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Consider this your official guide to the BEST SHORTBREAD COOKIES EVER! Not only are we bringing you a melt-in-your-mouth, delicious recipe that only requires 4 ingredients to make, I’m also sharing a list of suggested variations, 10 tips for shortbread cookie success – AND answers to your most frequent shortbread cookie questions!

Scottish Shortbread Cookies Recipe

Today, I’m so excited to share with you my all-time favorite Scottish Shortbread recipe.

Shortbread gets it’s name from it’s crumbly (“short”) texture, which is caused by having a higher amount of fat in the cookies as compared with other cookie types.

Traditional Scottish shortbread consists of 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts flour, with a pinch of salt. (Non-Scottish shortbread incorporates leavening agents like baking soda.)

I personally prefer Scottish shortbread as it has that crisp, crumbly, tender and dense cookie texture and buttery, sweet flavor that I grew up loving.

Plus, since Scottish shortbread is only 4-ingredients it’s super easy to make – and it’s really easy to adjust this recipe to suit your personal preferences. (Check out our list of recipe variations below.)

10 Tips for Perfect Shortbread

1. Use good-quality butter and don’t substitute with margarine. You want a butter that you enjoy the flavour of because it will form the basis of most of the shortbread’s flavour.
2. Use room temperature butter that has been sitting out for a few hours or overnight. Don’t use any hacks like grating or microwaving the butter as you will end up with an over-worked dough.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until very light colored, as you want the sugar to really dissolve well.
4. If desired, you can replace a bit of the all-purpose flour with rice flour to give the cookies a lighter texture, but don’t go over replacing half of the flour or the dough will be frustratingly delicate.
5. You can chill the dough twice, and it’s a good idea if you’ve spent too much time rolling out the dough or have been distracted. You want the butter to be cold when it goes into the oven so it doesn’t spread or overcook – plus refrigeration helps develop the flavour.
6. If doing a second chill, it doesn’t need to be for long and you don’t need to cover the dough – in fact, leaving the dough uncovered for 20-30 minutes in your fridge will help dry out the butter a bit and help the cookies become a bit more light and crisp with baking.
7. Ensure that all of the cookies are as close to the same size as possible to ensure even baking. An easy way to do that with thumbprint cookies is to use a cookie scoop or a tablespoon to portion out the dough before rolling and imprinting.
8. When rolling out shortbread, try not to overwork the dough as it will result in tough cookies.
9. Also, use a sheet of parchment or wax paper in between your rolling pin and your dough to prevent the dough from sticking or tearing with rolling.
10. You don’t want any browning in the baked cookies – you just want them to be light and set. The minute one cookie starts to show some cracks, the cookies are done.

Shortbread Cookie FAQs

How to store shortbread cookies: Shortbread cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or kept in the fridge for 10 days.

Can these shortbread cookies be frozen? Yes – that’s one of the best things about shortbread is that it freezes beautifully and the flavour even improves with freezing – and one of my secret indulgences is sneaking a frozen shortbread cookie out of the freezer and enjoying it super cold.

To store, use parchment or wax paper in between layers of the shortbread and store in an airtight freezer bag or your favourite freezer containers (this set of freezer containers is a crazy bargain). Enjoy within 3 months of freezing.

How long in advance can I make shortbread cookie dough? Shortbread cookie dough can be made in advance by either keeping the dough in the fridge for a week, or in the freezer for a month.

How do I fix cookies that are spreading out too much in the oven? Add a bit of additional flour to the cookie dough and then re-chill the dough to help reduce spreading.

Why is my shortbread dough so crumbly? This is a result of either too much flour or not working the dough together enough. Using your hands (the heat from them will help), knead the dough for a minute to help make the dough stick together better.

Ingredients for Shortbread Cookies

• Butter, softened
• White Sugar
• Vanilla Extract
• All-Purpose Flour

Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.

Tip: the vanilla extract is optional; you can also add 1 teaspoon of salt.

Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful

• Measuring cups and spoons
• Mixing bowl
• Electric mixer <– this is a great hand mixer if you don’t want to make the investment into a stand mixer
• Parchment Paper
• Cookie Sheets
• Cooling racks <– I have and love these tiered cooling racks, they save so much counter space and are also oven-safe
• Rolling Pin

How to Make Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla extract and then slowly beat in the flour until just incorporated.

Fold the dough out onto a floured surface. Place a piece of parchment paper over the dough and roll out until 1/4″ thickness.

Use a round cookie cutter and cut out 40-50 cookies, re-rolling the dough as needed.

Place the cut cookies on the prepared baking sheets, about 1″ apart. (This recipe doesn’t need to be refrigerated but chilling the dough for 20 minutes before baking will help prevent spreading.)

Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown.

Allow the cookies to cool before decorating or dusting with powdered sugar.

Pin this Easy 4-Ingredient Shortbread Recipe for your next baking session:

Grab your free printable recipe card for our 4-ingredient Shortbread Cookie recipe:

I hope your family loves this easy Scottish shortbread cookie recipe as much as mine does!

For more scrumptious cookies, check out our full cookie recipe collection here:

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