Mini Shortbread Cookies

5 from 3 votes

Mini Shortbread Cookies are a fun, easy recipe! Simple ingredients, quick 10 minutes in the oven and you have buttery crisp cookies for days.

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Total Time30

Course: Cookie

Cuisine: Western

Keyword: mini shortbread cookies

Servings:

Calories: 35kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

250 grams/2 sticks and 2 tablespoons butter unsalted, Note 1
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar Note 2
2 cups plain flour Note 3
½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven: preheat the oven to 160°C / 350-375°F / Gas Mark 4-5.
Butter: add the butter to a large mixing bowl, pour the vanilla over the top and then use electric beaters to cream until pale and fluffy.
Icing sugar: next add the icing sugar to the bowl and beat till it is consistently mixed in. Then take a rubber spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Flour and salt: next add in half of the flour and consistently combine, add the salt then add the rest of the flour and beat to mix in.
Dough: now take a rubber spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl pushing the dough into itself to form one whole portion.
Roll and cut: tear a large sheet of baking paper and place it on the bench. Transfer the combined dough onto this paper, Then tear another sheet and place it over the top. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough flat in one layer. Then use your cookie cutter to cut the shortbread cookies. Repeat for the full sheet of dough then transfer these onto a silicon mat on a baking tray. Note 4
Oven bake: place the baking tray into the oven on the middle shelf. Cook the shortbread cookies for 10 minutes. Then use a pair of oven mitts, remove the baking sheet and place it onto a heatproof surface. Let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Note 5

Video

Notes

Note 1 - Butter: 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 2 - Icing sugar: there is a difference between icing sugar and icing mixture. I always use icing sugar when making shortbread. Icing mixture is better for other baking including butter mix for icing cakes. I also don't sift it, simply add it to the butter and beat to combine.
Note 3 - Plain flour: I don't sift this either as I find that it is not necessary. If you are a baking purist can take this additional step if you wish to.
Note 4 - Cookie cutter: I use a rolling pin with disks. This helps to ensure that the dough is evenly flat. I use 6mm discs which are the 2nd largest on the pin. I then use a 1 ½ inch or 38mm 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 find the curly shaped ones easiest to cut and 'drop onto' the baking sheet, however, I like the simplicity of the round edge too. Usually I end up with a little of both types in one batch of cookies.
Note 5 - Baking process: I cook the shortbread in 3 batches, ie 3 separate sheets. You can put 2 racks in the oven at a time. The total time per rack is 10 minutes. To cook the full amount of cookies shown and discussed it will take 20 minutes (ie 2 racks at once, followed by the final rack). This is as we don't want to use the top shelf, rather the middle rack and rack below it.
Note 6- Cookie total: 88 cookies or 89 with the last little not 'perfect' one, rounded up to 90 as I am sure you can squeeze another one in for a total 7 ½ dozen cookies.

Nutrition