Cheese Shortbread

5 from 1 vote

Cheese shortbread is savory flavored with a sharp parmesan taste. Buttery cookies, homemade spice rub, easy and delicious.

Prep Time23

Cook Time12

Chill dough30

Total Time1 5

Course: Cookie

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: cheese shortbread, savory shortbread

Servings:

Calories: 52kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

Spice Mix

1 tablespoon dried onion Note 1
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika Note 2
1 teaspoon dried thyme Note 3
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese shredded

Shortbread

250 grams/ 2 sticks and 2 tablespoons butter Note 4
1 teaspoon brandy Note 5
1 cup/ 150 grams icing sugar
2 cups/300 grams plain flour

Instructions

Preheat the oven: preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F / Gas Mark 3. Place a silicon mat onto 2 large baking sheets. Note 6
Spice mix: add the dry onion, garlic powder, paprika, thyme, salt and black pepper to a small bowl and whisk to consistently combine. Then set side.
Butter and brandy: add the chopped butter and brandy to a large mixing bowl and use electric beaters to cream until pale and soft.
Icing sugar: next add the icing sugar and beat until consistently mixed in.
Plain flour: pour half of the flour into the bowl and use the beaters to mix this in. Then add the other half and combine until there is no visible flour in the bowl. Use a rubber spatula to push the dough together.
Transfer: transfer the combined dough to a sheet of baking paper. Push it down to flatten slightly then pull a 2nd sheet of baking paper over the top.
Roll, spices and cheese: use a rolling pin with disks on either end to roll the dough into a flat layer. Next remove the top layer of baking paper and sprinkle (about ½) the spice mixture over the top. Then sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the spice mixture. Now place the top layer of baking paper back on the dough and again roll to push the spices and cheese into the shortbread.
Chill: place the rolled dough into the fridge and let it chill for approximately 30 minutes.
Cut and bake: remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Use a 1 ½ inch cookie cutter and cut the dough into small cookies. Place these onto a silicon mat on a baking tray. Place the shortbread into the oven and let it bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Once the cook time is up use an oven mitt to remove the baking trays and place them onto a heatproof surface. Let the shortbread cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Video

Notes

Note 1 - Dried onion: these are chunky dried onion flakes, they are different to onion powder. But if you only have that you could use it (1 teaspoon). You will find them in the cooking aisle where the herbs and spices are. It will be labelled either 'dried onion' or 'onion flakes'.
Note 2 - Smoked paprika: or ground paprika.
Note 3 - Dried thyme: or you can use dried rosemary in place of this.
Note 4 - Butter: my preference is to always use unsalted butter as then we can control the additional salt in the recipe. However, if you only have unsalted butter and want to use that then omit the salt as a separate ingredient. A standard block of butter in Australia is 250 grams. A stick of butter in the USA is 113 grams. So you can use 2 sticks which will give you 226 grams or 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons of butter to be more precise.
Note 5 - Brandy: when I make sweet shortbread, I use a teaspoon of vanilla. When I was developing this cheese shortbread recipe I wanted to use something in place of the vanilla that led to a more savory flavor profile. Bring on the brandy! It is the perfect little drop of gold stuff that enhances the other flavors in the shortbread. You could substitute with the equivalent amount (1 teaspoon) of scotch or rum. Omit if not wanting to use a spirt in the recipe and don't use vanilla re above, it pushes the flavor to sweet when our goal is in the creation of savory.
Note 5 - Icing sugar: this is pure icing sugar. It is a different ingredient to the softer icing mixture. I get it from Woolies in Australia. I haven't see it at Aldi.
Note 6 - Preheating the oven: you can do this just before you start to cook the short bread if you wish too. ie that way it isn't on whilst you prep and chill the dough will will take around 45 minutes.
Note 7 - Cookie cutter: I use a rolling pin with plastic disks. This helps to ensure that the dough is consistently flat and even. For the cookies that you see in the photos throughout the post I use 6mm discs which are the 2nd largest on my rolling pin. I then use a 1 ½ inch or 38 mm cookie cutter. You will see it in the video. It has a round edge on one side and a fluted curly edge on the other side. I like to keep these cookies with the round edge to stick with the savory flavor profile.

Nutrition