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4.58 from 28 votes

Classic Shortbread Cookies

Just three ingredients make amazingly buttery, rich shortbread cookies for your Christmas cookie tins.
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time35 mins
Total Time40 mins
Course: Cookie
Cuisine: American, Scottish
Keyword: shortbread cookies, walker's shortbread
Servings: 16 cookies
Author: Marianne

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sifted flour
  • 1 cup room temperature salted butter
  • ½ cup white sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325°F.
  • In a large bowl, beat 1 cup butter until it begins to turn lighter yellow. Add ½ cup sugar and beat together until well combined.
  • Half a cup at a time, add the sifted flour to the creamed butter and sugar.
  • After all of the flour is mixed in, the mixture will look like a coarse grain, crumbly sand or breadcrumbs. Do not expect this to form a classic "dough". Put the mixture in an ungreased 8 by 8 pan. ( I used my trusty old square Pyrex dish. )
  • Press the mixture down into the pan. I used a large metal spatula place over sections of the pan, and pressed on top of that to make sure I got a more even bar.
  • Using a skewer, lightly score (⅛th of an inch deep or so ) the top of the pressed dough to make 16 servings, then poke one row of holes down each scored bar. Make sure you poke straight through the dough and hit the bottom of the pan for each hole.
  • Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The bars will most likely be done around the 30 minute mark, but I saw that mine weren't browning yet by then, so I gave them 5 minutes extra. All of the butter makes these a fairly forgiving cookie, so unlike most cookies, don't be scared that 1 minute or 2 difference will ruin them.
  • After baking time is up, remove pan from the oven and let cool for 1 hour.
  • Cut each bar from the score marks and serve, wrap, or eat!

Notes

The serving size states 16, but you could easily use a larger ( 11 X 7 ) pan and decrease the cook time to make more, but thinner, bars.