Shortbread Cookies
A great shortbread cookie has a mouthwateringly buttery taste and a crumbly texture. Homemade is far better than store-bought with real butter flavor and a more tender and delicate texture. Enjoy with coffee or serve at a tea party!
Some folks have asked about the rice flour. Shortbread is often made with a combination of rice flour and normal flour, and sometimes you see recipes with cornflour (cornstarch). Rice flour makes the shortbread a little more tender, though some people can’t discern the difference. If you do not have rice flour, you can certainly substitute with plain/all-purpose flour.
While shortbreads can be baked into fingers, we also like the circle or “petticoat” style, which is divided into slices.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Set oven to 400°F.
Cover a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sift the flours together and add salt if you’re using unsalted butter. Ideally, sift the dry ingredients a couple times. Cream the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon. Add the sifted ingredients and mix by hand until you have a soft dough. Be careful not to knead and overhandle or the shortbread won’t have as delicate a taste.
Shape into medium-thick, round cakes the size of a saucer, place on cookie sheets, prick with a fork, and flute the edges.
- Or, press into a large circle about 8 to 10 inches across and about ¾ inch thick. Mark out 16 ‘slices’ with a knife (just don’t cut all the way through) and put this on the cookie sheets. Or you can use any round cake pan. Prick dough with a fork and flute the edges with your thumb and forefinger.
- Or, instead of a large circle, you can press the dough into squares and smaller circles the size of a saucer.
Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an air-tight cookie tin or container.
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Reader Comments
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I have been baking Scottish
I have been baking Scottish Shortbread for over 50 years, and never, ever, baked it at 400 degrees! My Scottish grandmother's recipe says "bake in a slow oven". I bake mine at 350
and it turns out perfectly.
Shortbread
You can use semolina instead of rice flour.this is good biscuits for vegans has no egg.
Shortbread
Anyway to make a soft shortbread cookie?
shortbread recipe question
1.) are there acceptable alternatives to rice flour?
Scottish Shortbread
Rice flour? Wondering if Rice flour is an ingredient in "true" Scottish Shortbread?
Scottish Shortbread
I make a similar recipe and use the food processor. It’s sandy but then I pat it on the cookie pan. Make a double recipe one at a time.
scottish shortbread
May not be Scottish but I add 1 T ground cardamom for amazing flavor.
I make, "Scotch Cake's",
I make, "Scotch Cake's", every year, right after Thanksgiving. I don't allow mine to, " brown", at all. Pale in color. The secret to the BEST flavor is to HIDE them in a cool, dark place and let them AGE!! Without the aging you just DON'T have the amazing flavor. Bring them out at Christmas.
Have never seen a shortbread
Have never seen a shortbread recipe baked at 400 degrees as this recipe indicates. Is this correct ??
Yes, Laura, 400 degrees is
Yes, Laura, 400 degrees is correct. Enjoy!