Easy Shortbread Cookies

Homemade shortbread cookies are an easy and delicious treat with just 4 ingredients. They’re buttery, crumbly, and they melt-in-your-mouth! They are perfect for any occasion from class parties to holidays, and tea parties to showers.

cookies cut into shapes for holidays, shamrocks, hearts and bats.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Shortbread

This is my tried and true recipe for classic shortbread cookies. They’re light as air, buttery, and simply melt in your mouth. They’re not overly sweet, and totally irresistible!

These are perfect for tea parties or to add to a dessert table. It’s the recipe I use to make witch finger cookies at Halloween, and for a cookie exchange party at Christmas.

They also make great cutout cookies, because they hold their shape and don’t spread out when baking.

Why You’ll Love Them

  • Quick and easy. You can make delicious shortbread cookies in about half an hour with just four basic ingredients
  • Customize. You can add food coloring to the dough and use themed cookie cutters to make special desserts for different occasions such as Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter, or Halloween. 
  • Serve a crowd. You can easily double or triple the recipe to make a large batch for parties.

Ingredients

Shortbread cookies are light and buttery, and melt in your mouth by design. I don’t suggest any substitutions here other than the extract flavor if you like.

  • Unsalted butter.
  • Confectioners sugar.
  • All-purpose flour.
  • Vanilla extract. You can use other types of extracts to impart different flavor into the cookies, such as almond, coconut, orange, lemon, or mint.

How to Make Shortbread Cookies

  1. Preheat your oven while mixing the ingredients. Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to cream together the butter and sugar. Then add in the vanilla extract.
  2. Add the flour to the butter mixture in small batches, allowing it to fully integrate each time before adding more.
  3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch (0.6 to 1.3 centimeters) thick. Use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes from the dough and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet (for easy cleanup). 
  4. Bake the cookies in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until they are lightly golden around the edges. Do not overbake them or they will become too hard. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
photo collage of shortbread cookies cut out in 4 shapes for themed holidays.

Expert Tips

  • Give the dry ingredients a quick stir with a fork to make sure there aren’t any lumps.
  • Make sure you flour the rolling surface before rolling out the dough. This will prevent it from sticking to the surface.
  • Add food coloring to the dough, and use themed cookie cutters to make special cookies for St. Patrick’s day, Valentine’s day, or Halloween.
  • You can decorate them for Christmas using icing and dragées, red and green sprinkles, or top them with crushed peppermint.
  • If you don’t have a cookie cutter, just roll the dough into small balls, 1 to 1 ½-inches, then press them down to form round cookies about ¼-inch thick.
  • You can shape the dough into a log and then slice them into discs to bake. When they’ve cooled dip them in melted chocolate for an extra indulgent treat.

Quick Tip

Use cookie icing to decorate with, and add color. It dries to a hard, candy-like coating so the cookies can stack without getting smeared.

More Cookie Recipes

If you like these easy shortbread cookies as much as we do, I hope you’ll try these other cookie recipes.

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shortbread cookies cut into shapes for holidays, shamrocks, hearts and bats.

Best Shortbread Cookie Recipe

Yield: 3 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 37 minutes

This is my go-to shortbread cookie recipe and has just 4 ingredients. They're light as a feather and melt in your mouth.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • cookie icing if desired

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on low (or use a stand mixer).
  3. Add vanilla and continue to combine.
  4. Gradually add flour while continuing to mix on low, allowing the flour to fully integrate each time before adding more flour.
  5. With your hands form a ball with the dough and then press out on a lightly floured surface. Spread dough out to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thickness.
  6. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Transfer to a baking sheet using a spatula, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
  7. Let the cookies cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet, then remove cookies with a spatula and let cool on a wire rack.
  8. Decorate with cookie icing and sprinkles if desired.

Notes

Use almond, coconut, lemon or orange extract instead of the vanilla to impart a different flavor into the cookies.

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3 Comments

  1. Thank you for including World Market in your post. The cookies look great (and yes the cookie cutters are adorable). We love the presentation too on your post. Thanks again, we’d love to work with you in the future.

    Thanks
    ~ World Market

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