Shortbread

A rich, crumbly Scottish cookie traditionally made from 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts flour.

Shortbread: Classic shortbread fingers and wedges dusted with sugar, docked with fork holes
  • Doughs, batters and pastry foundations
  • Scotland

Shortbread has no eggs or leavening, so its texture comes almost entirely from butter. Mixing the dough just until it comes together keeps it tender and sandy. Some bakers replace part of the flour with rice flour or cornstarch for an even shorter crumb.

It is pressed into a pan or rolled and cut, docked with a fork, and baked low, about 300 to 325°F (150 to 165°C), until just pale golden.

Bake it at VanillaGoods

Tools for this

As an Amazon Associate, VanillaGoods earns from qualifying purchases. We only suggest tools that help with this technique.

Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Shortbread - Recipes from Scotland 1680s to 1940s, National Library of Scotland
  2. Short (sub-entry: shortbread), Dictionaries of the Scots Language (Scottish National Dictionary)
  3. Shortbread for New Year: the Evolution of a Recipe, University of St Andrews Library Special Collections
  4. Shortbread (Q652695), Wikidata