Easy Shortbread Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good shortbread? ›

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.

As the name suggests a butter cookie has a high proportion of butter. However, unlike a shortbread the amount of flour and sugar used is increased meaning they hold their shape more effectively.

What's the difference between Scottish shortbread and regular shortbread? Texture is where the two styles depart: The traditional Scottish shortbread recipe uses flour, butter, sugar and salt, with some versions completely omitting the salt. Regular shortbread adds leavening agents like baking soda or baking powder.

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

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.

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.

Always start with cold butter straight from the refrigerator. This will keep the dough from warming up, making it greasy and difficult to roll out. If the dough does get soft or sticky as you're rolling or cutting it, just put it back in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to chill the butter.

This buttery delight uses baking powder to help it rise, giving it a fluffy consistency. Shortcakes are often split and topped with strawberries and cream. Shortbread is similar to shortcake but doesn't include baking powder. Lots of rich butter gives shortbread a high fat content, resulting in a fine, crumbly texture.

Use unsalted butter for balanced flavour. Unsalted butter was traditionally used in baking because it was a superior product to salted - salt is used as a preservative so unsalted butter was thought to be fresher.

Why are my shortbread cookies hard? ›

It's important to avoid over-mixing shortbread dough, which will develop gluten and make the finished product tough, not tender. To make sure that the flour mixes completely with little effort, sift the flour first to get out all of the lumps.

Shortbread is now Trefoils®! April Bowen that's a good point.

To most of the rest of the English-speaking world, a biscuit is what Americans would refer to as either a cookie or a cracker. Biscuits can be sweet (shortbread) or savory. They're baked in the oven, and they're crisp, not chewy.

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.

Butter. The one thing that you shouldn't skimp on with shortbread cookies is the butter. They are butter shortbread cookies after all. So, use a GOOD QUALITY butter, because the flavor of butter is first and foremost in this buttery shortbread cookie recipe.

Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture (from an old meaning of the word "short", as opposed to "long", or stretchy). The cause of this texture is its high fat content, provided by the butter. The short or crumbly texture is a result of the fat inhibiting the formation of long protein (gluten) strands.