The Best Basic Shortbread Recipe & Variations

If there’s ever a must-have recipe for your recipe book, it’s a good old shortbread.

It’s a tried-and-true classic and a recipe that’s found in nearly every cookie cookbook one comes across, and it’s one you absolutely need to have on hand for last-minute baking escapades. 

Here’s our very own shortbread recipe that’s not only excellent on its own, but works as a base for many flavor variations, too.

Check it out!

Classic shortbread recipe and 5 tasty variations 

Nearly all shortbread recipes are going to echo each others’ simplicity — after all, it’s just butter, sugar and flour, plus a bit of vanilla and salt for flavor. 

This not only makes shortbread a notoriously easy cookie to make, but it makes it almost endlessly customizable with extras, add-ons, colors, decorations and more! Whether you add chocolate chips, lemon zest, marbled colors or a coat of white chocolate, these cookies are merely blank canvases that are just waiting for you to release your creativity upon them.

But, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves, so let’s just start with the most basic of basic shortbread cookie doughs — one that will serve as our base for the many varieties to come, 

AMLI’s shortbread cookie recipe

Ingredients: 

• 1 ½ cups unsalted butter (room temperature!)
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt

Method:

Cream the butter with a hand beater or stand mixer for 2 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and sugar and beat until fluffy and light — about 3 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape the bowl occasionally to pick up any clumps. 

Sift the flour and salt together and gradually add to the butter/sugar mix one cup at a time. You may need to scrape the bowl’s edges during this process. Mix until just combined and all the flour has been incorporated. The dough should stick together if pressed together. 

Form the dough into a log and wrap in cling film. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, or until the dough has cooled and hardened slightly. 

Once ready to roll and shape the cookies, remove the dough from the fridge and place on a floured surface. Roll to ¼-inch thickness and cut desired shapes. Place cookie shapes 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place cookie sheets back in the fridge for 15 minutes. 

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F with the rack in the lower-middle section of the oven. Allow the cookie sheets to warm up for a few minutes at room temperature before placing them in the oven.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the bottom edges turn slightly golden brown. Lift up a cookie with a spatula to check the underside if it’s hard to tell by just looking at them. The cookies are done when the bottoms are golden and the edges are hard. 

Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for five minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe makes about 48 cookies.

Shortbread cookie variations

Earl Grey & lavender shortbread with lemon drizzle

• Basic shortbread recipe
• 3 tsp. Earl Grey tea, loose leaf
• 1 ½  tsp. dried lavender buds
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 tbsp. water
• 1 ½ tbsp. lemon zest

Add tea leaves and lavender to the butter/sugar/vanilla mixture along with the flour. Bake the cookies as directed. 

Combine lemon zest, powdered sugar and water in a small bowl until combined. Add water or powdered sugar to achieve desired consistency. The glaze should be runny enough to drizzle, but this enough to stay on the cookie. 

Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies and allow it to firm before storing them. 

Mocha espresso shortbread

• Basic shortbread recipe
• ¼ tsp. instant espresso powder (or instant coffee powder)
• ¼ cup 70% dark chocolate, chopped

Add the instant coffee powder to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until combined. Incorporate the chopped chocolate to the dough after the flour is fully mixed in. Bake and cool the cookies as directed. 

Chocolate churro shortbread dunkers

• Basic shortbread recipe
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 24 oz. dark chocolate
• ½ cup raw brown sugar

Sift the cinnamon into the butter/sugar/vanilla mixture, along with the flour and salt. Shape the cookies into 3 inch x 1.5 inch rectangles. Sprinkle the sugar over the one half of each of the cookies and press grains into the dough right before they go into the oven. Bake and cool cookies as directed. 

Chop the chocolate and melt it in a microwave-safe container in 10-15 second bursts, stirring in between to incorporate the lumps. Dip the un-sugared half of each cooled cookie in the chocolate and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment to cool completely. 

Pistachio almond shortbread

• Basic shortbread recipe
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 cup pistachios, roughly chopped

Swap the vanilla extract for the almond extract and prepare dough as directed, then add the pistachios into the dough once the flour mixture has been completely incorporated. Knead for a few minutes to distribute the nuts evenly throughout the dough. Bake and cool the cookies as directed. 

Cranberry, orange and white chocolate shortbread

• Basic shortbread recipe
• Zest of one orange
• 1 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 24 oz. white baking chocolate

Add the orange zest into the butter/sugar/vanilla mixture and mix until incorporated. Knead the cranberries into the dough after the flour is fully incorporated. Bake and cool the cookies as directed. 

Chop the chocolate and melt it in a microwave-safe container in 10-15 second bursts, stirring in between to incorporate the lumps. Dip half of each cooled cookie in the white chocolate and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment to cool completely. 

These are just a few of the many ways one could personalize this shortbread recipe. If you have a personal favorite flavor combo or a tried-and-true topping, then use this recipe as a canvas for all your culinary creativity. 

Enjoy!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/blandinejoannic