This is my favorite homemade shortbread. Below is the basic version, however, I make mine with butter that has been browned, cooled and returned the the refrigerator to set.
This is a half cup of butter that has been melted, browned and poured into a bowl.
Here it is two hours later, chilled and firmly set. To use it, you just scoop it out of the bowl. I started with a standard 4 oz stick. After it had melted, browned and set, I scooped it out of the bowl and set it on my scale. It only weighed 3 oz, which means almost a full 1 oz of water boiled out. This is why you’ll need to replace water in the dough.
Here’s a picture of the cookies. I cut mine pretty thick, but you can do them thinner if you like. I also added pecans and mini chips. The chips and pecans are tasty, but not really necessary because the shortbread is so good on its own. I usually just make it plain.
Here’s the basic recipe with a few notes on salt.
Lennie’s Shortbread
1 cup butter, cold (browned if you have time) — Note: I use unsalted butter and add 1/4 tsp. salt to mixture)
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cup flour
Extras — toasted pecans and miniature chips
Chop cold butter into chunks. Process butter and sugar in Cuisinart until creamy. Add salt (if using) and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients and process just until mixed. Note, if you use browned butter, the butter will lose some water and you will need to add a few tablespoons at the end. When dough comes together, add in chips and pecans if using.
Press into a slab that’s about 1/3 (maybe a little less) of an inch thick, then cut into shapes. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes
Again, If you use unsalted butter, add a scant 1/4 tsp salt to butter/sugar mixture or a little bit more if you like your shortbread slightly saltier.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Anna. I love your blog and have been reading it for a long time. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes and photos! (I saw you on the Food Network, too, and I was so excited because I felt like I knew you!)
Question: For the shortbread, do you use unsalted or regular butter? I ask because I know one normally uses unsalted in baking, but since this recipe doesn’t have any salt in it, and shortbread is sometimes a bit salty, I thought perhaps you were using salted…
Thanks again. I look forward to trying this soon.
Hi Sara,
Thanks for pointing that out. I think Lennie uses salted butter, so her recipe just says butter. I actually use unsalted and add 1/4 teaspoon salt to the dough. If you tend to find shortbread salty, you will probably like the 1/4 tsp.
The general rule to rememember is that if you use unsalted butter in place of butter, add 1/4 tsp. of salt for every 1/2 cup (stick). So technicallly, you could probably get away with adding up to 1/2 tsp. salt here. I like using a bit less.
The easiest solution is to just use salted butter.
These look beautiful. I’m going to have to try this one out very, very soon!
These look great, Anna. Just wondering, though, what the melting/chilling technique for the butter does for the cookies, rather than using butter straight from the package?
Traci, I’m glad you like the picture. I wish I’d done a cross-section, though. Oh well
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Janice, the browned butter gives the cookie a different flavor. I am having a hard time explaining the flavor of browned butter, but you will recognize it when you taste it. If a recipe calls for melted butter and you want the browned butter flavor, you can just melt the butter, brown it and use it. Most cookie recipe call for softened or (in this case) cold butter, so that is why you have to re- firm it up.
Don’t laugh but browning butter scares me. How do you know when is it officially “browned”?
Jen, the trick is to take it off the heat just as it starts to brown around the edges. Don’t wait for it all to turn brown — just remove it as soon as you see a brown hue developing and you catch a whiff that smells like, uh…..browned butter.
I was wondering if you were freezing your batches of toffee? I would love to do that for Christmas, but do they freeze well? Sometimes when I freeze chocolate it turns whitish. Any tips?
Hi Nicole,
The white stuff you see on frozen chocolate is called bloom — the cocoa butter separates. It is unattractive, but usually (unless the chocolate was bad to begin with) doesn’t taste bad. However, I wouldn’t want to give people bloomed chocolate either! Luckily, I have found that almond toffee, wrapped very tightly in a bag with all the air sucked out, doesn’t seem to bloom. If I do find bloom, I will keep those pieced for myself. So to answer your question, in this instance I am freezing my almond toffee and on Friday, will be picking through it making sure there is no unattractive bloom and making sure that the frozen batches taste just as good as the fresh. I have frozen almond toffee in the past and it’s been fine, so I’m not too worried.
Another thing you might consider is making it two or three days ahead of time and just storing it in a tin. It has a good shelf-life (so long as it doesn’t get eaten) and is not something you have to make and serve right away. In fact, it probably tastes a little better the second or third day. I am just freezing mine because I think freezing (even running the risk of bloom) will preserve the freshness even longer.
The best way I can describe the taste of browned butter is “nutty”.
Anna, as always your cookies are beautiful. You are truly the Cookie Queen!
By the way, I am going to make a giant chocolate chip cookie for a co-workers birthday and was wondering if you had any suggestions as to how to decorate it. Any help would be appreciated as right now the plan is to spell out a birthday greeting using frosting and chocolate chips.
Thanks!
Great, I’ve been looking for a good shortbread recipe! But I don’t own a Cuisine Art, what can I do in achieving the same technique?
Roughly how many cookies did you find this recipe made? Can’t wait to try these!
Amy, I think I made about 12 or 14 — but mine were pretty small.
I formed a log with the dough and got 2 dozen. These are very good!!! The browned butter made the whole apartment smell amazing. I sliced squares off the log and then used a butter knife (Bob Ross style!) to paint little green Christmas trees on the cookies. Then I sprinkled just a touch of powerdered sugar over them for snow.
These are definitely going on my cookie trays. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Amy,
First off, who is Bob Ross?
I’m glad you liked the browned butter smell. The last time I browned butter, Todd said the kitchen smelled like Fleming’s Steak House.
Bob Ross is the Joy of Painting guy from PBS, with the happy little trees in the black studio and the soothing voice. He didn’t actually paint with knives.
Hi Anna,
I made this recipe and liked it, but it had a bit too much of a “cornstarchiness” (?)….I followed the measurements precisely. Any thoughts? Maybe I’m more of a powdered sugar gal?
Anywhooo – the teachers loved them at the cookie exchange! Thanks much!
-Diana
Hi! I recently found this site and I like it! You find very hard step-by-step description on web. Great site.
Hi! I recently found this site and I like it! You find very hard step-by-step description on web. Great site.
Hi!
I found this site today and I love it. I was not looking for shortbread cookie recipe. Its a great site. I was wondering though if you could help me find the brand name of a dutch shortbread cookie that I’ve been looking for a while now. They came in a blue tin and had a dutch woman face. They also came on stacks and tasted just delicious. I will appreciate any help from you or anyone who reads this. Thank you and keep up the good recipes!!
I tried this recipe tonight and think I will be a hero at work tomorrow! Mr. Cakespy gave them a very good review too!
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe. I was looking for a shortbread cookie recipe to re-create some cookies I used to buy with my grandmother when I was growing up. This was perfect! A big hit with my family.
I would have to say in my opinion browned butter smells like between like buttered popcorn and toffee. I also love browning butter by adding a vanilla bean that brings it to another heavenly level.
This was/is an awesome recipe. It took a couple of tries to get the browned butter process down, but it was worth it. I dipped the bottoms in chocolate after they cooled and had to fight off the family so that I had enough to take to my work potluck the next day. Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Nikki,
Thanks for the review! I haven’t made shortbread in a while, but this is still my favorite recipe. Browning butter without burning it does take some practice. Glad you figured it out. Also, I have to admit this shortbread is still good even when you skip browning the butter.