just press it gently together each time.

  Once all the rounds are on the baking tray, use the tines of a fork to pierce holes into the top. This stops it bubbling up as much. You can make any pattern!

• Nowrefrigeratethe stamped cookies for 30 minutes minimum or until the cutouts have hardened. This means the butter has resolidified and will give you the best possible chance of the cookies retaining their shape in the oven.

• Bake.Preheat the oven to 170°C (335°F) whilst the cutouts are chilling. Remove the cookies from the fridge, then bake for 10-12 mins or until just golden around the edges. Cool on the tray for ten minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

  Option: Sprinkle the shortbread cookies with sugar as soon as you remove them from the oven when they are still hot.

Step-by-Step Photos: My blog post includes helpful step-by-step photos to help guide you through making this recipe.

To store: The shortbread cookie dough itself can be made well in advance. Wrap very well with plastic wrap and store the dough for up to a week in the fridge. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container on the countertop for up to 10 days and in the fridge for up to one week.

To freeze: Wrap the dough well in plastic wrap and place in a freezer-safe airtight container. Freeze the dough for up to 3 months and thaw overnight in the refrigerator. To freeze baked shortbread cookies, store in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow cookies to come to room temperature before serving.

TIP 1: Re-roll the dough.Once you've cut out the first round of cookies, make sure to bring the dough back together again with your hand, re-shape it then re-roll and cut out more cookies. I do this twice to get the maximum number of cookies from the dough.

TIP 2: Flour your cookie cutters.When making the Shortbread Cookie Rounds, this stops the dough from sticking to them and avoids you having to peel the dough from the cutter, ruining the cookie shape.

TIP 3: Refrigerate the cookie dough.Unless you what a tray of odd-shaped cookies that have spread all over the place, the doughneedsto be chilled where stated in the recipe.

TIP 4: Keep an eye on the bake time.Everyone's oven runs at a slightly different temperature. With such a short bake time, a minute or two, either way, will make a difference.

Customise your shortbread. Mix-ins can include nuts, citrus zest, dried fruit, extract, spices, herbs or tea leaves, chocolate and confectionery.