Three Shortbread Cookie Recipes

This page offers three recipes for shortbread cookies. One is a simple shortbread cookie; the other is the traditional Scottish shortbread bar, and the third is a recipe for zesty lemon shortbread.

My shortbread cookie recipes are among my most favorite thing to cook during the Holiday season. Sometimes I even make shortbread when its not the Holiday season! This article gives you some of my favorite recipes for shortbread cookies and one for traditional Scottish shortbread. You'll also find a video, pictures, links, a guestbook for comments, and of course, shopping.

This recipe is the traditional shortbread cookie that I make, year after year. We never tire of it. It's easy to make, wonderfully good, and of course, sinfully rich with butter and eggs. This one's the family favorite.

Ingredients

4 cups of flour

2 cups butter, room temperature

1 cup of icing sugar (or confectioners sugar)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, ground

2 egg yolks

halved cherries or pecans to decorate the top of the cookie

Process

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the butter, salt, sugar and nutmeg in a bowl. Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly until the shortbread dough is light and fluffy. Add the flour slowly, mixing after each addition. When the dough is too thick to mix with a spoon, turn it out onto a floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut your shortbread into shapes. Transfer the shapes to a non-stick baking sheet. Place a cherry half or a pecan half in the center or each one. Bake until done. This takes about ten minutes.

Remove from oven, cool and enjoy your shortbread with a glass of eggnog or a cuppa!

Traditionally, shortbread was baked by pressing the shortbread dough into a round pan. Today's cook may opt to use a special shortbread pan or mold. It's easy to transition from a round pan to a mold. Simply remember these two tips and your shortbread will be a great success.

1. Sprinkle fine sugar such as icing sugar or confectioner's sugar in the pan before adding the shortbread. This makes it easier to remove.

2. After putting the shortbread dough in the mold, refrigerate for a while before baking. This helps ensure that your shortbread will keep the fine design on the bottom of the pan.

This Scottish shortbread recipe is the authentic Scottish shortbread. It has few ingredients and is more a bar than a cookie.

Tip! To make this recipe successfully, you must knead the dough with your hands until the shortbread dough is like silk. Insufficient kneading will result in a floury taste.

Ingredients

1 pound of unsalted butter

5 cups flour

I cup white sugar

Optionally -- you might add a small amount of vanilla and a pinch of salt OR you might use half salted butter and half unsalted butter.

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 Celsius.

Sift the flour before measuring. This is an important step. Failure to sift may result in too much flour and an inferior product.

Mix the butter and sugar together well. Use a mixer for this step if desired. Next, add the flour and mix with a mixing spoon. Continue kneading and mixing with your hands for several minutes, or until the dough is silky. Do not under work.

Turn your shortbread dough into a jelly roll pan. A 10 inch by 15 inch pan is fine. Press the shortbread down to cover the bottom of the pan. Using a fork, prick all over the shortbread, being sure that the fork's tines go right to the bottom of the pan.

Cook at 350 degrees for ten minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Continue cooking until the shortbread is done. This will take 30 to 40 minutes.

Remove from oven. Cool for ten minutes then cut into bars.

Options: Sprinkle white or colored sugar over the shortbread prior to baking. Another option is to dip the ends of the cooked shortbread into melted chocolate.

Tangy lemon makes these shortbread cookies zesty and good.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons grated fresh lemon rind

3/4 cup butter, softened

Sift the flour before measuring. Allow the butter to reach room temperature, but do not melt.

Mix together the flour, corn starch, icing sugar or confectioners sugar and the lemon rind.

Add the butter and blend well. Use a large spoon at first, and then continue working this dough with your hands until you have a soft, smooth dough.

Roll the dough until it is 1/4 of an inch thick, then cut it into desired shapes using a cookie cutter. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness. If the dough is too soft to handle, refrigerate it until is is chilled and easier to handle.

Place the cookies on ungreased baking sheets.

If desired, you could sprinkle the lemon shortbread cookies with white or colored sugars before baking.

Place in 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven. Bake until lightly browned at the edges. Typically, this takes fifteen or twenty minutes.

Remove from the baking sheet and allow to cool.

Enjoy.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this video demonstration showing how to make a shortbread cookie recipe must be worth a whole library!