Walker's Scottish Shortbread Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good shortbread cookies? ›

It is only by baking in small batches that we can ensure that classic taste for which Walker's are famed. As it always has been, our shortbread is made using only four ingredients: flour, pure creamery butter, sugar and salt.

The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour. The less you work the dough, the more crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth your shortbread cookies will be.

Another incredible fact about Walkers is their shortbread recipe, it's the same one from 121 years ago and consists of just 4 ingredients; incredible butter, flour, sugar and salt. No preservatives, no margarine or lard or E- numbers.

Chill Before Baking

The goal is to ensure the butter in the dough is cold when it goes into the oven. This will prevent the shortbread from spreading.

Confectioner's sugar.

This is the secret to the tender texture and perfect sweetness of these cookies.

"Shortbread" is just Scottish shortbread; they're one and the same. While the recipe has changed throughout its history, and there is a version of shortbread from Ireland, the original shortbread you're familiar with comes from Scotland.

Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour.

The high butter quantity in shortbread (one part sugar to two parts butter) gives it that delightfully crumbly feel. And also its name. This is because the old meaning of the world “short” reflects this crumbliness and so the name 'shortbread' stuck.

The word "bread" comes from "biscuit bread" which was made from leftover bread dough that was sweetened and dried out in the oven to make biscuits. Why do you poke holes in shortbread? The holes allow the moisture to escape during baking and more even heat distribution. This helps dry out and crisp up the cookies.

What happens if too much butter is in shortbread? ›

What happens if you put too much butter in cookies? - Quora. They spread way too far out on the cookie sheet and don't get cooked right. They're too wet, and really greasy, but can be cooked to crispiness but won't have the right texture and it will be hard to reproduce the time of baking.

It is super crumbly as a result of minimal kneading. As the dough isn't worked very much, gluten can't build up so the shortbread stays very fragile. The addition of semolina or rice flour helps increase the crumbliness whereas cornstarch makes the biscuits denser and therefore harder.

Shortbread is now Trefoils®! they're ABC cookies? always called them trefoils!

Why do you put shortbread in the fridge before baking? Chilling the dough before baking will help the shortbread keep their shape while cooking.

WEIGHT AVERAGE 25g SHELF LIFE 38 WEEKS FROM DATE OF MANUFACTURE PACKAGING WRAPPED IN PRINTED FILM. WHEAT flour (WHEAT flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamine); Butter (MILK): (31%); Sugar; Salt. SUITABLE FOR Vegetarians ALLERGENS Wheat gluten, milk, (made in a bakery that handles nuts & seeds).

It's all in the quality of the ingredients. With such a short ingredient list, the quality makes a big difference. The perfect shortbread cookie should be crumbly, but not dry, buttery but not greasy and sweet but not sickly.

Unsalted Butter: As the base of nearly all shortbread recipes, butter supplies these classic cookies with flavor and softness. Make sure you use room temperature butter that's still cool to the touch. If it's too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense.

Traditional Scottish shortbread is a simple recipe made with sugar, butter, flour, and salt. Other shortbread styles will include leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda, which makes them crisp instead of crumbly like traditional Scottish shortbread.

Butter is an emulsifier and it makes cookies tender. It also adds in the crispy-around-the-edges element. Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly.