Shortbread recipe is the 'easiest you'll ever make' with 3 ingredients (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good shortbread? ›

Put the flour, butter and sugar into a mixing bowl. Use your hands to combine the ingredients until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then squeeze until it comes together as a dough.

Traditional Scottish shortbread is a simple recipe made with sugar, butter, flour, and salt. Other shortbread styles will include leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda, which makes them crisp instead of crumbly like traditional Scottish shortbread.

Why is my shortbread crumbly after baking? If your butter and flour ratio is off, your shortbread may have the wrong texture. Butter is key, it contains a large percentage of water, and that water develops the gluten structure which gives strength and crunch to the biscuit.

But in this shortbread cookie recipe, it really makes a difference. Chilling the dough helps the cookies hold their shape. If you don't chill your shortbread dough, the cookies will spread as they bake.

Poking small holes in the dough allows some steam to escape while baking, preventing bubbles inside the cookies. This results in a more uniform texture throughout the shortbread.

If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense. Many shortbread recipes call for cold butter worked into the dry ingredients and that gives you a wonderfully flaky cookie but if not mixed properly, the results can be inconsistent.

Plain (all purpose) Flour.

Don't substitute with self raising flour- the raising agents in the self raising flour will make your shortbread puff up and mess with the texture.

Can you use normal sugar instead of caster sugar? ›

Can I use granulated sugar instead of caster sugar? Yes. While caster sugar and granulated sugar are not exactly the same, they can be swapped 1:1 in baking recipes. Caster sugar is slightly finer and dissolves more easily, but in my experience, this doesn't affect most baking recipes if swapped with granulated sugar.

Shortbread relies on really good-quality unsalted butter for its flavour, so don't skimp on this and never use margarine!

Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain any leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda.

If you use half a pound of butter in a batch of cookies, it becomes “short” — because “short” means, historically, pastry with a high percentage of fat. Thus shortbread cookies are — when correctly made — rich, crumbly and impossible to resist.

As shortbread was made with butter, sugar and flour, it would be both expensive and difficult to get hold of the ingredients, and so became synonymous with wealth, luxury and celebrations.

Use your hands to form the dough into a flat disc, then wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until it is ⅛-¼” thick.

Fine Cooking explains that the butter should be at refrigerator temperature. While many cookie recipes call for softened butter or at room temperature, if your butter isn't cold when making shortbread, it's likely to turn out greasy or be difficult to roll out.

Your shortbread should be crisp but crumbly. The key with shortbread is not to overhandle it. Make the dough exactly as instructed, but don't mess around making shapes or over rolling the dough - you will end up with delicious but tough biscuits.