The lemon curd-filled shortbread cookies are made from coconut shortbread cookies, made with a cookie recipe very similar to linzer cookies and pâte sucrée. Traditionally linzer cookies are made with ground almond, so we replaced it with ground coconut and filled the cookies with lemon curd before sandwiching them together.

For this recipe, you will need lemon curd. I highly suggest learning how to make homemade lemon curd and using that for these cookies. The flavour is unmatched! These cookies have a similar vibe to the classic jam-filled shortbread cookies that everybody loves.

What You Need to Make These Lemon Coconut Cookies

These lemon linzer cookies are made from simple ingredients, but here are a few things to note about them:

• butter—I used unsalted butter. If using salted butter, you may want to adjust the amount of salt you add later or the cookies may be too salty
• sugar—I used granulated sugar to give these cookies the sandy texture that I love in shortbread cookies
• eggs, for the egg yolk—I used a large egg for the yolk. The yolk usually weighs 16–18 grams
• ground coconut—use finely ground coconut (also called coconut for macaroons) or grind shredded coconut using the pulse function on a food processor or a spice grinder to get a finer texture (similar to ground almond if you can). Do not over-process the coconut because it may turn to "coconut butter"
• salt—I use Diamond Crystal Fine Kosher Salt. If using table salt, add half the amount because the cookies might be too salty otherwise.
• flour—I always bake with bleached all-purpose flour, but unbleached will likely work fine in this recipe
• lemon curd—I prefer to use homemade lemon curd but store-bought will also work in a pinch. Use the best you can afford!

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Variations and Other Fillings to Try

In the shortbread cookie, the most obvious variation you can try is replacing the ground coconut with your favourite ground nut. Ground pistachio would be excellent, for example!

This recipe will also work well with a variety of fillings:

• Other fruit curds—passion fruit curd to make passion fruit coconut cookies or grapefruit curd grapefruit coconut cookies (this is a surprisingly excellent combination)
• Jams, like this classic strawberry jam
• Marmalades, like this three fruit marmalade or a classic orange marmalade. Even lime marmalade would be really interesting with the coconut!
• Chocolate—milk chocolate ganache or dark chocolate ganache (make sure the ganache is set and thick so you can pipe between two cookies using a piping bag) to make chocolate coconut cookies
• Caramel—this dulce de leche, which I've used to fill alfajores will also work great here

How to Make Lemon Curd-Filled Cookies

If you are using homemade lemon curd to make these lemon coconut cookies, make the curd at least 1 day ahead to ensure it has fully set and thickened.

Step 1: Combine the butter and sugar in a stand mixer bowl (image 1) and mix until light and creamy before adding the egg yolk and salt (image 2). Add the coconut (image 3).

Step 2—Add the flour (image 4) and stir until the coconut dough comes together (image 5). Then divide the dough into two equal pieces, pat into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap (image 6) to chill until firm.

Step 3—Roll out the cookie dough, one disk at a time, between sheets of parchment paper or on a floured surface. It's forgiving. Reroll the scraps as you go, chilling when the dough is too soft. Cut out cookies using round or fluted cookie cutters and a set of stars or hearts to cut the windows (image 7). You will need 24 bottoms and 24 tops with a window. Chill the cutouts thoroughly before baking to minimize the cookies spreading. Use a pastry brush to brush off any excess flour before baking.

Tip: This dough is very rich so it will be hard to work with when very cold, but also very delicate as it warms up. The good news is that you can press it together if it cracks or tears. You can chill the dough after rolling it out before cutting it, to make it easier to work with. Use a mini offset spatula to unstick any cookies that get stuck.

Step 4—Transfer the chilled cookies to a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them out and staggering them (image 8). You should be able to fit 8, if not 12 cookies per half sheet pan. I find the bake is more even if you bake all the bottom cookies separately from all the top window cookies (which can take a minute less to bake without browning too much). As you can see in image 9, when baking the top and bottom cookies on the same pan, the baking can be a little uneven.

Step 5—Once the cookies have cooled, flip over the bottom cookies to reveal the underside and top each with a dollop of lemon curd. Top each with a window cookie, twisting to spread the filling to the edges. Refrigerate to set so the filling firms up sufficiently before serving.

Other Sandwich Cookies

Sandwich cookies take a little more time, but they are definitely worth it! Here are a few other sandwich cookie recipes to try:

If you tried this recipe for the best lemon coconut cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Lemon Coconut Cookies

Learn how to make the most delicious lemon coconut cookies with this recipe. These coconut shortbread cookies are sandwiched together with homemade lemon curd.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Austrian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Chill time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 41 minutes minutes

Servings 24 sandwich cookies

Calories 147kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• OXO balloon whisk
• Heart cutters
• Rolling pin
• Sheet pan

Ingredients

• 173 grams unsalted butter softened
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 1 large egg yolk(s)
• 55 grams ground coconut store-bought or made in a spice grinder from shredded unsweetened coconut
• 188 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 250 mL lemon curd

Metric - US

Instructions

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and sugar until it is creamy and soft.
• Add the salt and the egg yolk, and beat it until it is very well mixed, scraping down the sides as needed with a spatula.
• Beat in the ground coconut, mix well, then add the flour. Mix on low until the dough forms. Divide the dough in two, pat into disks, wrap in plastic, and chill for about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment.
• Roll out one disk of dough to a thickness of about ¼"-⅛" (not too thick, but not too thin). Cut out 2¼ inch (5.7 cm) circles with the dough, re-rolling the scraps to cut out more circles. You will end up with about 24 cutouts. Chill them on parchment-lined sheets for at least 15 minutes (30 minutes is better), then bake for 10–12 minutes, until the edges begin to brown a little. Let cool 1 minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Repeat the rolling and cutting with the 2nd disk of dough to make 24 more circles, but this time, cut out a window with a small heart cutter or another small circle cookie cutter. Chill and bake as before. You should now how 24 top cookies with windows and 24 bottom cookies to make sandwiches.
• When the cookies are cool, dollop a scant teaspoon of curd on the centre of each bottom cookie and top with a window cookie, twisting gently to glue them together.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• You can replace the coconut with any finely ground nuts. Ground pistachio would be wonderful in this recipe with the lemon curd filling!
• You can use many fillings to sandwich between these cookies, not just lemon curd:
  • other fruit curds, like passion fruit or grapefruit curd
  • jams, like classic strawberry jam
  • marmalades, like three fruit marmalade, orange marmalade, or even lime marmalade
  • chocolate ganache, like milk chocolate ganache or dark chocolate ganache (after setting)
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 147kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 57mg | Potassium: 23mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 191IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.5mg

The post Lemon Curd Shortbread Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

For this recipe, we are using the classic shortbread ratio of 1:2:3 by weight, so 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour, combined with lemon zest and lemon juice.

This is the same ratio I used for these lavender shortbread and it's the base for these easy lemon bars. However, instead of patting the dough in a pan to bake, you can roll out the shortbread to cut them with cookie cutters as done in the recipe below.

What You Need

You can make lemon butter cookies easily with simple ingredients you likely have at home all the time! Here's what you need:

How to Make Lemon-Flavoured Shortbread Cookies

Step 1—Combine the butter, sugar and lemon zest in the mixer bowl (image 1) and cream them together until light and fluffy (image 2) before adding the dry ingredients (image 3).

Step 2—Mix the cookie dough until it's crumbly, but still a bit dry (image 4) then add the lemon juice and mix until the dough comes together (image 5).

Step 3—Divide the dough into 2 equal disks (image 6) and wrap in plastic wrap to chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface and press with a cookie stamps (optional) and cut out with cookie cutters (image 7). Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets until the edges begin to brown lightly (image 8).

Tip: Using a cookie stamp (like these stamps from Nordic Ware on Amazon I used here), pressed on the surface of the cookies before baking, leads to lots of nooks and crannies so the cookies can hold more glaze. The dents give place where a little extra glaze can settle in without running off. Stamping is optional, but I love the effect it gives and the extra glaze the cookie can accomodate because of the texture.

Step 4—while the cookie dough is chilling, you can prepare the lemon glaze. First sift the icing sugar to remove lumps (image 9), then whisk in the melted butter and hot lemon juice (image 10). Whisk until smooth (image 11).

Step 5—Brush the lemon glaze on the warm cookies so that it melts on. The glaze will harden slightly so that you can pack the cookies once completely cooled.

Note: The tart lemon flavour mostly comes from the glaze, made with lemon juice, icing sugar, and a little butter to round out the flavour. This is the same glaze used for these soft gingerbread cookies.

Baking Tips to Prevent Rolled Shortbread Cookies From Spreading

The trouble with shortbread is that they are high in fat and, sometimes, if the butter gets too warm, the cookies can spread in the oven.

Other Lemon Baked Goods to Try

If you are a fan of lemon desserts, you should definitely try these lemon crinkle cookies, a classic lemon loaf cake, lemon ice cream and, of course, these easy lemon squares, which everybody raves about!

If you tried this easy recipe for lemon shortbread cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Lemon Shortbread Cookies

These easy lemon shortbread cookies are topped with a lemon glaze to give these butter cookies even more lemon flavour.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes minutes

Chill time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 39 minutes minutes

Servings 28

Calories 135kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Food processor
• Rolling pin
• Cookie stamps
• Pastry brush

Ingredients

Lemon shortbread

• 230 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 15 mL finely grated lemon zest
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt (or up to 1 teaspoon fine kosher salt)
• 290 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 22.5 mL fresh lemon juice

Lemon glaze

• 125 grams icing sugar
• 30 mL fresh lemon juice heated in the microwave so it's hot
• 28 grams unsalted butter melted
• 1 pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Metric - US

Instructions

Lemon shortbread

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and salt until it is smooth, light, and creamy.
• Add the flour and beat it in until the mixture turns into a sandy crumble. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture should come together into a uniform dough once you add the liquid.
• Divide the mixture in two and flatten each piece of dough into a disk. Wrap them in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Line a few sheet pans with parchment paper.
• Working with one disk of dough at a time, on a lightly floured surface, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to between ⅛–¼ inch (3–6 mm). Stamp out as many cookies as possible using floured cookie stamps, then cut with 3-inch (7.6 cm) cookie cutters.
• Transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving a 1 inch space between them. If the cookies are too soft, chill them before baking.
• Bake the cookies until the edges are just beginning to brown, about 13 to 15 minutes. Prepare the glaze while the cookies are baking (see below).
• Let cool 5 minutes then brush generously with the lemon glaze so that the glaze melts onto the cookies. Let cool completely. The glaze should harden.
• Repeat with the rest of the cookie dough, rerolling the scraps.

Lemon glaze

• To make the lemon-butter glaze while the cookies are in the oven, as the glaze needs to be brushed onto the cookies while they are still warm.
• Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a small bowl. Add the melted butter, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Mix with a fork until you form a smooth glaze. The glaze should be the consistency of runny honey. Keep covered when not using and remix the glaze as needed.

Notes

• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.
• Use fresh lemons for this recipe. Do not use bottled lemon juice because the flavour isn't good. You need both the zest and the juice for this recipe so make sure to zest your lemons first before juicing them.
• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• You can try enhancing the lemon flavour in the cookie by adding a few drops of lemon oil or lemon extract, but I have not tested this. Most of the flavour of these lemon cookies comes from the lemony glaze.

Nutrition

Calories: 135kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 45mg | Potassium: 16mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 230IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.5mg

The post Lemon Shortbread Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

While butter tarts and Nanaimo bars are classic desserts baked across Canada, maple leaf cookies are more popular in the East. They are THE cookie that Quebec children eat growing up.

The company Dare is known for their maple sandwich cookies, sold at grocery stores in Quebec and parts of Canada. The cookies are shaped like maple leaves and sandwiched together with a sweet maple cream filling. You could say that maple leaf cookies are kind of like the Canadian maple-flavoured cousin of the famous chocolate sandwich cookie known as the Oreo®.

What you will need to make this recipe

To make these, there are two components: shortbread cookies and a maple filling. Like most shortbread cookie recipes, you don't need many ingredients to make these maple shortbread cookies, nor the maple butter filling:

• butter is needed to make the cookie dough and the maple cream filling; use unsalted butter, though salted butter could work, but then skip the salt
• maple sugar adds sweetness and maple flavour to the cookies and the filling
• egg yolk helps bind the ingredients of the dough together, making it easier to roll, but you can replace it with 30 mL (2 tablespoons of whole milk)
• all-purpose flour gives these cookies structure so that they hold their shape and don't spread as they bake
• salt, preferably Diamond Crystal kosher salt is necessary to balance out the sweet maple filling—if using table salt, you may want to halve the salt to avoid these cookies being too salty
• maple butter, also called maple cream, either homemade or store-bought adds a ton of maple flavour to the filling. Remember maple butter is 100 % pure maple syrup, and you should not to confuse it with maple-flavoured butter that is a compound butter flavoured with maple sugar, maple syrup or even maple extract.

Chilling the maple shortbread cookie dough

If you make these cookies in the winter months, when it's not so warm, you should be able to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies, without trouble. Once cut out, you should chill the cutout cookies on a parchment-lined sheet pan in order to prevent the cookies from spreading when they bake. The key to sandwich cookies is that the dough has to hold the shape as they bake so that the cookies line up nicely when you sandwich two together with a filling.

Alternatively, if your kitchen is warm, you may want to chill the dough for 30 minutes to an hour so that the butter in it is firm. Then you may have to chill the cut out cookies again before baking to ensure they hold their shape.

Chilling the cut cookies before baking also makes it easier to cleanly score the cookies. Adding the leaf vein patterns that make the cookies look like real maple leaves is optional.

Making a maple cream cookie filling

The maple filling is just like a simple maple-flavoured American buttercream or frosting. Many recipes for maple leaf cookies rely on powdered sugar (also called icing sugar) to achieve a thick consistency. But this can lead to a cloyingly sweet filling where the maple flavour is muted. For this recipe, we rely on maple butter and maple sugar (a fine granulated sugar that is 100 % maple) to achieve the consistency. The texture of the filling will seem a little gritty, but that's okay. Upon storage, the maple filling will dry out further (in a good way), leading to a texture similar to an Oreo sandwich cookie filling.

Assembling the sandwich cookies is a little tedious and there doesn't seem to be a faster route. To save time, place all the shortbread cookies on a sheet pan, flipping half to expose the underside. Then place teaspoons of filling on the exposed underside of all of the flipped cookies, then sandwich them all. By doing a task at a time for all the cookies, you will save some time.

Baking with maple syrup

You will likely notice the absence of maple syrup in this maple cookie recipe. That's because maple syrup contains some water, and isn't ideal for incorporating in cookies and frostings. Instead, we are relying on pure maple sugar (made by boiling down maple syrup to crystallize it) and maple butter (a pure maple spread made from whipped crystallized maple syrup). Both of these ingredients are better suited for incorporating in cookies and frostings/fillings.

Baking with maple syrup can be tricky, which is why it's great to have other pure maple products to use, when the syrup isn't the most suited for the job.

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Maple Cream Cookies

Learn how to make maple leaf cookies, also called maple cream cookies with maple shortbread cookies and a maple butter filling.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Canadian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 13 minutes minutes

Chill time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 58 minutes minutes

Servings 28 cookies

Calories 152kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• GIR spatula
• Mini offset
• Maple leaf cutters

Ingredients

Maple shortbread cookies

• 178 grams unsalted butter softened
• 100 grams maple sugar
• 1 large egg yolk(s)
• 310 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Maple cream filling

• 78 grams unsalted butter softened
• 170 mL maple butter
• 75 grams maple sugar

Metric - US

Instructions

Maple shortbread cookies

• In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the maple sugar for several minutes.
• Add the egg yolk, and mix to combine, scraping down the bowl as needed.
• Stir in the flour and salt with the mixer on low, scraping the bowl as needed so that the butter mixture is incorporated with all the flour. Continue mixing until the dough holds together when pressed.
• Divide the dough into two equal disks. If your kitchen is warm, you may have to chill the dough for 30 minutes at this stage to help the butter firm up. If so, wrap both disks in plastic wrap to chill. Otherwise, only wrap half in plastic wrap to prevent drying while you work with the rest.
• Roll out the first disk of dough on a lightly floured surface until it's ⅛" thick. Cut into the maple leaf shapes with a 2¼ inch cookie cutter. Re-roll the scraps. Transfer all the cookies to a parchment-lined sheet pan. You should be able to fit about 15 per sheet, and between the two disks of dough, you will likely cut out about 56 maple shortbread cookies (to make 28 sandwich cookies).
• Refrigerate for 15 minutes before baking while you preheat the oven.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 °C).
• Once the cutout cookies are cold, using a pairing knife, score the cookies to create the vein patterns of the leaves on the surface of the cookies. This is optional but makes the leaf cookies more realistic, just like the commercial cookies. Don't cut through the dough, just score the surface of it.
• Bake until the edges begin to brown lightly, 13–15 minutes, rotating if necessary partly through the baking time so that the edges brown evenly.
• Let cool completely on a wire rack before sandwiching the cookies with filling.

Maple cream filling

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until it is creamy and smooth.
• Add the maple butter and maple sugar, and continue beating the mixture until it is light, fluffy, and smooth. This takes several minutes so be patient. Make sure to scrape down the bowl sides periodically to make sure all the ingredients are properly mixed. Use immediately.

Assembly

• When the cookies have cooled and the maple cream cream filling is ready, spread a teaspoon of the filling on the underside of a maple leaf cookie, and top with another, pressing lightly to glue the two cookies together. You can use an offset spatula to scrape any excess filling.
• The filling will be soft on the day you assemble the cookies and then will dry out slightly and set in place after about a day. Store the cookies in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 152kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 23mg | Sodium: 37mg | Potassium: 51mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 233IU | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Maple Cream Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

These cookies are simple to make and a great way to feature a little of your summer's homemade jam. For these cookies, I used the rhubarb jam (no pectin) I made in June, and the plum jam I made in July. These would even work with three fruit marmalade too, as long as it's thin-cut and not too runny.

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Jam Thumbprint Cookies

These cookies are simple to make and a great way to feature a little of your summer’s homemade jam. The cookie dough makes a buttery vanilla sugar cookie, the perfect complement to your favourite jam.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, British

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 25 cookies

Calories 92kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Sheet pan

Ingredients

• 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 1 large egg yolk(s)
• 2.5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 156 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 125 mL jam or marmalade

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar for a couple minutes until it is lightened in color and well mixed.
• Add the egg yolk, then the vanilla, beating with each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Add the flour and salt and stir on low to combine, then increase the speed to medium until a dough forms and the bowl is clean.
• Divide the dough into 25 balls, rolling each into a smooth ball.
• Place the cookie dough balls on the parchment-lined sheets and press the center with your thumb or the rounded back end of a wooden spoon.
• {baking method #1}: Fill the thumbprints before baking with ¼ teaspoon jam each, then bake for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. This method yields "stackable"/"storable" cookies with a little of jam that's just a little tacky but very set.
  {baking method #2}: Bake the thumbprints unfilled (8–10 min), then press the centres back down when they are still warm, fill with ½ teaspoon jam in each and bake again for several minutes to set the jam (about 4 min). Transfer to a rack to cool. This method yields "stackable"/"storable" cookies with lots of jam that's just a little tacky but quite set.
  {baking method #3}: Bake them unfilled (8–10 min), press the centres back down before they've cooled, then fill once they are cooled. Transfer to a rack to cool. This method yields cookies that are filled with fresh, sweet jam but that can't be stored easily

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 92kcal

I do my best to bake with the finest ingredients. Stirling Creamery, a Canadian company, has provided the butter for this post.

The post Jam Thumbprint Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

These maple shortbread cookies are so easy to make. These cookies get their flavour from maple sugar, used in the dough instead of granulated sugar. This is a trick I also used for these bakery-style chewy maple cookies. These shortbread are cutout cookies brushed with a little maple syrup and sprinkled with maple flakes after baking, adding even more maple flavour to these simple maple cookies.

Just like traditional shortbread cookies with a 1:2:3 ratio of sugar/butter/flour, these cookies are not too sweet, but have a lovely texture.

Ingredients to Make Maple Shortbread Cookies

Like most shortbread cookie recipes, you don't need many ingredients to make them!

• butter, preferably unsalted butter is used to make these, but salted butter could work, but then skip the salt if you are baking with salted butter
• maple sugar adds sweetness and maple flavour to the cookies
• egg yolk adds a little moisture to the dough, helping bind the ingredients together and making the dough easier to roll, but can be replaced with 30 mL (2 tablespoons of whole milk). The egg yolk also contributes to the texture of the cookie
• all-purpose flour gives these cookies structure so that they don't spread
• salt, preferably Diamond Crystal kosher salt. If using table salt, you may want to halve the salt to avoid these cookies being too salty
• maple syrup and maple flakes to finish these cookies, adding extra maple flavour and crunch to the exterior.

Please see the recipe card for the exact quantities and ingredients.

Baking with Maple Syrup and Maple Sugar

Don't forget that real maple syrup is not the same as maple-flavoured syrup or maple pancake syrup. Flavoured syrups and pancake syrups are made from corn syrup or glucose that is flavoured with artificial maple extract (or sometimes real maple flavouring).

For this recipe, use real maple products that are produced from the sap of maple trees and sold in the New England, Quebec, and Ontario areas at sugar shacks, in grocery stores in the specialty aisle. You will need maple syrup, maple sugar, as well as maple flakes, which are also called maple sprinkles (though you can replace these with maple sugar as a garnish if you can't find the sprinkles).

In general, maple flavour is very delicate and subtle, especially when combined in cookie doughs, so you should always buy a dark maple syrup with a more robust flavour to bake with.

Enhancing Maple Flavour in Cookies

Since the flavour of maple tends to get lost when mixed with other ingredients, you can brush these maple cookies with maple syrup as soon as they come out of the oven, and then sprinkle them with maple flakes. The maple syrup will add lots of flavour and act as a glue for the maple flakes, which add both texture and flavour to these cookies.

You could also incorporate a little maple extract in the cookie dough to help reinforce the flavour of these.

How to Make Maple Shortbread Cookies

Step 1: Cream together the butter and the maple sugar using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer (image 1). When the mixture is evenly mixed, add the egg yolk and mix it in (image 2).

Step 2: Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl (image 3), then add them to the mixer bowl and stir them in on low speed (image 4).

Step 3: When the flour has completely disappeared into the dough, the dough will be thick (image 5) so you can immediately divide it into two equal pieces and shape them into disks to roll them out (image 6). I like to cut out these maple shortbread cookies with maple leaf cookie cutters (image 7).

Step 4: Place the cutout cookies on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan, spacing them out to allow airflow (Image 8), then bake them until the edges begin to brown (image 9).

Step 5: As soon as the cookies are done baking, when they are still hot, brush them with maple syrup and sprinkle them with maple flakes or maple sugar (image 10). This last step gives them much more flavour and the maple syrup will create a glaze on the surface of the cookies that is set, not sticky!

Maple Shortbread FAQs

How do I store maple shortbread cookies?

Once they have cooled down completely, the maple syrup glaze on these cookies will have set and will appear slightly shiny though it is dry. Store these in an airtight container once cooled. They aren't fragile so you can pile them up in a container without worrying too much.

Can I use maple-flavoured pancake syrup?

Do not use maple-flavoured pancake syrup. It is not the same as maple syrup and if you brush it on the cookies, it may stay sticky. Plus the flavour isn't nearly as good! For the maple sugar in the cookies, you could try replacing it with the same weight of brown sugar but the results will vary.

Other Maple Recipes to Try

These maple shortbread cookies are perfect for making the quintessential maple cream cookies (also called maple leaf cookies) that are maple-flavoured sandwich cookies filled with a maple butter filling.

You can bake the leaf shapes of dough by pressing them over an inverted mini muffin pan to make cookie cups that you can fill with maple mousse.

If you tried this recipe for maple shortbread cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Maple Shortbread Cookies

Learn how to make these easy maple shortbread cookies that are glazed with maple syrup and sprinkled with maple flakes after baking for extra maple flavour.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Canadian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes minutes

Chill time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 21 minutes minutes

Servings 56 cookies

Calories 51kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• GIR spatula
• Rolling pin
• Maple leaf cutters

Ingredients

• 178 grams unsalted butter softened
• 100 grams maple sugar
• 1 large egg yolk(s)
• 310 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 30 mL pure maple syrup I used dark maple syrup
• 30 mL maple flakes

Metric - US

Instructions

• In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the maple sugar for several minutes until smooth, creamy, and light.
• Add the egg yolk, and mix to combine, scraping down the bowl as needed.
• Stir in the flour and salt with the mixer on low, scraping the bowl as needed so that the butter mixture is incorporated with all the flour. Continue mixing until the dough holds together when pressed.
• Divide the dough into two equal disks, pressing the bits of dough together to form two smooth disks. Wrap half in plastic wrap to prevent drying while you work with the rest. If your kitchen is warm, you may have to chill the dough for 30 minutes at this stage to help the butter firm up.
• Roll out the first disk of dough on a lightly floured surface until it's ⅛ inch (3–4 mm) thick. Cut into the maple leaf shapes with a 2¼ inch (5.7 cm) cookie cutter. Transfer all the cookies to a parchment-lined sheet pan. You should be able to fit 15 per sheet.
• Refrigerate for 15 minutes before baking while you preheat the oven.
• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
• Bake until the edges begin to brown lightly, 13–15 minutes, rotating if necessary partly through the baking time so that the edges brown evenly.
• As soon as the sheet pan of cookies is out of the oven, immediately lightly brush the top of each cookie with maple syrup and sprinkle with a few maple flakes. Let cool before storing in an airtight container.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Real maple syrup is different from maple-flavoured syrup or maple pancake syrup. Flavoured syrups and pancake syrups are made from corn syrup or glucose that is flavoured with artificial maple extract (or sometimes real maple flavouring). Do not use maple pancake syrup for this recipe!
• For this recipe, use real maple products that are produced from the sap of maple trees and sold in the New England, Quebec, and Ontario areas at sugar shacks, in grocery stores in the specialty aisle. You will need maple syrup, maple sugar, as well as maple flakes, which are also called maple sprinkles (though you can replace these with maple sugar as a garnish if you can't find the sprinkles).
• In general, maple flavour is very delicate and subtle, especially when combined in cookie doughs, so you should always buy a dark maple syrup with a more robust flavour to bake with
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 51kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 18mg | Potassium: 13mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 82IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Maple Shortbread Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

We make Egyptian shortbread (ghorayebah in Arabic) every Christmas. Full disclosure: I'm sure that the Lebanese will say that they are Lebanese shortbread (or ghraybeh), and the Syrian's will correct me and call them Syrian shortbread, and the Iranians will label them as Iranian cookies…. Whatever you want to call them is fine. They are Egyptian to me.

Egyptian butter cookies are made with clarified butter

These Egyptian butter cookies are different than typical shortbread cookies from the UK in that the Egyptian shortbread are made with clarified butter, which is called samneh. Clarified butter is very easy to prepare: you heat your butter in a small saucepan on low and as the milk solids separate from the fat, you can use a spoon to skim them off the top.

To further clarify the butter, pour the hot melted butter through a cheesecloth to remove any leftover solids. The resulting melted butter will be a clear, golden yellow colour. It will turn opaque as it cools and solidifies, turning into a pastel yellow colour, but quite solid.

Clarified butter is sometimes called ghee, but in some cultures, ghee is actually made from browned butter, where the milk solids are browned to caramelize them. When the melted browned butter is strained, it is ghee, and it has a slightly nutty flavour from the browned milk solids. Clarified butter has a different flavour, more creamy/milky and delicate.

Both clarified butter or ghee can be used in this recipe. Just make sure the butter is at room temperature. The beauty of baking with either of these is that clarified butter and ghee have a longer shelf-life, which means that the cookies can be stored for longer.

Traditionally, Egyptian shortbread are rolled into small balls, and a nut is placed on each one before baking, so they may look similar to jam thumbprint cookies. In my family, we actually roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut out the cookies using a round cookie cutter or a glass, or with simple cookie cutters, like stars. This yields a more delicate biscuit that is lovely served with afternoon tea.

These rolled out butter cookies have a texture very similar to these jam-filled shortbread, which are cut-out shortbread cookies sandwiched with a jam filling (but you could also use homemade nutella). The shortbread used for sandwich cookies have less sugar (half of it!) because you sandwich them with sweet jam. These ghorayebah have a ratio that is very close to the 1-2-3 shortbread ratio (1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, 3 parts flour, by weight), the go-to ratio for most shortbread.

Chill the cookies to reduce spread

Like with any cutout cookies, the secret to preventing them from spreading in the oven is to chill the cookies before baking. By cooling the cookies in the fridge, the butter takes longer to melt and so the cookies hold their shape longer as the edges set out and dry.

You can bake the cookies as soon as you've cut them out if you are in a hurry, but the edges may soften a little as the cookies bake. The cookies will taste just as good! If you decide to chill before baking, you may add a minute or two to the baking time to ensure they are properly cooked.

Making tender rich shortbread

The texture of Egyptian shortbread cookies should be crisp but tender, firm enough that you can ship them, but not hard to bite. The secret to making these cookies more rich and tender is using icing sugar (powdered sugar) to make the dough and also adding an egg yolk. The egg yolk provides a lot of richness to the classic shortbread.

These should not be chewy! If your butter cookies are chewy, you probably didn't bake them for long enough. It's very important that the cookies dry out in the oven to achieve the perfect texture. If you want chewy cookies, these are not the cookie for you. Make these chewy chocolate chip cookies instead.

Egyptian cookies are often sprinkled with powdered sugar to serve them. This is a very simple way of decorating them. If you find they are sweet, you can reduce the icing sugar in the cookie dough by 30 grams (¼ cup).

After years of baking this recipe, I think we have come up with the right ratios yielding a cookie that is delicate but firm enough to munch on without making a mess. These are not the typical British shortbread since the Egyptian shortbread are made with samneh (also known as clarified butter) and powdered sugar. An egg yolk makes the cookies more tender, while a touch of brandy gives them an interesting flavour. You can substitute the same volume of vanilla extract for the brandy, or use a different alcohol like rum or bourbon. The flavour of these shortbread is really special.

My dad still reminisces of the years when our cookies were so short that he'd take a bite of one only to find that the rest of the cookie had crumbled in his hand and all over his lap. Clearly dad's an even bigger fan of butter than I am!

📖 Recipe

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Egyptian Shortbread (Ghorayebah)

Egyptian shortbread (also called ghorayebah) are made with clarified butter. They are tender, crisp, and yet sturdy, while they still have that melt-in-your-mouth quality of a good butter cookie!

Course Dessert

Cuisine Egyptian

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 16 minutes minutes

Total Time 36 minutes minutes

Servings 36 cookies

Calories 97kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Braun mixer
• Rolling pin
• Sheet pan
• Star cutters

Ingredients

• 200 grams clarified butter aka ghee or samneh, room temperature
• 125 grams icing sugar sifted
• 1 large egg yolk(s)
• 310 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 30 mL brandy or dark rum or even whiskey or bourbon can work!

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 °F (160 °C). Line a couple of sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
• In a large bowl using an electric hand mixer or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until smooth.
• Add the egg yolk, and mix until combined.
• Add the flour, one third at a time, mixing and scraping down the bowl as needed. Continue beating the dough until it is crumbly but well mixed.
• Mix in the brandy. The dough will be crumbly but hold together when squeezed.
• Form the dough into 2 flattened disks.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 disk until it is ¼ inch thick so that the dough doesn’t stick. Cut into circles with a glass dipped in flour (~2.5 inch diameter glass) or star cookie cutters. Place them on the prepared sheet pans.
• Bake the cookies for about 16 minutes. The cookies are done when they look completely dry on the surface and are just starting to colour on the bottom edges. The timing is highly dependent on how hot your oven is: if your oven is hotter (and heats to closer 350°F), they may bake in as little as 8 minutes. Do not let them brown too much because that changes the flavour completely.
• Remove the pan from the oven, and place it on a wire rack to cool for a couple minutes before transferring the cookies to another rack to cool completely.
• Serve the cookies as is, or sprinkled generously with more powdered sugar.

Notes

• Rolling out shortbread cookie dough is tricky. If you find the dough is cracking a little, just press it back together. If the dough sticks to your work surface, you can use an offset spatula to get the cookies off the table top to transfer them to your baking sheet.
• If you find your cookies spread or lose their shape when they bake in the oven, chill the cutout cookies on the sheet pan for 15 minutes before baking. This will reduce cookie spread.

 

Nutrition

Calories: 97kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 7IU | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 1mg

Troubleshooting Egyptian shortbread recipe

• If your dough is crumbly and delicate, that's normal! The dough is probably crumbly because we don’t make the dough with regular unsalted butter. For Egyptian shortbread, we use clarified butter (with little to no water in it): there isn’t much gluten that can form in this dough because gluten needs water to arrange in a network and the clarified butter isn’t providing it. No gluten? Crumbly dough.
• The gluten network is also disrupted in doughs that are high in fat and high in sugar. This dough is both high in fat and has a fair bit of sugar.
• Adding a couple of tablespoons of water makes the dough easier to work with, but the cookies don’t bake as nicely, especially if you make thumbprint-style shortbread. Basically, water makes them look uglier somehow.
• An extra yolk doesn’t help the dough at all. Just as crumbly.
• Adding two tablespoons of egg white to the dough instead of the yolk gives enough “glue” to form a more cohesive dough and that dough is a little easier to roll out. When baked, the texture of the cookie is crisper with the extra egg white, and not as “short”.
• You can pat out the dough into a parchment-lined springform pan, score it and bake it, just like you would for classic shortbread. This works quite well and it’s the easiest solution to making the cookies without any trouble. This is what I did when I made lavender shortbread.
• Reducing the sugar or the flour in the recipe doesn’t make this dough much easier to work with, and most importantly, if you use less flour, the cookies spread more as they bake. I prefer the flavour with more icing sugar, but feel free to use less if you prefer (like 30 grams or ¼ cup less)

Backstory

Please note that we have made these cookies for years. The original recipe comes from my aunt Fawzia in Egypt. She gave my dad the recipe over the phone, which he quickly translated into English, inscribing it on a scrap piece of paper as she spoke. The recipe she gave him was vague, to say the least.

When she gave my dad her shortbread recipe, she guesstimated amounts in "saucers" and "cups" (but not the cups that you or I know). I don't think that she actually knew how much of each ingredient she used in her recipe because she had so much experience making them that she could eyeball the quantities. But the rest of us need exact measurements so that's why I published this recipe.

The post Egyptian shortbread appeared first on The Bake School.

If you have never baked with buckwheat flour and cocoa nibs, you have to start with these simple shortbread cookies. This slice-and-bake cookie recipe is easy to make. The ingredients in this cookie are quite simple and you can throw it together in minutes. These cookies are the perfect backdrop to start exploring the flavour of buckwheat flour and cocoa nibs, and the texture they impart.

These slice-and-bake shortbread cookies with cocoa nibs are the cookies you want in your life. This is the best way to make a lot of shortbread cookies fast (once the dough is chilled). It's a different way to prepare shortbread than the traditional shortbread cookies that are pressed into a pan and scored before baking (like these lavender shortbread cookies baked in a tart pan).

Buckwheat Shortbread Cookie Ingredients

Slice-and-bake cookies are so easy to make and the basic ingredients for shortbread cookies are always butter, sugar, and flour. Here's what you'll need to make this variation with buckwheat flour and cocoa nibs:

You'll notice there are no leavening agents in this cookie recipe. Baking soda is a base (alkaline) and can cause your cookies to spread, which we don't want for this type of cookie. On the other hand, baking powder would cause the cookies to puff as they bake, and we don't want that either.

Substitutions and Variations

• Alternative flours: cookies made with 100 % alternative flour may spread more than with all-purpose flour. For this reason, we replaced only a portion of the all-purpose flour in a shortbread cookie recipe with buckwheat. Be careful when making this kind of substitution. Alice Medrich suggests in her books about alternative flours to swap out 15 to 20 percent of all-purpose flour for an alternative flour.
  • Try corn flour, oat flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour, teff, buckwheat, and even chestnut flour! Other wheat flour relatives like kamut, spelt, barley, whole wheat, and rye will also work. Baking with these alternative flours will up the flavour in your baking recipes, but may also change the texture and the colour of baked goods.
• Chocolate: you can replace the cocoa nibs with mini dark chocolate chips.
• Salt: a lovely garnish for these cookies would be flaky sea salt. You can sprinkle a little on each cookie before baking.

Read about why cookies spread and why we chill cookie dough for more information.

How to Make Slice-and-Bake Shortbread Cookies

It's best to prepare the cookie dough a day ahead of baking to give the time for it to chill. Plan ahead!

Step 1: Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (image 1). Combine the butter and sugar in your mixer bowl (image 2) and beat them together until well mixed.

Step 2: Add the cocoa nibs and vanilla extract to the mixer bowl (image 3) and mix it in. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl fairly often (image 4) to ensure all the ingredients are mixed in.

Tip: using a spatula to scrape down the bowl is really important to make sure the ingredients are properly combined. Otherwise, you may end up with streaks of butter and sugar at the bottom of the bowl, or on the side, and these will lead to uneven spreading and as they bake, and textural problems in your baked cookies

Step 3: Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl (image 5) and stir them until a dough forms (image 6).

Step 4: Line your work surface with a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer the cookie dough to it (image 7). Shape the dough into a log and wrap tightly (image 8) to chill overnight.

Step 5: Slice the cookie dough into fairly thin rounds (around ¼ inch or 6 mm) using a chef's knife on a cutting board. The cold dough should be firm.

Tip: Rotate the log of dough every few slices to maintain the round shape of the log. If you don't, the bottom edge of the log will likely flatten out under pressure. If you don't, your cookies will have a more oval shape with a flatter edge.

Step 6: Place the sliced cookies on parchment-lined half-sheet pans, staggering them out to space them evenly (image 10). Bake until set and the edges are golden brown (image 11).

Slice-and-Bake Cookies Recipe FAQ

Baking with Cocoa Nibs

If you wonder what you can bake with them, cocoa nibs are a great addition to cookie recipes. You can replace all (or a portion) of chocolate chips in any recipe with them for a deeper flavour. Add cocoa nibs to:

• plain shortbread cookies
• cut out sugar cookies
• vanilla sablé cookies
• chocolate sablé cookies
• slice-and-bake fruitcake cookies 

Cocoa nibs could add a lot of crunchy texture and chocolate flavour without adding to the sweetness of the cookie. They are perfect in sweet cookies. I think cocoa nibs would work really well in sweet tart crusts too. Try adding them to this coffee sugar cookie crust or even in brownies with raspberries!

These cookies would be a hit on a Christmas cookie platter too. This recipe was adapted from Alice Medrich and was featured in the Food52 Genius Desserts cookbook by Kristen Miglore, which I highly recommend! I reviewed the Food 52 Genius Desserts book on the blog before and you can still buy it on Amazon.

If you tried this buckwheat shortbread cookie recipe (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Buckwheat Shortbread Cookies with Cocoa Nibs

Need an easy make-ahead holiday cookie recipe for Christmas? These buckwheat shortbread cookies with cocoa nibs are a unique twist on a classic holiday cookie: slice-and-bake shortbread cookies that store well baked, and you can also make the dough, shape it into a log, and freeze it for later. 

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes minutes

Refrigeration 2 hours hours

Total Time 24 minutes minutes

Servings 48 cookies

Calories 74kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Genius Desserts
• Braun mixer
• GIR spatula
• Sheet pan

Ingredients

• 190 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 125 grams buckwheat flour
• 230 grams unsalted butter softened
• 135 grams granulated sugar
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 45 grams cacao nibs
• 7.5 mL pure vanilla extract

Metric - US

Instructions

• Whisk together the flours in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, and salt on medium until smooth and creamy but not fluffy, about 1 minute. Stir in cocoa nibs and vanilla. Add the flours and mix until no steaks of flour remain. Scrape the dough together onto a work surface lined with plastic wrap, knead a few times to mix until smooth.
• Roll the dough into a 12 by 2 inch (30 by 5 cm) log. Bundle the log in the plastic wrap, twisting the ends tightly to help even out the shape, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. To help maintain its round shape, refrigerate the log in an empty paper towel roll or tall drinking glass.
• Heat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC), with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Slice the log into ¼-inch (~6 mm) rounds using a sharp knife. If you slice them on the thicker side, you will make less cookies and they will take longer to bake.
• Arrange the cookies on the baking sheets, spacing and staggering them. Leave at least an inch (2.5 cm) of space between them to allow air circulation because we want the shortbread cookies to dry out in the oven.
• Bake the cookies until the edges begin to brown, about 14 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom, back to front, halfway through the baking time. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets on a rack. The cookies improve with time and can be stored in an airtight container for at least 1 month.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Not sure where to get cocoa nibs? Cocoa nibs are often located in the organic food aisles of grocery stores, with other dried goods like grains, sugar, and baking ingredients.
• Be sure to weigh your ingredients to ensure you have the right ratio of butter-to-sugar-to-flour. Otherwise, your cookies may spread!
• This recipe combines buckwheat flour with all-purpose flour to ensure the cookies don't spread too much. 
• You must chill the cookie dough for several hours until it is cold and solid. I prefer to chill it overnight to ensure the cookies will hold their shape through slicing and baking.
• To keep the sliced cookies round, turn the log every few slices to ensure you put equal pressure on all sides as you slice through the dough (as opposed to flattening out the bottom). 
• You can store the dough in the fridge for several days or freeze it for longer-term storage (up to 6 months). Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and place it in a freezer bag (air removed). Defrost the dough in the fridge overnight before slicing and baking.
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.
• This recipe from Alice Medrich was published in the Food52 Genius Desserts book, written by Kristen Miglore (available on Amazon). The recipe was republished with permission from Ten Speed Press.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 74kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 13mg | Potassium: 21mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 120IU | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.3mg

The post Buckwheat Shortbread Cookies with Cocoa Nibs appeared first on The Bake School.

I added lavender to the classic shortbread ratio. That's entirely optional. I love lavender, but not everybody is a fan and that's okay. Follow the recipe below but skip the lavender to make them plain if you prefer. Or you can try a different dried herb or spice, or even tea!

You can get creative with this basic shortbread recipe, as long as you keep the ratio of ingredients intact. You can read all about baking ratios and how to use them if you'd like to learn more!

Ingredients

The beauty of shortbread cookies is that they don't call for special ingredients or trips to the grocery store. You likely have everything you need (except for the lavender buds). Here's what you need:

• butter—opt for unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt that goes into your cookies
• sugar—specifically granulated sugar in this recipe because you don't want any flavour to interfere with the delicate floral lavender and creamy white chocolate
• flour—use all-purpose flour which will give these cookies a little structure and sturdiness without being tough
• salt is important to balance out the sweet buttery flavour. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the cookies will be saltier and you may want to halve the salt in that case
• dried lavender—make sure it's edible so use culinary grade only!
• white chocolate—I like to use high-quality white chocolate like from the brand Cacao Barry.

Baking with lavender

Is lavender edible?

Though lavender is used to scent sachets of potpourri, the flower buds are actually edible. Besides being used to make rooms and clothes smell good, dried lavender is often added to tea blends, and also to baked goods, such as cupcakes and icings. Make sure to buy culinary lavender so you know it's edible (and not laced with perfume). You can find culinary-grade lavender buds on Amazon.

Culinary lavender is sold as blossoms usually and you will probably find culinary lavender in the loose-leaf tea aisle or the spice aisle of many stores. The blossoms are tiny, their colour, a vibrant blueish-purple. They have a very floral aroma, which carries through when you bake with it.

Infusing a dough with lavender flavour

I decided that the best method to get lavender into the shortbread would be to first cream the lavender and the butter together, hopefully lightly infusing the butter with some of the lavender essence, before adding the dry ingredients. I followed a basic 1:2:3 ratio of sugar/butter/flour to make these lavender shortbread cookies.

If you add lavender to cookies, it will impart a floral aroma (flavour and scent) to the cookies. Make sure to use the right amount. Too much lavender may go from a lovely floral flavour in baked goods to soapy if you are too heavy-handed.

Special tools

To make shortbread cookie dough, I like to use either a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer to help cream the butter and the sugar so that they are well mixed. You can do this by hand too. Besides a mixer, you will also need:

• a spatula for scraping down the sides of the bowl and the bottom to make sure the sugar and butter are properly incorporated
• a tart pan with removable bottom or another pan with sides with the same volume (get the baking pan conversions chart to help you swap pans with ease!)
• a glass or flat-bottom jar to press the dough from edge to edge to make a smooth, firm base
• a bench scraper (also called a pastry cutter) or a chef's knife or pairing knife to score the dough and a fork or a chocolate dipping fork to poke holes to let steam and air escape in the oven

The recipe yields a very crumbly-textured dough. All you have to do is dump the crumbs into the pan and press them down with a glass (watch the video below!).

I scored the shortbread (or rather I sliced through to the bottom just to be sure), docked them with a fork and popped them into my preheated oven. I baked these shortbread cookie wedges at 350ºF. Some shortbread purists may argue that shortbread should be baked at a lower temperature to keep them from colouring in the oven. I like my shortbread a little golden around the edges. Adds flavour.

What else you can bake with lavender

• add a little lavender to a classic shortbread cookie ratio to make lavender shortbread cookies (recipe below)
• infuse honey with lavender buds and make lavender honey cakes
• add dry lavender to vanilla sablé cookies
• infuse the milk with lavender to make panna cotta, just like you would tea in Earl grey panna cotta tarts
• add lavender buds to cakes and frosting in the same way tea is added to an Earl Grey cake
• infuse the cream with lavender to make lavender chocolate truffles. 

After 5 minutes of cooling in the pan on a wire rack, I re-cut the shortbread along the lines and let them cool completely before unmolding the shortbread wedges. I then dipped the sides of each shortbread triangle in melted white chocolate and sprinkled a few dried lavender blossoms on each. This is entirely optional. I happen to love white chocolate.

The lavender truly comes through in this shortbread cookie recipe: floral, but not too floral, buttery, not too sweet. These shortbread cookies have a crumbly, sandy texture, just the way a traditional shortbread should be.

These lavender shortbread cookies are much easier to make than shortbread cookies with jam, but equally satisfying and just as stunning because the shortbread wedges are dipped in chocolate!

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Lavender Shortbread Cookies Dipped in White Chocolate

This recipe is a fun lavender twist on the classic shortbread cookie and it's made in the easiest way possible! The dough is pressed into a scalloped edge tart pan and sliced into shortbread triangle wedges before baking for perfect shortbread cookies!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 367kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Tart pan
• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• GIR spatula

Ingredients

• 173 grams unsalted butter
• 15 mL dried lavender make sure it's edible, culinary grade lavender and not potpourri!
• 100 grams granulated sugar you can go as low as 88 grams of sugar for a less sweet shortbread cookie
• 255 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Optional ingredients

• 175 grams white chocolate melted
• dried lavender

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F (175 °C).
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and lavender for 1 minute.
• Add sugar and mix, scraping down sides of mixer as needed, until mixture is creamy.
• Add flour and salt, and mix on low until the dough is crumbly.
• Pour crumbs into a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Press with the bottom of a glass to form a firm, even layer. 
• Cut/score into 8 wedges. 
• Dock with a fork or metal skewer to poke holes through the shortbread cookie surface allowing steam to escape as the shortbread bake so that they dry out.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes, rotating at least once to ensure that they bake evenly (keep an eye on them to make sure that they do not brown too much). The edges will be lightly golden.
• Remove from oven and let cool slightly before re-cutting along the scored lines.
• Let cool completely before removing the slices from the pans.
• Dip or brush each slice with melted chocolate. Sprinkle with a few lavender blossoms.

Video

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• For this recipe, I used the 9-inch tart pan from this Wilton set that you can buy on Amazon.

Nutrition

Calories: 367kcal

The post Lavender shortbread cookies dipped in white chocolate appeared first on The Bake School.

The secret to really good shortbread cutout cookies, that you can serve plain or sandwiched with a jam filling, is a sturdy cookie that is buttery and not too sweet. This shortbread cookie recipe is it. Whether you want to make shortbread sandwich cookies or you just want plain shortbread cookies, this recipe rolls out beautifully and is very easy to work with.

Technically, traditional shortbread aren't made with vanilla, but this recipe is. Using vanilla extract makes the flavour more complex, less bland. You can also try replacing the vanilla extract in the cookie dough with bourbon, rum, or even cognac.

The cut out shortbread cookies bake without much puffing or distortion of shape. They keep their shape while baking and don't spread in the oven.

Filling options

Once baked, these shortbread cookies are just firm enough to sandwich with a filling. You can fill them with:

• jam or marmalade (like this three fruit marmalade or this plum jam, or even a rhubarb jam (no pectin)
• lemon curd or other fruit curd, like in these grapefruit curd filled cookies
• thick chocolate ganache, like the milk chocolate ganache that you can spoon or pipe onto cookies once it's set
• maple butter (this would be SO GOOD!)

Note that depending on the filling you opt for, many options will require refrigeration, so you may want to store the baked shortbread cookie cutouts in a sealed airtight container at room temperature, and then fill the cookies just before serving.

Rolled shortbread cookie ingredient ratio

This shortbread cookie has a ratio that's pretty close to 4:1:4 by weight of butter/icing sugar/flour because the recipe has close to equal parts of butter and flour by weight and the weight of icing sugar is roughly ¼ the weight of flour.

For reference, I use a shortbread ratio of 1:2:3 ratio of sugar/butter/flour (by weight). But at that ratio, I usually press the cookie dough into a pan, as I did for these lavender shortbread cookies because the mixture is quite crumbly. These coconut butter cookies have a ratio that is close but not quite 1:2:3.

This recipe is from the book Oh Sweet Day! by Fanny Lam (available on Amazon). I've written a review of the Oh Sweet Day! book in case you want to know more about the book. I'd say these are a more sophisticated version of jam thumbprint cookies. For a richer shortbread cookie option for the holidays, try the Egyptian shortbread, which are a family favourite!

If you tried this recipe for the best jam-filled shortbread cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Jam-Filled Shortbread Cookies

These shortbread cutout cookies are buttery and not too sweet and sturdy enough for sandwiching fillings like raspberry or strawberry jam.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Resting time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 20

Calories 158kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• GIR spatula
• Rolling pin
• Heart cutters

Ingredients

Shortbread cookies

• 230 grams unsalted butter softened
• 63 grams icing sugar
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Jam filled shortbread cookies

• 125 mL strawberry jam
• icing sugar for dusting on top of sandwich cookies

Metric - US

Instructions

Shortbread cookies

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and ½ cup of the powdered sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
• Mix in the vanilla until combined.
• Sift in the flour and salt. Mix on low speed until just incorporated.
• Gather and form a dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 325 ºF (165 °C). Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper (I love the big Nordic Ware cookie sheets that you can get on Amazon).
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to ¼-inch thickness. Cut out circles with 2-inch cookie cutter. Re-roll scraps to cut out as many circles as possible. You should get about 40 circles. With a tiny heart, star or diamond cookie cutter, cut out centre window in 20 of the circles. Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets, spacing them out.
• Bake 15 to 18 minutes. Let the edges brown just a touch. Not too much! Let cool completely.

How to assemble shortbread sandwich cookies with jam

• Dollop a teaspoon of jam on the 20 "full circle", bottom side of the cookies. Top with the cookies with a centre cut-out window.
• Dust lightly with powdered sugar.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Recipe makes approximately 40 cookies, but if you sandwich them together with a filling, that would make roughly 20 sandwich cookies once assembled.
• This recipe comes from Oh Sweet Day by Fanny Lam (available on Amazon)
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 300 °F (150 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 158kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 61mg | Potassium: 20mg | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 285IU | Vitamin C: 0.6mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.6mg

The post Jam-filled shortbread cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

Shortbread cookies are traditionally made from only three (3) ingredients: butter, sugar and flour. Some aficionados won't even add salt. I do. Recent variations include adding an egg or two to the recipe, leading to a sturdier cookie, or even a little milk. Again, enthusiasts will argue that it's not a shortbread cookie if it contains eggs or milk. The ratio of the three main ingredients is the key to good shortbread.

Most good recipes follow a 1-2-3 ingredient ratio, meaning 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour, by weight. I've had a lot of success with this ratio, which yields what I believe to be the best shortbread cookies. To learn more about ratios, I highly recommend reading the book Ratio by Michael Ruhlman (get it on Amazon).

This is my basic shortbread recipe, in cups and in grams, following the 1:2:3 ingredient ratio by weight. It's made with three basic ingredients—butter, granulated sugar, and all-purpose flour—with a little salt added for flavour. It's that simple.

The amount of butter in a recipe is crucial: a little "too much" and you may end up with cookies that, although sublimely buttery, just fall apart in your hands. Crumbly shortbread may be difficult to store and serve, but they are still delicious. Worse case scenario, crumble them over ice cream—nobody will complain!

Please note that shortbread cookies are not the same as sugar cookies. Sugar cookies often have an egg or even milk. These ingredients give more structure to sugar cookies, making them more appropriate for cookie decorating with royal icing. Sugar cookies are often so sturdy, they can be shipped in boxes (both decorated and undecorated).

Ingredients

The beauty of shortbread cookies is that they don't call for special ingredients or trips to the grocery store. You likely have everything you need already! Here's what you need:

• butter—opt for unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt that goes into your cookies
• sugar—specifically granulated sugar in this recipe because you don't want any flavour to interfere with the delicate butter flavour in these cookies
• flour—use all-purpose flour, which will give these cookies a little structure and sturdiness without being tough, though I have mixed in some buckwheat flour in these shortbread cookies
• salt is entirely optional, but I add it to balance out the sweet buttery flavour. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt. If using table salt, the cookies will be saltier with it, so you may want to add half the amount.

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

With a base recipe as easy as 1-2-3, there are a lot of variations you can try.

1. Type of sugar: The type of sugar you use has a huge impact on texture. Use granulated sugar for crisp, sandy, or crunchy cookies (like this recipe). Use icing sugar for soft and tender cookies (like these jam-filled shortbread cookies and my family recipe for Egyptian shortbread cookies).
2. Shape variation
   • Instead of pressing the dough into a pan and baking it right away, you can shape the dough into a log, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it overnight (or freeze it for longer storage). Then when you are ready to bake the cookies, simply slice and bake them! Slice the shortbread cookie dough into ¼-inch thick cookies and bake at 350°F for 8 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring the baked cookies to cooling rack to cool completely
   • Use this recipe as a base for bars, like these easy lemon bars or millionaires shortbread (also called caramel shortbread or caramel slice) with a 123 shortbread cookie base, a salted caramel filling and a chocolate coating!
3. Flavour the shortbread cookie dough: though purists will argue that shortbread can only have 3 ingredients (butter, sugar, and flour), that doesn't mean you can't jazz them up a little.
   1. Vanilla shortbread: mix 1 teaspoon vanilla extract with the butter and sugar and ¼ teaspoon fine kosher salt along with the flour
   2. Chocolate chip shortbread: add ½ cup of mini chocolate chips (preferably semi-sweet dark chocolate chips)
   3. Citrus shortbread: add 1 tablespoon of citrus zest with the butter and the sugar (like lemon zest to make lemon shortbread cookies, lime zest, orange zest, or even grapefruit zest)
   4. Tea-flavoured shortbread: add 2 tablespoons of ground tea leaves with the flour
   5. Spiced shortbread cookies: add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon or cardamom with the flour (you can use more or less depending on personal preference)
   6. Nut Shortbread: Finely chop ½ cup toasted nuts and add with the flour—these walnut crescent cookies are a variation of shortbread!
   7. Sesame seed Shortbread: add 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds with the flour.
   8. Poppy seed shortbread: add 3 tablespoons of poppy seeds with the flour.
   9. Brown Sugar Shortbread: Replace half the sugar with the same weight of light or dark brown sugar. Note this substitution may yield slightly softer shortbread.
   10. Maple shortbread: replace half the sugar with the same weight of maple sugar to make maple shortbread cookies. Use them to make the most delicious maple cream cookies.
   11. Buckwheat Shortbread Cookies: Replace up to 95 grams (¾ cup) of the all-purpose flour with the same weight of buckwheat flour. Note this substitution may yield a more light, tender shortbread cookie because the final cookie has less gluten. You could also make shortbread more tender by replacing 95 grams (¾ cup) of the all-purpose flour with the same weight of rice flour.
   12. Cocoa powder: A portion of flour is replaced with Dutch-processed cocoa powder to make chocolate shortbread cookies.

Directions

Shortbread cookies are easy to make.

Step 1: Use the creaming method to combine the butter and sugar first before adding the flour to form a crumbly, evenly mixed dough that holds together well when pressed.

Step 2: Transfer the mixture to a square baking pan (image 1) and press the dough firmly using your fingertips or a flat-bottomed glass (image 2) to make cutting and baking so easy.

Tip: Make sure to spread the crumbly dough in an even layer first before using a flat-bottomed glass to press the mixture and smooth out the cookie dough.

For cutting, I like to use a pastry cutter (also called a bench scraper) because it fits nicely within a brownie pan, and there's less risk of damaging the edges. These cutters or bench scrapers are metal or plastic, and quite sturdy for cutting the pan of dough into bars, squares, or slabs (image 3). Dock the cookie dough, poking holes into it before baking (image 4). You can do this with a fork. I used a chocolate dipping fork.

Docking ensures the shortbread cookies bake evenly and air + moisture can escape, creating a crisper cookie.

Bake the cookies until they are dry and the edges are set

Shortbread Cookie Baking Tips

There's one extra step you can take to ensure the cookies have dried out properly: after you unmould the cookies, transfer them to a cookie sheet, and bake them again, kind of like biscotti. Why? Because under-baked shortbread can have a gummy texture or be slightly chewy, when they should be dry.

This is the best way I've found to get them baked through. The cuts and dock marks, in this and most cookie recipes, help the steam escape, but baking them a second time ensures that even the very middle parts are baked through, yielding a dry cookie with a sandy texture.

Shortbread Cookie Baking FAQs

Other Shortbread Cookies to Try

If you want to explore more shortbread cookie recipes like these, try these:

• walnut crescent cookies are a variation with ground nuts added to the cookie dough
• jam-filled cookies are made with icing sugar shortbread cookies and have jam sandwiched between them
• jam thumbprints are made with a rich, buttery cookie dough and filled with jam, before or after baking
• alfajores are filled with dulce de leche
• maple shortbread cookies are cutout cookies made with maple sugar (you can sandwich them with a maple butter filling to make maple cream cookies)
• cocoa nib cookies are a slice-and-bake version made with buckwheat flour.
• lavender shortbread cookies (dipped in white chocolate) also follow a 1-2-3 ingredient ratio and incorporate dried culinary lavender,

If you tried this recipe for the best shortbread cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Shortbread Cookies

This classic shortbread cookie recipe is as easy to remember as 1-2-3 with its 1:2:3 ratio of sugar:butter:flour by weight!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 24 cookies

Calories 139kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 9x9-inch pan
• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer

Ingredients

• 230 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 115 grams granulated sugar
• 3.75 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 345 grams bleached all-purpose flour

Metric - US

Instructions

• Fit a square of parchment to the bottom of a 9-inch (23-cm) square pan. You can butter the bottom of the pan to help the square of parchment adhere to the pan, if necessary. Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C).
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, and salt until it is smooth, light, and creamy. This takes 3–4 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure the ingredients combine properly.
• Add the flour to the mixer bowl and mix it in until the mixture turns into a sandy crumble that holds together when pressed.
• Spread the crumbly mixture evenly from edge to edge on the bottom of the prepared pan. Pat it out and press it down using a flat-bottomed glass to smooth it.
• Cut the shortbread into 24 rectangles, and dock it with a fork. Bake for 35–40 minutes until the edges turn golden brown.
• Let the pan of shortbread cool for 5 minutes, then cut them again. Let them cool 10 minutes before unmolding.
• Let cool before serving.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Play with the flavour, adding orange or lemon zest to the butter and sugar before adding the flour, or even coffee grinds for texture and flavour. You can also swap the white sugar for brown sugar, or even maple sugar.
• You can bake the shortbread a second time to ensure that even the very middle parts are baked through, yielding a buttery yet dry shortbread with a sandy texture, as it should be. Transfer the shortbread to a parchment-lined baking sheet, 1 inch apart, and bake at 325 ºF for another 10–20 minutes or so until they are baked through.
• Another option for making properly baked shortbread that aren't overly brown but still baked through: bake the shortbread at a lower temperature. Try baking shortbread at 300ºF for longer. Low and slow is the key to achieving perfectly baked shortbread cookies that are evenly golden brown.

Nutrition

Calories: 139kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 62mg | Potassium: 18mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 239IU | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 1mg

How to Use Baking Ratios

When bakers talk about ratios, they are not just referring to the specific percentage of a particular ingredient in a recipe compared to the total: an ingredient ratio is a relationship between two or more ingredients.

Take a classic Scottish shortbread recipe made of butter, sugar, and all purpose flour. The shortbread recipe ratio would refer to the relationship between the weight of butter, the weight of sugar, and the weight of flour, giving you a better idea of the proportions of each ingredient relative to the others. The beauty of working with a ratio, you can easily scale up and down a recipe as needed.

The classic shortbread ratio is 1:2:3, meaning it's 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour, by weight. This means that you can make a small batch of shortbread with 100 grams sugar, 200 grams butter, and 300 grams of flour. Or you can make a big batch of shortbread with 1 kg of sugar, 2 kg of butter, and 3 kg of flour. Or you could make a very small batch of shortbread with 50 grams of sugar, 100 grams of butter, and 150 grams of flour. It truly is as easy as 1:2:3! You can read all about baking ratios and how to use them if you'd like to learn more!

Why Ratios Matter

Bakers and recipe developers spend a lot of time focusing on baking ratios. For example, I break down most baking recipes I encounter into ratios of butter-to-sugar-to-flour:(-to-egg-to-liquid, if the recipe has eggs and/or liquids). Breaking down a recipe into a ratio allows you to understand what makes the recipe function as it does.

Michael Ruhlman dedicated an entire book to ingredient ratios. I highly recommend you check it out on Amazon if you are obsessed with recipes and want to better understand the logic behind basic baking recipes and also the best ways to adapt and modify existing recipes.

When you know the basic recipe ratios of baking, you can safely be creative without worrying that you are going to mess up a recipe. Respect the ratio, and the results should be as expected! Just make sure you know if the ratio is by weight versus volume before proceeding.

How to Calculate Ingredient Ratios

To calculate a ratio of ingredients, you divide each quantity of ingredient by the smallest quantity in the recipe. In this classic shortbread recipe, we have 230 grams butter, 115 grams sugar, and 345 grams flour. The smallest quantity in the recipe is the 115 grams of sugar. So to determine the ratio of ingredients in a recipe, we must divide the quantity of each ingredient by 115 grams to determine the relative ratio compared to sugar.

• The ratio of sugar to sugar is the quantity of sugar (115 grams) divided by the quantity of sugar (115 grams): 115 ÷ 115 = 1
• The ratio of butter to sugar is the quantity of butter (230 grams) divided by the quantity of sugar (115 grams):  230 ÷ 115 =2
• The ratio of flour to sugar is the quantity of flour (345 grams) divided by the quantity of sugar (115 grams): 345 ÷ 115 =3.

A buttery shortbread recipe made from 115 grams of sugar, 230 grams of butter, and 345 grams of flour has a 1:2:3 ratio of sugar/butter/flour by weight (side note: this is why people often refer to shortbread recipes as 1-2-3 shortbread recipes or 3-2-1 shortbread recipes).

You can use ratios for other recipes too: check out this cinnamon chocolate chip bundt cake, which follows the classic 1-2-3-4 cake recipe and these homemade biscuits, which also have a ratio of 1:2:3!

Baking with Ratios Versus Percentages

The total weight of cookie dough for the recipe is 690 grams. Of that 690 grams of dough, 230 grams (33%) is butter, but what about the other 67% of the dough, which is flour and sugar? A 33% butter shortbread recipe doesn't give us the full picture of what is going on and you can't make shortbread knowing only that it must have 33% butter. You need more information.

That's why I love ratios. If you know shortbread are 1:2:3 (1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, 3 parts flour, by weight), then you can make any quantity of shortbread you want.

In a sense, you don't need a recipe. You have a ratio and you can expand and contract the amounts to make any quantity of shortbread, as long as you come close to that ingredient ratio. It's as easy as 1:2:3, literally!

If you knew your shortbread had to contain 33% butter, that other 67% can still make or break your shortbread recipe and have a huge impact on the outcome of your recipe.

For example, not enough flour, and you will end up with a greasy batch of cookies that really aren't what you were going for and quite frankly, are the opposite of the best thing you've ever made. A shortbread recipe that is 1 part butter, 1 part sugar, and 1 part flour is 33% butter, but so is a recipe containing 2 parts butter, 1 part sugar, and 3 parts flour.

A 1:1:1 shortbread recipe becomes a real mess when you bake it. The butter separates out, and the shortbread become chewy and greasy. The dock marks melt away in the oven and the top becomes crackly. So it's not just the percentage of butter that is important, but actually, it's the ratio of butter to flour, the ratio of butter to sugar, and the ratio of sugar to flour that are crucial.

The ratios matter a lot. Of course, you could express the ingredient ratio of shortbread as percentages of the total weight of ingredients (meaning a shortbread recipe with a 2:1:3 ratio of butter/sugar/flour is equivalent to 33% butter, 17% sugar, and 50% flour) but personally, I feel more comfortable with the ratio. It feels less clunky and the math is certainly easier once you know shortbread are as easy as 1-2-3, rather than as easy as 33%-17%-50%. Right?

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