Whipped Shortbread Cookies
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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.
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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!
Hi Kristen,
If these cookies are dropped in double-sized drops to make taller and thicker cookies, will they bake all the way through with maybe a lower heat/longer bake time? Thank you.
To be honest, I have never tried that so I can’t say for sure.
I made these exactly as the instructions dictated.
Not ‘melt in your mouth’. More the consistency of a sugar cookie. Not bad at all, but not what I was hoping they would be
Can you shape these with cookie cutters?
I’ve never tried but I suspect that the dough is too soft to be cut. But a few commenters have written that they’ve had success piping the dough. 🙂
I followed the exact steps for the recipe and the cookie are so soft that it turns to sand texture in your mouth. Sorry to say but this is an awful recipe
Yes, they are very soft. I’m sorry to hear that you don’t like their soft texture as much as we do!
These are amazing! Instead of cherries I top them with vanilla icing and skor pieces! Soooooo yummy!
My husband is very picky when it comes to shortbread it has to melt in the mouth….I have made many before that in my opinion melt in the mouth but never good enough for hubby, until today when I made yours 🙂 He said “OMG it just disappears as soon as you bite it, just so you know I’ll have these again, you might have to make more though!” I totally agree best shortbread I have had all the way from NZ who said it has to be xmas to have a good shortbread 🙂
Love it!!
So good I had to leave a comment – a first for me.
I’ve had what I thought was a decent shortbread recipe for over 20 years. This will easily replace it! Truly melt-in-your-mouth. So easy to make, clear instructions and ridiculously yummy. Do not overbake! 15 mins was fine for me. I can’t believe that I stumbled upon this.
Only minor difference is that I placed the cookie dough already on the sheet in the fridge (so my kids wouldn’t eat the dough).
I also froze some of the dough — partly for the same reason but also ’cause it’s too good to eat all at once! Hopefully it will keep.
Happy baker
Awww that’s so great to hear, Karen!
Please could you advise what the the recipe is in gr please as from uk and dont understand cups. Thanks you and cant wait to try them!
I’ve never measured this one in grams before but google says that 1 cup of flour is 120 grams. 🙂
While looking for a soft shortbread cookies, I chose your recipe to try. I am going to begin making a half batch and if it works as well as it did for you, then it will be a victory for me, too. Thank you for sharing your recipe with me. Joy.
You’re very welcome, Joy!
Hi, instead of cutting them into shape, is it okay if I just make it in 1 whole big square pan (9×9)? Will it be too crumbly?
I suspect that the cookies will crumble if you try to cut them after they bake. But we only drop them onto the baking sheet so it’s easy to do it before hand. 🙂
i misread the recipe and made the cookies wrong, but it came but better than the 2nd time when i made it according to the recipe. however, not trying to take away from the recipe. it’s an excellent cookie and it is absolutely one of the best cookies i’ve ever made. i made the mistake of creaming the butter, sugar and vanilla by itself for 10 minutes. when i put the flour and cornstarch in it was already extremely fluffy. i put the full amount of cornstarch in, but only put a little under 3 cups of flour. for some reason, all the recipes for baking that i try, when i put in the flour, it’s always too much. OMG, it was sooooo good. it reminded me of the old roslyn bakery buttermilk jumble cookies.
That’s wonderful to hear that you loved the recipe the second time around!
WOW! These are buttery and truly MELT IN YOUR MOUTH! I used an electric stand mixer. Beat for 7 min. Chilled dough for 45 min. Baked exactly 15 min. at 350. I did half batch, 20 cookies.
I also, cooled on the cookie sheet for 15 min.
That is so wonderful to hear! Thanks, Sandra!
Hi. Quick question. Why 2 cups of butter in this recipe? Most others only call for one. Just curious….really want to try this recipe but only have 2 sticks of butter right now lol.
Because that’s what my mom’s recipe calls for. 🙂 It’s the one she makes and I have never done any recipe testing to try and change it cause it works so well as is. 🙂
First cookie sheet is in the oven. I have no doubt these are going to be awesome. I’ll be back to let you know in about twenty minutes. Yep they are awesome melt in your mouth. I will be making these over and over again. Thank You so much
You are very welcome!
I made this recipe using a measure for measure gluten free flour. They are indeed delicious. I would have awarded five stars if it weren’t for a dry powdery texture to the cookies. This is most likely due to the gluten free flour. If I make them using regular flour I will update accordingly. It doesn’t take anything away from the beautiful buttery taste and magnificent meltiness. Thanks for a great recipe. I halved the recipe as I didn’t want to waste too much expensive GF flour if they didn’t turn out well. This yielded 24 cookies.
Amazing to know that they can be made with gluten free flour. Thank you for letting us know!
I Just Tried Out, “This Paticular Recipie”, BUT, I Substituted, (1/4 Cup of Brown Sugar, 1/4 Cup White Berry Sugar), To the 1/2 Cup of ‘Icing Sugar’!!! I Find That, I Can Cook My Canna-Cookies, at a ‘Lower Temperature’, in the Oven!!!
Good to know that these will turn out with different sugar!