Scottish Shortbread

5 from 5 votes

Melt-in-your-mouth Scottish Shortbread with cornflour (corn starch), an old-fashioned recipe that is incredibly easy to make, and really quick too. The shortbread cookies are crumbly, rich and buttery, and ready from scratch in around half an hour. This traditional recipe is very popular all year round, but particularly at Christmas.

Prep Time15

Cook Time25

Total Time40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Scotland

Servings: cookies

Calories: 137kcal

Author: Daniela Apostol

Ingredients

250 g plain flour
100 g cornflour ( corn starch)
100 g caster sugar + more to sprinkle on the cookies
225 g salted butter, at room temperature

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 Fahrenheit).
Add the soften butter and caster sugar to a large bowl, and use a hand mixer to cream them well.
Add the sifted flour and cornflour, and knead well to get a smooth dough.
Flour the work surface to avoid the dough sticking to it, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to a thickness of half a cm.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes - mine has a dimeter of 6cm.
Arrange the cookies on a baking tray lined with non-stick paper - you will have to work in batches as there are many cookies.
Use a fork to prick the cookies a few times, then sprinkle them with caster sugar.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cookies are firm to touch and the edges are slightly golden.
Leave the shortbread to cool down in the tray for 10 minutes, before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Video

Notes

Click on the US Customary link to see the measurements displayed in cups and ounces.
The servings can be adjusted by clicking the number next to Servings.
This old-fashioned shortbread recipe is really easy to make, and pretty much failproof. I did not chill the cookies before putting them in the oven, as the temperature in the kitchen at the time of the baking was rather cool.
But if your dough is too soft and warm, you can chill the cookies after shaping them for at least 10-15 minutes.
Overworking the dough would also cause the cookies to spread too much in the oven, so the firmer the dough is, the better cookies you get.
Poking the shortbread helps distribute the heat evenly and bake the cookies to perfection - I haven't done it with my other shortbread variations, but the classic recipe benefits from this step.

Nutrition