By Mark Bittman
- Total Time
- 40 minutes, plus 1½ hours' cooling
- Rating
- 4(513)
- Notes
- Read community notes
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. In their simplest form, they taste mostly of sweet and sweetened butter, so the best butter you can lay your hands on will make a difference here. I like that side-of-the-tongue tingling presence of saltiness, and so I tend to use a little more salt than is strictly necessary, hence the range in the recipe.
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Ingredients
- ½pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾cup sugar
- 1egg yolk
- 1½cups all-purpose flour
- ½cup cornstarch
- ½ to ¼teaspoon salt
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)
265 calories; 16 grams fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 13 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 101 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Use an electric mixer on low speed to combine the butter and sugar, about 30 seconds. Keeping the speed on low, beat in the egg yolk, then the flour, cornstarch and salt, until the mixture barely holds together. Don’t overbeat.
Step
2
To make shapes, form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and freeze or refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until firm. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is ¼ inch thick. Cut into any shapes you like, then put the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet. Chill for at least 1 hour. Alternatively, shape the dough into a round, triangular or rectangular log and refrigerate or freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes. Slice ¼-inch cookies and put on the baking sheet.
Step
3
Heat the oven to 275. Bake the cookies until just firm but still quite tender and not at all brown, about 30 minutes. Cool for a minute on the sheet before using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling.
Ratings
4
out of 5
513
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Cooking Notes
Taylor
How many cookies does this recipe make?
A. Fuller
I think this recipe is perfection. The cookies come out a perfect consistency every time. They freeze well, too. I skipped the refrigeration/freezer step and they still are perfect. I use good quality butter, which of course makes them better.
Tracey A.
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Victoria LaPorte
Note: Salted butter contains about 1/3 tsp per stick. If substituting salted butter in this recipe, reduce salt, using this guide.
Jane
Made these many times. Very good with dark chocolate chunks in the dough.
Susan
I didn't have cornstarch (oops!) so I substituted an equal amount of oat flower, which helped give a crumbly texture but kept the cookies moister. I also added a tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves and the micro-planed rind of two small lemons, and the results were delicious!
Jess
This is a fantastic recipe - quick, easy, and reliable. I’ve made as written a number of times, with great results. This time I added the zest of an orange and 1/4 tsp orange blossom water and replaced 1/4 cup of the sugar with rose-scented sugar (gift from a friend) - then sprinkled the rose sugar on top before baking. Remarkable.
ADM
Very dry. Need to re-examine cooking time and heavy hit if cornstarch.
solid recipe- with tweaks!
These were lovely but I’ll do a few things differently next time: make sure to make them thick enough - close to 1/4 inch rather than thinner. I may also use 1/3 brown sugar for color. Or perhaps vanilla?We dipped ours in bittersweet chocolate but will try lemon zest next time. Solid shortbread cookie.
Michele
Exactly the right taste, thank you! I have made other shortbread recipes before but they were somehow wrong. These are perfect, 25 Min in my convection oven, maybe 20 would have been better. They did break very easily when I took them off the pan. Next time will use parchment paper.
Anne
These cookies are perfection! I added 1 tsp. cinnamon to the dough and then dipped the edges in dark chocolate after they were cooled. Just heavenly!
Shauna
If you don't have plastic wrap, can you wrap the dough in tin foil or put it in a plastic container in the fridge?
Elie
I made them slightly thicker at 1cm, yielded 24…. Looks like I would have had 30-36 if only 1/4”.
Nick
I make this recipe all the time and it's great. Sometimes I grind star anise and a few cloves and add it to the mix with almond extract.But 275 is way, way too low. 350 is more suitable. And it takes 45 minutes to bake, not 30.
LD
Added 3Tb fresh lavendar for lacendar cookies
Sean
These turned out great. Used the upper amount of salt, rolled the dough out to 1/4” and used cookie cutters. Chilled them for about 45 minutes on butter sheet pans and cooked for 20 minutes exactly. Once cooled I dipped them in semi-sweet chocolate. Will add a sprinkle of a Maldon salt after dipping the next batch.
Debbie
Too crumbly. What did I do wrong? Also spread out too much while cooking on the sheet, I think it’s the same problem.
Deborah R
Great recipe! Next time I'll probably add orange zest to the dough then dip the finished product in dark chocolate.
middaygourmet
This just didn’t work for me—a mess so crumbly, I couldn’t cut rounds, so put it in an 8x8. Still crumbly. The ratio of butter to flour/cornstarch seems off.
madelinerue
They were a bit dry and crumbly when cutting, so I ended up throwing away some of the dough- I would either mix more or do a little less flour and cornstarch. The ones that did come out tasted amazing, though!
Victoria LaPorte
Note: Salted butter contains about 1/3 tsp per stick. If substituting salted butter in this recipe, reduce salt, using this guide.
Emily
Used the upper level of salt and added the zest of 1 lemon. At first I thought there were too many feet ingredients but it all came together. I shaped into a triangular log and let it set for maybe an hour. The cookies spread slightly when baked, but the end result is a lovely shortbread. Great with lemon curd on top! (For that I use the Allrecipes version with 1/2 cup juice, 1/2 cup sugar and 3 whole eggs)
HL
I made these dairy free with Miyoko’s, go to Zero Daery on IG for photos. I thought this was going to be the standard/foolproof recipe for making shortbread. But it wasn’t, not even close. Everything was wrong— texture, flavor, color, everything. My partner (from Scotland) tasted them too and agreed, these taste nothing like shortbread. They came out chalky. The added egg gave it a really weirdly fatty, eggy flavor. Before anyone can ascribe it to my butter choice, other recipes worked better.
Julia O’C
Baking is not my thing, so if these hadn’t turned out I can guarantee it would have been entirely my fault. Much to my surprise, this shortbread was PERFECT. I did use the best butter I could find at my local grocery store. I also used 1/2 teaspoon of salt and I have no regrets about that. I will be making this often. Thank you for this recipe! Maybe I’m not a horrible baker after all.
K Davis
this is a fantastic recipe, but I cut back on the cornstarch just the tiniest bit--too dry with the full 1/2 cup. perfect with lemon rind.
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