Whipped Shortbread Cookies
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
These traditional shortbread cookies are the Christmas cookies my mom makes every holiday season. They’re whipped shortbread cookies that are so soft they literally melt in your mouth. You will LOVE them!
This has long been my favorite shortbread recipe. The cookies are so soft that they literally melt in your mouth. They are different from Scottish shortbread cookies, which are firmer. Eating this shortbread is like eating buttery, soft, crumbly clouds. This recipe is for you if you want soft, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread. (And really, who doesn’t want that?)
This is the shortbread cookie recipe my family has been making for decades. They were part of the Christmas cookie spread that always included Mom’s Nanaimo Bars, turtles, and butter tarts. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without them.
These shortbread cookies are crazy soft. When I say they melt in your mouth, I mean it. No chewing is required. They’re the most tender shortbread cookies you will ever eat. In the words of one of our taste testers, “I don’t know what just happened in my mouth, but I want more of it.”
This recipe has only five ingredients, is made in one bowl, and is the best shortbread recipe ever. Are you sold? You should be!
This easy recipe is made with only five ingredients!
- Butter – I prefer to use salted butter. If you only have unsalted butter, simply add salt to the recipe. Make sure the butter is at room temperature before making these cookies.
- Flour – Unbleached, all-purpose flour works best in this recipe.
- Icing sugar – Also known as powdered sugar.
- Cornstarch – This is added to make the shortbread cookies even softer.
- Vanilla – I add this for a subtle flavor.
Making whipped shortbread is incredibly easy. But it helps to look at the pictures above to see what the dough looks like at the four stages as you beat it.
- You’ll start by slowly mixing the salted butter, flour, icing sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla using electric beaters at their lowest setting. This is to prevent a cloud of flour dust from flying out of the bowl. After a minute, the dough will no longer be dusty but will have larger chunks of butter coated in flour.
- A few minutes later, when the dough begins to look like sand, increase the beaters to medium speed. You’ll likely think it will never come together at this point, but have patience and trust that it will.
- Keep beating the sandy dough for 3-4 minutes. Suddenly, you will feel your beaters start to strain, and the dough will come together.
- Turn your beaters up to high and beat the dough for another 1-2 minutes, or until it resembles thick whipped cream.
Now, all that’s left to do is drop mounds of the dough onto baking sheets and bake them for 15 minutes. It’s so easy!
Using a stand mixer to make shortbread cookies is a little trickier as you have to stop often to scrape the bowl AND it’s easy to overwhip them.
- Always use the whisk attachment. The paddle attachment is not able to whip the shortbread properly.
- Stop frequently to scrape the side of the bowl. Otherwise, some of the dough will be whipped and some won’t. You’ll see the difference the first time you stop to scrape the bowl.
- Keep a close eye on the dough at the end. As soon as it resembles thick whipped cream, stop beating it. Overbeating the dough can cause the cookies to flatten when they bake.
- The total time you’ll need to whip the cookie dough in a stand mixer is about 5 minutes.
Variations to try
- Top with red and green sprinkles for Christmas shortbread cookies. You can also try blending the sprinkles right into the batter.
- Add lemon or orange zest to the batter.
- Drizzle the tops with chocolate.
- Swap the vanilla for your favorite flavor extract.
- Make whipped shortbread cookies with Toblerone by stirring 1 cup of chopped Toblerone into the batter.
- Several readers have commented that they’ve had success using this dough with a cookie press.
Store and freeze
This shortbread cookie recipe is great to make ahead of time. Not only do they keep well for many days on your counter, but you can also store them in your freezer for months. So go ahead and make a big batch and have some on hand next time a cookie craving strikes!
Store: This is a great recipe to make ahead of time, as they keep well for many days on your counter. I usually keep some on a plate (for easy access) and put the rest in a bag. They will keep for a week on your counter or up to two weeks in the fridge.
Freeze: When I was a kid, my mom would make these a month or more before Christmas and store them in a container in the freezer. Once thawed, you’ll never know they were frozen. Tip ⇢ stack them between layers of parchment paper to protect them.
Best Shortbread Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups salted butter (at room temperature – see notes)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Colored candied cherries or dried cranberries (for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Position your oven rack in the middle of your oven.
- Add the flour, butter, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla to a deep mixing bowl.3 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups salted butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, ½ cup cornstarch, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Begin mixing the ingredients using electric beaters at their lowest speed. Once the dry ingredients begin mixing with the butter and are not dusty anymore, increase the speed to medium.
- A few minutes later, the dough will start to look like sand. Keep beating the dough for another 3-4 minutes and it will start to come together.
- Once the dough comes together and your beaters start straining, increase the speed to high and beat the dough for another 1-2 minutes, or until it resembles thick whipped cream.
- Drop the dough into small mounds (about 2-3 tablespoons) on a baking sheet. If using, gently press a dried cranberry into the tops of the cookies. Note: Make sure the cookie dough is cold before you put it in the oven. If your house is quite warm, chill the cookies in the fridge before you bake them. Bake for 15 minutes. It is best to bake one sheet of cookies at a time. Use a new sheet pan for the next batch. The cookie dough must be added to a cool baking sheet.Colored candied cherries or dried cranberries
- Let the cookies cool for at least 10 minutes then use an offset spatula or slotted fish spatula to remove the cookies from the sheet pan and transfer them to a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
Popular Christmas Baking Recipes
For more inspiration, check out all of my cookie recipes!
What an easy and delicious cookie! I love a cookie with simple flavors and the texture is perfect!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe!
Outstanding! These were a dream to make and so simple. The only downside? We can’t stop eating them! I took some to a friends house and they loved them too. I’ve been using the Cuisinart cookie press and they come out perfect every time. Thank you so much for sharing.
Oh my God! These are every bit as gorgeous, as they sound. In fact I can’t even describe how heavenly these cookies really are. Secretly, I think they are actually way too good to share, but being a decent friend and neighbour, I did. Once you’ve tried this oh-so-easy recipe, you’ll never want to make any others… ever!
These are really good I had my little brother shape them all nice they are so delicious
These shortbreads are exactly how they are described in the recipe. They are truly “melt in your mouth”. I halved the recipe and made 14 biscuits. I found I had to extend the cooking time to more like 18 minutes. And yes, it is good advice to have a very deep mixing bowl. I used the deep aluminium bowl from my electric mixer and I still had quite a shower of flour!
I have been baking for years. I have always read about “Melt in your mouth” recipes, but have not actually experienced one – until NOW! These cookies are FABULOUS! They literally melt in your mouth, not figuratively. They are a perfect balance – not too sweet, soft, and pillow-y. There is just no other way to describe them! Thank you for this recipe!
Out of this world, deeeeelish!!! My first time trying, and very impressed. They were exactly as explained. Melt in your mouth!!! 5 stars all the way!
Followed recipe exactly as written. Did melt in your melt as stated. I think the cornstarch made a little off putting taste. Did not like at all.
Hi, just came across your shortbread recipe, and would love to make it. I was wondering if I could use European butter for these cookies?
Looking forward to baking these.
From what I understand, European butter is 2% + higher in fat content (compared to Canadian butter, which we use) and has been cultured. My guess is that it would work, but I haven’t tested that to know for sure. If the cultured flavor of the butter is quite strong, it will come through in the flavor of the cookies.
Can the dough be frozen?
Thanks
We haven’t tried freezing the dough, but most cookie dough can be frozen. But once they’re baked they freeze excellently!
I’m in the UK and I don’t know what constitutes European butter, but mine are simply heavenly, with no adjustments required..
Wondering: if I browned butter and let it cook to room temperature (solidify again), would butter measurements be the same?
If you’re skimming the butter (to clarify it) then you’ll end up with less. But I don’t think skimming the butter is necessary in this case. I would brown it, let it cool slightly, then pour it into a 2 cup measuring up. If you need to make a little more, you can top it up.
Also, brilliant idea about using brown butter! I’m going to try that myself!
Did you ever end up trying the recipe with browned butter? How did the cookies turn out? I’ve tried to do shortbread with browned butter before but they end up being very greasy.
Unfortunately, no. It’s still on my list! But usually the reason that cookies turn greasy is because the butter is too soft/melted. When using brown butter in cookie recipes, it’s important to let it solidify before you use it. If you decide to try it again, make sure your brown butter is the same consistency as softened butter before you use it. I hope that helps!
I’m curious about browning the butter..May I ask what that does?
Thx! I’m making tomorrow once butter us soft but maybe browning?
Brown butter adds a wonderful nutty flavor to recipes, like our brown butter sea salt chocolate chip cookies. But brown butter has less water content (it’s evaporates when the butter browns) so the recipe may need a bit of tweaking to get it just right.
Love these sooo much! I’ve been making them for a few years each Christmas now.
Now I’m wondering if there’s a way I can add peanut butter to this? If so, any recommendations on how much?
I’m curious about that now, too! If you’re open to experimenting, you could try substituting some of the butter for peanut butter. If I try it myself and it’s successful, I’ll share the recipe!
Hi, would love to make this but no idea how to measure butter in cups and how much flour etc to use. Would you be able to say how many grams for all the ingredients please? Many thanks!
According to Google, 1 cup of butter is 227 grams and 1 cup of flour is 120 grams. I hope that helps!
My new favourite shortbread recipe.
Just made these shortbread cookies, best I ever made!!! Thankyou for this awesome recipe.
I made these without a mixer. Used my husband’s muscle & was worried we mixed it too much but it all worked out & they were still melt in your melt perfect. Even putting the dough overnight in the fridge they were delicious. Thank you for this recipe it’s a keeper.
Excellent recipe! Not too sweet and definitely ‘melt in your mouth’. Thank you
I was really excited about these but very disappointed. While they are super soft they are horrendously dry and absolutely no flavor at all. I actually tasted the dough first and could tell there was no flavor. I added an extra tsp of vanilla and an extra 1/8 cup powder sugar and there still is no flavor. It just tastes like melt in your mouth flour and butter. I intended on another recipe before finding this but from the reviews I read and the description I switched to this recipe and wish I hadn’t. Adding chocolate on top of the ones I have made but I would suggest tasting the dough before hand. On the remaining dough which was about 1/4 of the entire batch, I added the zest of 1 lemon and juice. Then sprinkled powder sugar on top. Those were a little better, not sweet at all. I’m not a person who likes a lot of sweets or overly sweet, I rarely eat sweets but this tastes more like a biscuit.
These are not sweet cookies! It’s also really important to use salted butter as they do taste plain with unsalted butter.
This was an excellent whipped shortbread recipe. You need a full 10 minutes to whip and I found that the hand mixer worked way better than my kitchen aid. I felt I had more control. I added glace cherries before I baked and they came out SO GOOD!!! I never leave comments on recipes online, but this one was well worth it. Thanks for sharing!!