How to Make Shortbread Cookie Recipe

Making this easy Shortbread Cookie Recipe is a doddle. You can have a batch of buttery, vanilla-tasting, homemade cookies in hardly any time at all. They make such a wonderful sweet treat with the buttery taste and crumbly texture of shortbread in cookie form.

Whether you want to call these cookies or biscuits, this shortbread recipe uses just 4 everyday ingredients, which are all pantry staples.

Sound good so far? There’s more, you don’t need to get the mixer out, you can do this by arm power alone, saving you some washing up. They cook really quickly too, which is an advantage if you need something to tuck into lunchboxes or yearn for something sweet with a cup of tea.

Tips for Success with this Easy Shortbread Cookie Recipe

There’s not much that can go wrong with this recipe. It’s pretty forgiving but these are just a few things to think about.

• measure the ingredients accurately.
• using butter? – If you are using butter to make this recipe then it needs to be soft, so keep it out of the fridge for a while. It will rub into the flour more easily.
• rub the butter/margarine into the flour and ensure that you’ve gotten rid of any lumpy bits. Just use the usual technique of rubbing the butter and flour between your thumb and forefinger. It may take a minute or two but stick with it.
• use caster sugar in this recipe. Granulated sugar isn’t fine enough to give you the best results.
• gather the dough together without trying to ‘squash’ it together too much and resist kneading it. The gentler you can be at this stage the crumblier the texture of the shortbread biscuits will be.
• heat the oven to the correct temperature and keep an eye on them whilst they cook. Once they achieve a pale golden brown colour they are done.

Variations to the Shortbread Cookie Recipe

This is quite a versatile recipe and there are a few things that you can do to make different flavoured cookies.

• Omit the vanilla and make the cookies without that additional flavour.
• Lemon Shortbread Cookies – Omit the vanilla extract and add the grated zest of a lemon and an optional 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract. Add this to the dough once you have beaten the butter and sugar together.
• Walnut Shortbread Cookies – Omit the vanilla extract and add 1/4 cup/50g of chopped walnuts. Really delicious.
• Cut the dough into fingers, and decorate it with a pretty fork pattern.
• Sprinkle a little caster sugar over the cookies once they come out of the oven.

Making this Vegan

These shortbread cookies are suitable for plant-based and Vegan diets provided you use suitable margarine that can be used for baking.

I’ve used sunflower margarine and soya margarine to make these cookies with success. I’d recommend using a margarine brand that you like the flavour of, as you will taste this in the finished cookie.

Make this Dairy-free

To make this recipe dairy-free use suitable dairy-free margarine that may be used for baking in place of the butter.

Storing Shortbread Cookies

These cookies or biscuits are at their absolute best when they come out of the oven. However, they do store happily for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Eating the Cookies

I know, I know… just make the tea and dig in. Actually, though, there’s a little more that you can do with these Shortbread cookies.

Serve them alongside fruity, creamy style desserts, which makes a lovely contrast in textures. How about crumbling one up in your fingers and sprinkling it on top of a yoghurt and fruit pudding?

Use a smaller cutter when you make them and once baked, you can place the smaller cookies, delicately on the top of a fruity, knickerbocker glory type of dessert. So, many uses and all of them are lovely.

If you like this recipe then you may like these;

• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Lemon Cookies
• Oat and Raisin Cookies
• Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Oat and Coconut Cookies
• Soft and Chewy Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Baked Cinnamon Donuts Recipe

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