It wasn’t until I baked shortbread for the first time that I realized how simple it is. While it helps to have a food processor to cut the butter into the flour, you can also do it by hand using two forks and a large mixing bowl. Try not to work with the dough for too long or too aggressively, as it will lose some of its classic shortbread texture.
Homemade Shortbread
It wasn’t until I baked shortbread for the first time that I realized how simple it is. While it helps to have a food processor to cut the butter into the flour, you can also do it by hand using two forks and a large mixing bowl. Try not to work with the dough for too long or too aggressively, as it will lose some of its classic shortbread texture.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup white granulated sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, (cut into small cubes, kept cold)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- In a food processor or mixing bowl, mix together the all-purpose flour, white granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and kosher salt.
- Add the cold cubed butter and mix in the butter in the flour using short bursts on the food processor.
- Process until the mix just starts to come together and stick to itself, but is still somewhat crumbly in texture.
- *If using a mixing bowl, use forks to mash the butter into the flour and sugar mixture.
- Gently press the dough in an even layer in an ungreased 9-inch pie tin.
- Poke holes in the surface of the dough with a fork.
- Bake at 325F for roughly 40-50 minutes, or until the surface is lightly golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Cut the shortbread into bars before it has completely cooled down.
Notes
There are endless adjustments you can make to this basic shortbread recipe. Adding fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove tastes wonderful. Poppy seeds and lemon zest was another fun combination.