How To Make Shortbread | Good Housekeeping UK

Find out how to make shortbread in a few simple steps - delicious buttery and crisp shortbread biscuits made easy with our step-by-step video.

Ingredients:
250g (9oz) plain white flour, sifted, plus extra to dust
175g (6oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
75g (3oz) caster sugar
Demerara or granulated sugar, to sprinkle

1. Into a mixing bowl, put flour and butter then rub together using fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add caster sugar and bring together using hands.

2. Dust work surface with flour and turn out dough on to worksurface. Form into a thick sausage shape. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30min.

3. Slice dough widthways, into roughly 1cm (½in) thick discs and remove cling film. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment, and put shortbread discs on sheet with plenty of space between to allow them to spread when cooking. Sprinkle with demerara or granulated sugar.

4. Bake at 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6 for 15-16min, until pale golden. Cool for 10min on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

[marcografvonpartagas]

Just made these... oh my! Amazing for such a simple recipe 😊 Next time I'll add some vanilla - not that it needs it, but nice to try out some different flavours. Thank you so much 👍🏻

[steph]

looks great :) simple and it's great to see someone not using special appliances to do these, as many of us don't have them in our kitchen.

[UserK]

Thank you for the recipe and metric measurements! I made them, they came out really nice, soft inside, so the proportions were very good! I baked them for 12 minutes and I cut the dough removing the cling film. ;)

[daviddesrosiersrulz]

i made this yesterday and i loved the result. the biscuits were tender and i really loved the crunchy texture of the caster sugar.

[ViveSemelBeneVivere]

I made these for my girlfriend and she was impressed. Thanks! 😊

[delrey-p]

Chill as in, in the fridge or as in relax?

[the_juj_]

The comments here are correct! The dough is super dry and crumbly but you just need to keep kneading the dough more in order to form a shape

[saint_lewis]

who's hands do you use? or does it not matter?

[riacharda]

I measured the ingredients to a T, but didn't end up crumbly. I had to add more flour to make it crumbly.

[mariyarauf]

Can I leave these to cool longer as want to make them before i go to work so that’s it’s easier for me when I’m back

[sarahjane]

Cream the butter and sugar first peeps, then add flour!

[zunerahpatel]

Just put it in the oven ill see if it works or not! It looks good so far! But one thing i reccomend is i have a bad memmory 😅 and i would love if u put the ingredient measurments when ur telling us the sugar and stuffA over all so easy instructions! Thanks!

Edit: Omg its so good honestly my whole fam likes it and im a teen and for me this was easy and amazing

RECOMEND FOR BEGINNERZ OR EVEN NORMAL ☆☆☆☆☆

[she_prays_she_slays_demons]

First time making shortbread and these were so good!😍 They weren't too sweet and if I wanted to make them sweeter, I could just add more sugar.

Because it was hard to form it, I had to make it into a ball in my hand starting with a small ball and adding bits and pieces. Kinda like playing with sticky clay.

Before I put it in the cling film, I also added flour on the exterior all th way around cos of how sticky th exterior was.

[lorimihelick]

You should give both metric & standard measurements

[caoimhemooney]

do you need parchment paper or can you use tin foil? qwq

[beazleybooks]

baked them at 200 C. for 20 minutes. Raw.

[johnmacaroni]

The price of butter nowadays makes these biscuits far too expensive.

[mikekenny]

I use this recipe all the time but I found that I buy butter in blocks of 200g, I hate wasting the other 25grams, is it possible someone could convert the ratios for me so it’s all adjusted to using 200g of butter instead of 175g? I’m terrible at maths I can’t do myself 😂

[humairabagadia]

Is the flour self raising flour or wheat flour?

[doodaischill]

About 2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of room temp butter
A little less than 1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract