Shortbread Biscuits
Shortbread biscuits are the ultimate in crumbly melt in your mouth buttery goodness. These biscuits are the perfect afternoon tea snack. Made with only 4 ingredients these are both simple and delicious.
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This recipe for shortbread biscuits is definitely a nostalgic one for me. My mum used to love these biscuits.
Not for the cooked, crispy , buttery biscuits that they are supposed to be, but for the cookie dough. So every time I used to make these as a teenager there would be one half of the dough cooked and set aside in a tin ready to have with a cup of tea or coffee for afternoon tea. Then the other half would sit in the fridge wrapped and ready for cooking at a later date but … honestly we all knew that it was just sitting there to be snacked on as cookie dough.
To this day there has never been a batch of these shortbread biscuits that has been cooked in its entirety. And I am determined to keep it that way.
*If you want to follow in our footsteps and make this recipe purely for its cookie dough goodness, I do recommend heat treating your flour first just to be on the safe side. There are a few methods for this I recommend microwaving in 30 second bursts until it its temperature reaches about 75 degrees celcius.
Shortbread Biscuits Ingredients
Butter – Regular salted butter. If you want to use unsalted butter, then you will need to add in about 1/4 tsp of salt. The butter in shortbread is where it gets all of its flavour from so make sure it is a good quality butter.
Icing sugar – Also known as powdered sugar. The Icing sugar is needed to make the shortbread smooth and crisp. While you could use granulated sugar for this recipe it would result in a more coarse and slightly less of a melt in your mouth biscuit. To meet in the middle you could process granulated sugar to achieve a similar result.
Flour – Plain all purpose white flour.
Cornflour – Another key ingredient to that delicate crumb of a shortbread. Cornflour can be substituted for rice flour or arrowroot powder to achieve a similar result. While it is not used in traditional shortbread, I definitely prefer a shortbread that has that finer textural element.
Tips and tricks
- These are best eaten a day or two after they are made making them a great make ahead biscuit. They can be a little harder and crisper on the day that they are made but they will soften up over the course of a week.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
- When forming your shortbread dough you really want to handle the dough as little as possible. Shortbread biscuits can become tough and dense quickly if you have overworked the dough.
- When baking shortbread, make sure that you do not allow the cookies to brown in the oven. When they are done, they will still be very pale and soft but they will firm up when they cool.
- If you would prefer a different shape of shortbread cookies you can roll out the dough to around 1.5 cm thick. Use icing sugar to prevent the dough from sticking. Cut your dough into fingers, squares or shapes. Keep your shapes as close to each other as possible and only work 1 or 2 times to avoid the dough getting overworked.
- This dough freezes really well. Just wrap your prepared dough it 2 layers of cling film and place into the freezer for up to 3 months.
Ingredients
Method
- Using a mixer combine butter, icing sugar and cornflour together in a large bowl.
- Add in flour 1/2 cup at a time until it is all incorporated. The mixture should be thick and crumbly.
- Turn out the dough onto a clean bench top and press together until you can form it into a ball.
- Roll out your dough ball into a log about 5cm thick. Use a piece of baking paper to wrap it and pull it tightly. Set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees (fan bake).
- When you are ready to bake, slice your shortbread into 1cm rounds. Lay on a lined baking tray leaving a little space between. Bake for 10 minutes. When the biscuits are done they will still be soft with firmer edges. They will firm up fully as they cool.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my shortbread biscuits recipe. I hope you enjoy trying this out for yourself. Please feel free to add any questions or comments below. I am happy to help out wherever possible and I would love to hear how this recipe worked out for you.
Crystal Rose
