Aw, I’m so glad! Thanks for coming back and leaving a comment to tell me 🙂

Thank you so much for leaving a comment, Patty! I’m so glad you like them!

Thank you, Karen, I’m sorry you had a bad experience. This recipe has been popular for a couple of years and this week is the first I’ve had complaints, so I have adjusted the recipe card to include flour measuring instructions (not blaming/accusing anyone of that, but more troubleshooting in case) and also included the suggestion to start with 3 cups, just in case. Not sure why this issue is popping up, as I’ve made it dozens of times without issue, but I’m frustrated that it is happening because I take pride in creating and sharing recipes that people can rely on.

I wish I had read the comments before I tried this recipe. I had the same exact problem. I thought 3.5 cups of flour was a lot when I was making the recipe, but trusted in the process. I’m sorry I did. A waste of ingredients and money.

Do you have a picture you could send me? I’m having a hard time picturing what tour dough was like.
It sounds like either the butter and sugar were not creamed together well enough or the dough was overworked after the flour was added – you really want the sugar and butter to be almost a white color when done beating, and stop mixing the dough once the flour is JUST incorporated.

Hi Amanda,
I’m sorry you had a bad experience – it sounds like either the butter and sugar weren’t creamed fully or the dough once the flour was added was overworked. Shortbread is really tricky, as underworked it will fall apart easily, overworked, dry and crumbly.