Shortbread, 10 Ways Recipe (2024)

Hi Myrna, please note: It's one STICK butter for each cup of flour. That's what the headnote says and it is correct.

what gives? the headnote states 1 cup flour to 1 cup butter, yet the recipe calls for TWO cups flour to 1 cup butter. ????????? which is it?

This is fantastic way to make sure I eat an entire stick of butter in about 10 minutes.

11th Variation - Replace 2 tablespoons of flour with 2 tablespoons Dutch cocoa for Chocolate Shortbread. 12th Variation - Dip in melted chocolate and sprinkle with crushed candy canes for Peppermint Chocolate Shortbread. 13th Variation - Don’t make 13th Variation. It is unlucky and will bring pestilence upon your household.

I cream the butter with the castor (fine) sugar and then fold in the flours, I like a third semolina. Bake until just set. They come out crisp and seem to only improve with age. Quality butter is a must! Try Kerry Gold

I make it with pistachios ground to a course flour substituted for 1/4 of the flour and cardamom.

Never made shortbread before but loved this when my aunt made it. Didn't know that it was done, when I made it, because it was so liquidy. That batch was rock hard since I left it in the oven too long. Made it again and pulled out when golden (and appropriate time had passed) and it was great. First-timers need to know that the top is very wet and the batch doesn't look done even though it is.

End product is very tasty but VERY crumbly. Dough (mixed in cuisinart) never comes together. Smoosh crumbs into 9 by 9 pan but fork pricks don't work, just break crumbs up. More butter? Or melt butter first?Any advice?

For new bakers like me:I used a bench scraper to smooth the top of dough in the pan before baking.Using parchment paper made lifting the bread from the pan to the cooling rack very easy. And don’t forget to cut the bars when they’re still warm—they’ll be too hard to cut when they’ve cooled completely.

Old Southern housewives' knowledge: Everyone should be able to make biscuits blindfolded. Start with biscuit dough. Increase the amount of baking powder and you have dough for dumplings, or what is called "pastry" in eastern NC. Decrease the amount, and you have crust for cobblers. Increase the amount of shotening and maybe add some sugar, and you have shortcake. Don't do anything with it, and you have biscuits. Good with any meal.

With glass, the general rule is to bake at 25 degrees lower, as well. So if you do bake it in pyrex, lower the heat and watch it carefully. Also, remember to cut with a plastic knife so as not to scratch the glass, because that will weaken it, making it more likely to crack.

I have made this recipe for years, and for Christmas baking I change up a bit. I roll the buttery dough into walnut sized balls and then press with a cookie stamp, butter press, or the bottom of a decorative glass to imprint a pattern. Then bake low and slow until just lightly colored around the edges. They are great! Just be careful to not over handle the dough- they are better if the butter doesn't get too soft.

I love this with a half teaspoon of cayenne - sweet, spicy, luscious, and crispy all at the same time.

I add chopped fresh rosemary and chopped crystallized ginger.

For the Citrus version, I’ve drizzled the cookies with a glaze of the juice of the fruit and powdered sugar.

I must've made it wrong because it was more chewy in the center pieces. But I thought they were incredibly tasty, so yay for happy little accidents.

This doubles easily in a 9x13 pan. Use parchment both ways to make a sling. Reduce sugar to 225 g and it’s still plenty sweet. Variations — for a single recipe, 1 tsp each freshly ground cardamom (using decorticated cardamom is easiest), instant espresso powder, and vanilla. Or 1 tsp freshly ground cardamom and zest of one large orange. Or 1/2 tsp Fiori di Sicilia from King Arthur Baking. With the finely chopped rosemary variation — add zest of one lemon.

best combo of nuts for shortbread? Thinking of pistachios and cashews

I had the same experience as BHanco*ck - I went with the "Tender" subs of powdered sugar for all of the sugar, and 1/3 c. sub of cornstarch for equal amount of flour. The mix never came together at all, but I (bravely) patted it down hard into a 9 x 9 pan, gave up trying to prick with a fork. I let it cool just a bit then cut and left it in the pan - it was super crumbly. BUT when it cooled completely - yummy! and tender, not overly crumbly. I added 2 t lemon zest, would go with more next time.

I tried the tender shortbread variation. This part is unclear if you bake by metric: "Tender Shortbread: Substitute confectioners' sugar for the granulated sugar"... is it by weight or volume? Because 2/3 cups granulated sugar does not weigh the same as 2/3 cup confectioner's/ icing sugar.I bake by weight so I ended up subbing 90g icing sugar (sieved) for granulated sugar and I did not swap out any AP flour for cornstarch, since icing sugar has some cornstarch already.

Followed the original recipe exactly and my shortbread came out delicious, but chewy! Especially the pieces from the center. Help! My family loved it, but shouldn’t shortbread be crunchy and short? I baked it on the longer end of the range given. What am I doing wrong?

I followed the recipe as written (using a pastry cutter, not a food processor). I probably won't make this again. This yielded pretty tasty cookies, but they're more like a butter bar or sugar cookie than a shortbread -- chewy rather than crumbly, buttery in flavor but not texture, not crisp. Next time I want shortbread, I'll go back to my old recipe, which requires creaming butter and confectioners sugar. It's still not 100% perfect but it's a lot closer than this one.

Delicous! I made it using Kerry Gold unsalted butter and added 1 tablespoon culinary lavender and the zest from one lemon. I pulsed the lavender in the food processor with the flour, sugar and salt. Then I added the lemon zest. Everyone loved it!

Simply easy and delicious.

Made the base recipe + 1 tsp vanilla, using a pastry blender. Was extremely crumbly. I pressed it into the pan as directed, but was unable to get good fork marks. As suggested in a comment, I stuck the pan in the freezer. for ten minutes, and that helped. Did not grease pan or use parchment. Came out fantastic!!!

Variation #1: add 2 tablespoons matcha powder and 1 cup dried blueberries. Bonus points if you’ve got blueberry matcha powder. Bake as directed.Variation #2: add 1 tablespoon lime zest and bake as directed.

Used ~2/3c confectioner's sugar instead of granulated. The end result was delicious and had the right consistency (crunchy but tender and buttery). But I agree on comments of others--after using food processor, it came out NOTHING like what was in Melissa's video. It was just a bunch of crumbs that I patted together in pan. I tried docking the dough after putting it in pyrex pan. That just led to it breaking apart a bunch.

This is the cookie that I think Ted Lasso takes to his boss.

My mom would make these using shortening instead of butter, and I loved it as a kid. So much richer with butter! Mmmmm