Classic Shortbread Cookies in 4 Ingredients with added 1 ingredient Variations

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Made the basic recipe with the grandkids and let them pick how to decorate, including dipping in chocolate, adding sprinkles and candies and crushed peppermint. We ate them all before they cooled!

About unsalted butter, Cook's Illustrated said it can be used interchangably with salted butter. FYI, a pound of butter has 1 teaspoon of salt, just adjust to the amount of butter with the salt in the recipe, 1 stick of butter (8 Tbls. equals 1/4 tsp. salt. Hope this helps.

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I tend to look for complex recipes because I like things bursting with flavor. But I usually make a recipe the first time following it precisely. These cookies were amazingly easy to make and were the best shortbread cookies I have ever tasted. I did add 1 tsp. of powdered raspberry flavoring to the dough and only 1/2 tsp of vanilla, and mixed in 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. Everyone who has tasted them thought they were delightful. These cookies were perfect: crisp, buttery, with a texture that made us want to take tiny bites and enjoy everything each bite had to offer. I rolled mine into a 5 inch X 3 inch log, tightened the plastic wrap around them, and then pressed them down into a rectangular shape. I left them in the frig overnight, and in the morning I sliced them into 1/3" slices and baked them off. I got 15 cookies out of the batch. I'm sure I will make these cookies often throughout the year when I want to treat my friends and family so something special. Thanks again, Claire.

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I first saw this recipe made with Earl Grey tea...............now I have made them using all
different varities of teas............it is one of the quickest, easiest and a really good shortbread cookie

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I made the Chai Tea version and absolutely love it! This recipe is SO simple to make and so yummy to eat ... especially when still warm. Question on the quantity the recipe makes ... the recipe indicates that it will make 65 cookies. But ... if you make a 5 inch log, as instructed, and slice it into 1/3 inch slices ... that only works out to 15 cookies ??? But that's really neither here nor there ... I would recommend making the log a bit longer and smaller in diameter. The cookies are pretty rich ... of course, eating two or three small cookies isn't much different than 1 large cookie, though, is it?

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Please people, these comments are supposed to be helpful, the reviews are supposed to be pertinent to the recipes. Now I am relegated to the ranks of you insufferable people who won;t follow instructions to write a valid comment or review on the recipe. These cookies are delicious, the instructions are super easy to follow no matter whether you have a food processor, salted butter, iced water or whatever. I don't understand how you can validate the recipe if you are adding in your own ingredients - therefore creating a different recipe. This might sound harsh, but please keep everything relevant. To those inexperienced cooks who don't have the machines, in our grandma's day the dough would be processed by cutting in the flour and butter with two knives, if they didn't have 'unsalted butter' they would use salted and cut back on the salt added to the recipe, if they didn't have something else, they would use common sense and substitute whatever they had - and the results were always mm.mmm...good. I'm all for people asking questions, but keep them relevant and don't be stupid about it.

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I believe the directions should say "form a log 15 inches long." By stretching the log out to 16 inches, I got 48 cookies which is what I need for my cookie swap. That said, this is an easy recipe. Note for myself as much as others - don't overwork the dough. It comes together very quickly and for that reason I would also use chilled butter in the future. I added 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and they mixed in very well using the food processor. This is a technique I might try with other recipes - I used my KitchenAid for Giada's Cherry & Almond cookies and had a difficult time mixing the dried cherries in and getting them evenly distributed.

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This is so easy to make, I just made the basic recipe and added about 1/2 cup of dried cranberries with the flour. By the time the butter is mixed in the cranberries are chopped and they look really pretty when you cut the cookie. I love recipes that use a food processor!

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I actually haven't made these yet, but I need to rate them to post this. I guessing they'll be great.

Does anyone know if the dough can be put through a cookie press? How about with finely chopped macadamia nuts or toasted coconut? I'm thinking of trying the coconut, if I get time to bake before I fly back east on Dec 22nd.

And.... who cares how many cookies you get from the recipe as long as they taste yummy! Make one huge one if you want! It's the holidays. Don't worry.... just be happy!

Happy Holidays and New Year.

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I made the Chai Spiced Tea variation and ate the whole first batch! I used 5 teabags of Bigelow Spiced Chai and they were amazing. For anyone that even vaguely likes shortbread cookies, this is the ultimate recipe and believe me, I've been hunting for something like this for years.

You could easily vary the flavor by switching out any strongly flavored tea or even used one of the many good herb teas that are available if you don't want the little bit of caffeine that black tea contains. For me the Spiced Chai is perfect. One note is if you see little chunks of butter in the dough when it comes out of the food processor, that's OK, they bake out. Better the butter lumps than overworking the dough.

I wish I could give it a few more stars that's how good it is.

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Not so much a review as a comment. These look reall good and I love shortbread so I will definitly try them. My comments are for Polly and Mary. For Polly I would just not put in the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and it probably would be fine. Best bet is to taste the dough when it's mixed and see if it needs more salt. For Mary you have the best food processor at the end of your arms. May be a little more effort but should work well. Hope Santa does bring you one though. They ae so handy for so many things. Biggest problem I see is chopping the nuts if needed but I would think a blender or a nut chopper would probably do a pretty good job. Happy holidays to all.