3 Ingredient Shortbread Cookies Recipe - An Italian in my Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

When making shortbread, what must you not do? ›

Don't Overwork

Be careful not to overwork your dough. Mix it just until it starts to come together, then dump it onto a floured surface until you have a smooth dough.

Cornstarch provides the shortbread with structure, but its biggest job is keeping the cookies extra soft, tender, and light. I love adding a small amount to chocolate chip cookies too. Optional Coarse Sugar Topping: For an optional sparkly crunch on your shortbread wedges, add a sprinkle of coarse sugar before baking.

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.

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.

Avoid over-mixing the dough. Score the surface for even baking without bubbles or cracks. Chill the shaped dough thoroughly before baking. Cut the shortbread while it is still warm, for smooth, even slices.

The Amaretti cookie is perhaps the most famous of all Italian cookies. The original Italian cookie recipe is believed to have been created in the 18th century. It's said they were a secret recipe which a newly married couple used to make cookies for the local bishop.

Why do you put shortbread cut-out cookies in the fridge before baking? This is to resolidify the butter. The butter is at room temperature when making the dough resulting in a soft dough. If baked straight away, the butter would melt away immediately when hitting the hot oven and the shortbread would spread.

You can always substitute all-purpose flour in nearly all baking recipes that call for cornstarch, but you might miss out on some of that delightfully airy texture in whatever you're baking. Rice flour is particularly great in a shortbread and other cookies as it makes for a super delicate dough.

Shortbread cookies are now called Trefoils 💚 Same classic cookie, new iconic name!

The longer it cooks the darker it will get, sort of caramelising the sugars contained in the dough. It shouldn't be brown, but golden, and it should be firm to the touch. If it's still soft, doughy or malleable/pliable, it's undercooked. If it starts turning brown, it's overcooked and will be hard to eat.

Can I use margarine instead of butter in shortbread? ›

A good margarine can be substituted but the dough will be softer than if butter is used and will brown faster than a butter dough. Butter will give shortbread a nicer flavour. Depending on the recipe, you may not notice much difference at all.

Shortbread has so few ingredients that you can't get away with cutting corners; good quality butter and sugar are essential, and plenty of them. Rice flour gives it that special sandy texture that sets it apart from the common biscuit, and a pinch of salt helps to balance that rich, delicious sweetness.

Lorna Doone is a brand of golden, square-shaped shortbread cookie produced by Nabisco and owned by Mondelez International.

Use unsalted butter for balanced flavour. Unsalted butter was traditionally used in baking because it was a superior product to salted - salt is used as a preservative so unsalted butter was thought to be fresher.

The key with shortbread is not to overhandle it. Make the dough exactly as instructed, but don't mess around making shapes or over rolling the dough - you will end up with delicious but tough biscuits. Stretching and pulling the dough activates the gluten in the flour, making chewy cookies and not crisp ones.

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. You'll see lots of shortbread recipes using granulated sugar.

Make sure your butter is at the right temperature

Fine Cooking explains that the butter should be at refrigerator temperature. While many cookie recipes call for softened butter or at room temperature, if your butter isn't cold when making shortbread, it's likely to turn out greasy or be difficult to roll out.

Chilling the dough before baking will help the shortbread keep their shape while cooking. In the oven, the dough will spread as the butter in the mixture melts, but baking it from chilled helps reduce this effect. It's most important to do this if you are baking the shortbread in individual biscuits.