Butter Shortbread

7 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: Leigh Beisch; Styling: Dan Becker
Yield
Makes 16 cookies
December 2009
RECIPE BY Sunset

The rich butter flavor and crumbly texture of this cookie makes it a staple of holiday baking. Plus, it's very easy to make.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons coarse sugar (sometimes called sparkling sugar)*

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 189
  • Caloriesfromfat 54%
  • Protein 1.7g
  • Fat 12g
  • Satfat 7.3g
  • Carbohydrate 20g
  • Fiber 0.4g
  • Sodium 38mg
  • Cholesterol 31mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Preheat oven to 325°. Put flour, butter, granulated sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until blended, then increase to medium and mix until dough is no longer crumbly and just comes together.

Step 2

Press dough evenly into a 9-in. round cake pan. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Step 3

Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Cut still-warm shortbread with a fork, tines down, into 16 wedge-shape pieces with shaggy edges. Cool completely, then invert pan onto a work surface and carefully separate cookies.

Step 4

*Find coarse sugar in the baking aisle.

Step 5

Make ahead: Up to 5 days. Store airtight up to 1 week.

Step 6

Note: Nutritional analysis is per cookie.

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Ratings & Reviews

JRGW81's Review

JRGW81
September 26, 2012
N/A

josie65's Review

jayceetee
March 06, 2010
A new family favorite. The second time I tried the recipe I used a food processor, so much quicker and easier than a regular mixer. Probably one of the best shortbread recipes i've tried. I now make 2 cake pans every week. My family has not tired of it yet. trying the lemon version next, and also thinking of trying orange zest,

epersonae's Review

Croqzine
December 22, 2009
Could not get to hold together even enough to form a ball. Was actually kinda tasty if pressed into a pan, but couldn't make any other forms.

jayceetee's Review

BellevueChick
December 13, 2009
Just took the lemon version to a cookie party and these got rave reviews! Iespecially liked the lemon glazed cookies. I used lemon juice and lime zest. Very pretty and unexpectedly fast and easy.

BellevueChick's Review

epersonae
December 13, 2009
Try making this recipe in a spring form pan for easy removal.

Croqzine's Review

flbaldwin
December 09, 2009
Tasted amazing, but we had to mix it for at least 10 minutes to get the crumbs to even sort of adhere together. The cookies were great, though. What's not to like about butter & flour? We made the raspberry window shortbreads from Sunset.

flbaldwin's Review

josie65
December 06, 2009
An unmitigated disaster! The ratio of butter to flour is so wrong that the cookies do not bake; instead the butter melts away leaving floury grease spots of the baking sheet. I wasted 3 hours, a lot of butter and effort all to get a few cups of sweet buttery crumbs. Argh!!!