Scottish Shortbread

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins

Serves: 16,Yield: 16wedges

About This Recipe

“Simple perfection. Buttery and elegant.”

Ingredients

1 1/4 cupscold unsalted butter

1/4 cuppowdered sugar

1/4 cupgranulated sugar

2 1/2 cupsall-purpose flour

Directions

Set oven rack to middle position.

Preheat oven to 275°F.

Have two ungreased 8-inch cake pans ready.

Food Processor Method.

Cut the butter into 1-inch cubes, wrap it, and refrigerate.

Process the sugars for 1 minute or so, until the sugar is very fine.

Add the butter and pulse until the sugar disappears.

Add the flour and pulse until there are a lot of moist, crumbly little pieces and no dry flour particles remain.

Dump the mixture into a plastic bag and press it together.

Remove the dough from the plastic bag and knead it lightly until it holds together.

Electric Mixer or by Hand.

Use superfine granulated sugar for the best texture and be sure to soften the butter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugars.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy.

With your fingers or with the electric mixer, mix in the flour until the mixture holds together.

If using the mixer, add the flour in 2 parts.

For Both Methods.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.

Pat each half into an ungreased 8-inch round cake pan.

Use the tines of a fork to press 3/4-inch lines radiating like rays of sun all around the perimeter of the dough.

Prick the rest of the dough all over with the tines of the fork.

(this keeps the shortbread even and creates the traditional design).

Bake for 60-70 minutes or until pale golden (do not brown).

For even baking, rotate the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking period.

Cool in the pans, on a wire rack, for 10 minutes.

Invert the shortbread onto flat cookie sheet and slide it onto a cutting board.

While still warm, use a long sharp knife to cut each 8-inch round of shortbread into 8 pie-shaped wedges.

Transfer the wedges to wire racks to cool completely.

Reviews

“Easy and with thatspecial “short” that you can only find with expensive bought shortbread.I want to say thanks for such a CLEAR step-by-step recipe.Rotating the tins is an important part of the recipe as it ensures uniform colour.I like this recipe as it is so like one I used to use in Scotland. Thanks!”

“THE perfect traditional shortbread recipe & so easy!”

“Highly recommend! *****After searching for ages for a decent simple shortbread recipe i finally found the one.Amazing! Thanks for sharing it with us. x :o)”

“Loved this recipe!I did add a bit of salt maybe 1/4 or 1/2 tsp and 1 tsp vanilla.I cannot believe how easy this was to make!I made my batch extra thick (all dough patted into a 9×9 pan) and scored it prior to baking to mark cut lines.I got 8 nice wedges from it.I had actually purchased the same cookie at a local bakery and paid $7 for 4 wedges JUST LIKE THESE!So happy to find I don’t have to anymore:lol: Thanks for sharing this recipe!”

“Based on other reviews I read, I added 1/2 tsp salt (and for my personal taste added 1 tsp high-quality vanilla), which takes this recipe to 5 stars. I imagine that without salt this would be a little flat (hence the 4 rating). Although purists would probably clutch their pearls I always add an extract to my shortbreads-usually vanilla, but sometimes almond. The vanilla especially highlights the dairy notes in the butter, but one caveat when using extracts here is that because there are such subtle and few flavors in shortbread a good extract is a must here…shortbread is not the place to use an imitation or cheap flavoring. For that matter, the quality of the butter for shortbread should be the best you can afford-the better the butter the better the shortbread.Anywhoo, this shortbread is easy to make, has a great texture and a nice buttery taste. Hit a wedge with a little Bonne Maman blueberry and I was a happy man.”

“This shortbread tastes exactly like the shortbread my Scottish grandmother used to make.So simple and easy (using food processor method).I did add a pinch of salt.Excellent recipe.”

“Really simple and exactly the way shortbread should be!”

“This cookie was a big hit during the holidays at my house. It is now in my list of favorite (& easy) cookies to make all year round. I did not split the dough up into two pans and I wish I had. I thought it would be too thin, but the cookie does rise and it was almost too rish when it was all in one pan.Thanks for posting this recipe!”

“Perfection in the form of shortbread. 🙂 Thanks so much for this simple recipe! Using a food processor really is the way to go in my opinion. I did use half salted and half unsalted butter to solve the salt problem and it came out perfect for me. I also recommend cutting the shortbread as soon as it comes out of the oven. I know it’s hot but it seemed like the longer it cooled, the more brittle it got when it went under the knife. Found hot fingers to be less painful than cracking shortbread! Tried to use this as a base for my holiday cookies, but found that adding things tended to make the end result extremely brittle. I’m going to give it a try again with the early cutting method and see if that improves my success rate. It doesn’t really need additions, hence the five stars! I just wanted to try to break up the flavors in my holiday tins. My family went through their tins and had to have the recipe afterward!”

“I made this recipe in a rush to take as a hostess gift.I added chopped dried cranberries (requested by my friend) and orange zest.It was wonderful.Will make this several more times during the holiday season.Easily slices into 16 wedges making it perfect for guests.”

“Just the easiest shortbread.I made the processor method in 10 mins it was in the oven.Tastes great and I am from Scotland.”

“This is a great shortbread recipe!!These were delicious!!They were gone pretty fast!Thanks”

“I have tried many recipes for shortbread and this one is THE BEST. It was very easy to prepare and bake.I added a bit more sugar, as I like it sweet.I would compare this to Walker’s, my favorite.You get a lot of quality cookie with this recipe; less expensive than Walker’s.I will make this and give as gifts.I am going to try your “chewy brownies” next!”

“Loved it! Simple, light and satisfying. Variations we have made are sprinkling them with toasted almonds, adding a bit of lemon zest, and even adding a little honey!”

“Mmmmm… These were so perfect and buttery and melt-in-your mouth I wanted to share them with everyone and keep them all to myself! My BF loved them too and he also suggested I drizzle some chocolate over them. I did melt some semi-sweet chocolate and did a quick splash across them and it was even more delicious 🙂 It couldn’t have been simpler to make. Wonderful results with this one. Thanks Steve G!”

“Wastrying to figure out what to bake forthe holidays and i came up with a few ideas. Then i stumbled acrossthis recipe and decidedto try it. I”m glad i didas it wasgreatand it reminded me of the Scottish Shortbread my grandmotherused to make. She had movedhere to Canada from Scotlandwhen she was a young woman and tookmany recipes with her. And this recipe of yours reminded me of the the shortbread she used to make.Thanks very much for posting this and for bringing back great memories for me.Will be tring this again soon.”

“Delicious! I loved the taste and texture of this shortbread.I might add a pinch of salt to the dough next time for better flavour or use salted butter.Other than that it was excellent.Thank you.”

“Excellent.Exactly what I was looking for – not too sweet, buttery, delicious.I baked it in shortbread molds and my cooking time was just 45 minutes.”

“This is the best shortbread recipe I have ever tried. It tastes authentic just like the shortbread from Scottland. I will only ever use this recipe when making traditional shortbread!”

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