Proper Shortbread Recipe on Food52 (2024)

I haven't yet made this shortbread recipe. I have read all of the comments and suggestions. The recipe calls for softened butter. I'm thinking that might be the issue as softened for one might not be adequately softened for another. Perhaps a better definition of softened could remedy the crumbly dough problem.

Lisa July 4, 2022

My mother has fallen in love with “Outlander” and so with all things Scottish. She bought an Outlander cookbook and asked me to make the shortbread recipe. Ugh! A crumbly mess! So, I tried this one. I made it according to the weight instructions (6 oz flour, 4 oz butter, 2 oz sugar) and used Irish Kerigold butter. I beat the butter and sugar for a LONG time (near 10 mins) in my KitchenAid. The cookies were perfect and easy to roll after kneading a short bit. My mother ate a whole dozen all at once!

I love the simplicity of this recipe, even though like others, I had trouble with a crumbly dough. But that is often the case when I try to make shortbread, and after reading the comments I know what to try next time to get a better result. I'll definitely make this again and what I did make is still tasty!

I'd like to make them savory with finely chopped rosemary and cardamon. Might also consider adding nuts to a different batch. Will 1 teaspoon to 1-2 tablespoon (nuts) do?

I brought these to work today and they have been loved by all. I doubled the recipe, but decreased the flour by 1/2 cup. The dough was quite shaggy, but I worked it into a ball with my hands after a few minutes. Unfortunately, I refrigerated the dough overnight as I ran out of time for baking, which made the dough very difficult to roll out. I ended up pressing and rolling it into a jellyroll pan, pricking it all over with a fork, and slicing it before baking at 325 degrees. This worked well, although I had to slice them again when they came out of the oven. Next time I will not put the dough in the fridge before rolling! Overall though, very tasty - thanks for the recipe!

I added some milk, as the recipe suggested. I probaby added more than a few splashes, just so that I could clump up a good handful into a ball that I could then press and roll out. I've got about 56 cookies in the fridge now (I doubled the recipe), chilling for 30. It was quite fun, almost like playing with playdough 8^) I'm not a baker--I enjoy more savory food so baking's never clicked for me--but this recipe was pretty easy. I kneaded chunks of the dough and rolled those chunks out and made as many cookies out of them (w/a small biscuit cutter) and then went on to another kneaded chunk. It would be nice to have pics with this recipe, but I just kind of worked with it...and figured how wrong can you go w/4-ingredient cookies? (I guess we'll find out in about an hour.)

I wonder if people are having issues because of the differing fat content in European and American butters. European has a higher fat content than American butter... Looking at a few American recipes, I see similar flour and sugar measurements being paired with an extra quarter cup of butter (1 1/2 sticks or 12 tablespoons total). I'm going to give this recipe a go with a little extra butter. Or maybe I'll just splurge on some fancy European butter!

I also ended up with a very crumbly dough. Ended up adding an extra 2-3 Tlb of soft butter until the dough could come together enough to roll out and hold the cookie cutter shape. I still had to be very careful handling the cookies because they don't hold together real well but they tasted great!

Some help for folks... I found that if you make sure that (1) your butter is soft enough and (2) you beat the butter & sugar together long enough, you will have a dough that is kneadable. That said, I found that adding extra butter helps ;-)

Argh! I should have read comments before doubling the recipe! All I got was crumbles and I had to work really had to roll it out, even then I could only use the middle part since dough would fall apart if I cut out anywhere close to the edge. In the last batch, I added a bit of water, which helped roll it out. I will have to look for another recipe.

siok October 27, 2014

I agree with the earlier comments - all I got was crumbles despite making sure that I had properly creamed the butter and sugar! =(

I don't know. I used Kerrygold butter and bake cookies quite a lot, so I knew how it was supposed to look. I just put the crumbles into a springform pan and smoothed them down, scored and baked that was. They still were yummy just not like yours. I will try again.

Just another quick comment, Ohshineon, try leaving butter out at room temp for only about 20-30 minutes, tops, and see if this helps you. It's definitely a chemistry issue here!!

Just curious, Ohshineon, might the butter be too soft? It took my sister almost a year to figure out that when a recipe called for butter softened or even room temp, that she was letting the butter get way too soft which doesn't allow the mixture to have enough air in it to become "light and fluffy" when you cream the butter and sugar together. This will completely and frustratingly, change the outcome of a recipe. Good luck!!

Agreed, even with only one cup of flour the mixture is not sticking together at all.

By soft do you mean crumbly? I just have a bowl of crumbles.