Cranberry Shortbread Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are common mistakes when making shortbread? ›

The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour. The less you work the dough, the more crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth your shortbread cookies will be.

Compared to butter cookies, shortbread uses a higher ratio of butter to flour, and is baked at a lower temperature. This gives it its signature delicate consistency that crumbles in the mouth when bitten. It's also often baked in a pan and cut up after baking, rather than being cut into shapes before baking.

Walkers Scottish cookies often have more ingredients than shortbread, including those that aid in leavening such as baking powder and baking soda. The leavening agents are responsible for the notable crunch and open texture of the Scottish cookie, which is not nearly as crumbly as shortbread.

Step 3: The Secret to the Absolute Best Shortbread

After shaping the cookies, don't rush to the oven! Instead, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so (overnight is OK, too). A short stay in the fridge will firm up the cookies and solidify the butter. This will help keep them from spreading too much.

Irish Shortbread Is Distinct From Scottish Shortbread

As cornstarch is a potent thickener relative to flour, this creates a denser cookie. Whichever version of shortbread you prefer, though, the original -- which is often just called "shortbread" -- came from Scotland.

Place the dough in the fridge to chill for about 1 hour, or longer. Preheat your oven to 325°F / 163°C. Place the pan in the center of the oven, and bake the cookies for about 45 – 60 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. A 9 inch pan may only take 40 – 45 minutes, and an 8 inch pan may take up to 60 minutes.

Poking small holes in the dough allows some steam to escape while baking, preventing bubbles inside the cookies. This results in a more uniform texture throughout the shortbread.

Piercing the shortbread with a fork is not only for decoration, but it's meant for more even baking. Poking holes in the shortbread allows the heat to penetrate the cookie, hence more even baking. Notice I'm using powdered sugar here.

Americans are the outlier on how we use "biscuit"

To most of the rest of the English-speaking world, a biscuit is what Americans would refer to as either a cookie or a cracker. Biscuits can be sweet (shortbread) or savory.

Samoas are now “Caramel deLites.” Do-si-dos are “Peanut Butter Sandwiches.” Tagalongs are “Peanut Butter Cookies” and Trefoils are “Shortbreads.” But how are we going to move cookies with dull names like “Peanut Butter Patties?” And won't we get tired of explaining to customers what happened with the names?

Is butter or margarine better for shortbread? ›

Shortbread relies on really good-quality unsalted butter for its flavour, so don't skimp on this and never use margarine!

Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain any leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda.

Shortbread may have been made as early as the 12th Century, however its invention is often attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots in the 16th Century.

There are a variety of reasons why the shortbread could be damp underneath but it is most likely that either the dough is being pressed out too thickly, the pan is not metal so heats up too slowly, or the oven temperature is too high causing the top to brown before the bottom has cooked sufficiently.

If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense. Many shortbread recipes call for cold butter worked into the dry ingredients and that gives you a wonderfully flaky cookie but if not mixed properly, the results can be inconsistent.

It's important to avoid over-mixing shortbread dough, which will develop gluten and make the finished product tough, not tender. To make sure that the flour mixes completely with little effort, sift the flour first to get out all of the lumps.