Shortbread Cookies (2024)

Sometimes you just want a cookie and since homemade is best, nothing is easier than these Shortbread Cookies. These buttery, yet crisp cookies are easy to make and they start with three everyday ingredients that you probably have on hand: flour, sugar, and butter.

For years, I looked for a shortbread cookie recipe that would hold its shape when baked and not spread. Time and time again, the picture promised success. A beautiful square, round or rectangle cookie that had straight sides. But time and time again, despite my best efforts of chilling and freezing the cookie dough the cookie would spread.

This cookie recipe not only holds its shape but it's the base recipe for one of my most popular cookies: Cranberry and Pistachio Shortbread Cookie and one of my favorites: Apricot Pistachio Shortbread Cookie.

Why This Recipe Works

Simply put this cookie holds its shape because it's the perfect ratio of flour, butter, and sugar. The amount of flour ensures that the cookie will hold its shape, the butter ensures a buttery cookie and the sugar ensures the right amount of sweetness. Since this cookie has three main ingredients with just a little salt, a good quality butter is important because the taste of the butter is prominent. Bake the cookies at 300F to ensure a pale yellow cookie. The final cookie is tender, slightly crumbly, and absolutely delicious.

Classic Shortbread Cookie Ingredients

The recipe for these shortbread cookies is also known as classic shortbread or 3-2-1 shortbread because it is such a simple recipe. This shortbread recipe has three main ingredients:

• Unbleached All-Purpose Flour. Use all-purpose unbleached flour for this recipe.
• Unsalted Butter. Butter adds flavor and produces a nice tender cookie. You can use salted butter, but don't add the additional salt that the recipe calls for. It's also important to use a good quality butter, such as Challenge Butter or Tillamook butter.
• Sugar. Granulated sugar produces nice crisp edges and helps with the light browning on the bottom edge of the cookie

The 3-2-1 refers to the ratio between flour, butter, and sugar - 12 ounces of flour, 8 ounces of butter, and 4 ounces of sugar. Kosher salt is an optional ingredient, but I like the bump in flavor that the kosher salt brings.

How to Make Shortbread Cookies

Weigh the flour, sugar, and butter to get the best results for this cookie. Maintaining the 3-2-1 ratio is important to get a cookie dough that keeps its shape while baking.

Weigh the sugar, butter, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed until the ingredients are combined and the mixture is creamy, about 2 minutes.

Add all the flour and mix on medium-low speed until the flour is mixed in and the dough starts to come together. The dough will initially appear crumbly, but eventually come together into large pieces. Mixing the flour in at low speed is important to prevent the development of too much gluten.

Pour the dough onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to lightly knead the dough until it forms a uniform mass, then roll out to a 1/2-inch circle.

Use a 2-inch cookie cutter to cut out the cookies and reroll the dough scraps to cut out the remaining cookies.

Chill the unbaked cookies for at least 20 minutes or up to 2 days before baking.

Bake the cookies at 300 degrees F to prevent them from browning. If you want a little color on your cookie, increase the oven temperature to 325 degrees and start checking the cookie after 15 minutes.

The cookies are done when you see a little browning on the bottom edge of the cookies. Remove the cookies from the oven, allow them to cool briefly on the baking pan then move them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

How to Store Shortbread Cookies

Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Shortbread cookies keep remarkable well, so they can be enjoyed for a long period of time. These cookies also ship well if you want to send them to friends and family.

Pro Tips for Making These Cookies

• Weigh the ingredients. The ratio of flour, butter and sugar are the key to the cookies keeping their shape
• Use great tasting butter. The taste of the butter is very prominent once the cookies are baked so make sure your butter tastes great.
• Bake the cookies on parchment paper instead of Silpat. I noticed that the bottom of the cookies flare out just a little bit when baked on Silpat
• When baking multiple batches, don't place unbaked cookies on a warm baking sheet.

Shortbread Cookies - Frequently Asked Questions

Shortbread Cookie Variations

I've used this recipe as the basis for several of my favorite cookies on the blog including:

• Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
• Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies
• Chocolate Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

There are multiple variations that you can try on your own and here are just a few:

• Make Vanilla Shortbread Cookies by scraping the seeds from half a vanilla bean and rub the seeds into the sugar with your fingers.
• Add your favorite spice: cinnamon, cardamom or nutmeg
• Add chopped nuts, dried fruit or dark chocolate
• Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies. Replace the granulated sugar with light or dark brown sugar.
• Dip the cookie in dark chocolate.

The possibilities are endless and this is a great cookie recipe to experiment with. The cookie dough can also be frozen for up to 2 months after cutting out the shapes. Freeze the cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet and then place the cookies in a freezer bag. When baking the cookies straight from the freezer allow an extra 5 minutes for baking.

If you've been looking for a shortbread cookie recipe that produces delicious tasting cookies every time this recipe is the one you've been looking for.