Shortbread
Buttery, crisp, and beautifully simple—this homemade Shortbread recipe brings traditional Scottish baking right into your kitchen. With its signature sandy texture and golden edges, shortbread is the ultimate four-ingredient cookie.
Servings 16
Calories 74kcal
Ingredients
- 100 grams / 3.5 ounces butter room temperature
- 50 grams / ¼ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 130 grams / ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160C/320F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Toss the butter and sugar into a bowl and whip on low speed until pale and fluffy, approximately 4 minutes.
- Shape into a rectangle 16 inches wide by 2 inches long and measure out 1 inch shortbreads.
- Place onto the baking tray with 1 inch between and bake until lightly golden on the edges, approximately 12 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 2 minutes on the tray.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely, ideally serving at least 24 hours post baking.
- Serve alongside your favorite hot drink.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Butter: Use high-quality European-style butter for the richest flavor and perfect shortbread texture. Unsalted softened butter is used, but salted also works as a fine substitute. Simply leave out any salt suggested in the recipe.
- Sugar: Superfine or caster sugar helps sweeten the biscuits and give their signature texture without adding additional flavors. You could do a version with 50/50 white and brown sugars for a slightly different flavor, however, the moisture in the brown sugar might create a less signature texture.
- Avoiding your shortbread spreading or cracks: This recipe was tested several times and there are a few essentials to avoid cracks and spreading. Firstly, don’t whip on medium or higher speed, low is better, even though that means a longer whipping time. The reason is to help keep the butter at room temperature as the warmer it gets the more it spreads. Secondly, shaping can take some time, which means more handling and warming up the dough. If you take more than 10 minutes to shape and cut the dough, it’s recommended to chill for even 5 minutes to firm up a little as the butter needs to be room temperature, not softened.
- Add flavorings: Add vanilla, lemon zest, almond extract, or even lavender for flavored shortbread variations.
- Poking holes: Also called docking, this can help prevent bubbling in the shortbread, however, several tests were completed and found no difference between docked or plain shortbread without holes.
- Best stored: In an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Its flavor deepens over time, making it perfect for gifting.
Nutrition
Calories: 74kcal