Crumbly yet soft shortbread cookies finished with a beautiful glaze. These Glazed Shortbread Cookies are as pretty as they are delicious!
12 DAYS OF HOLIDAY TREATS: DAY 7
Welcome to Day 7 of SugarSpicesLife 12 Days of Holiday Treats, a 12 day recipe series! Today’s Recipe: Glazed Shortbread Cookies.
Glazed Shortbread Cookies
Shortbread
Several years ago I went to Scotland for my friend Nicole’s wedding. Before that, I had always liked shortbread – I mean I’ve always said give me all the Panera and Girl Scout shortbread cookies – but that trip opened my eyes even more to the wonders of shortbread.
I bought a few boxes of shortbread cookies to bring back for my family. Somehow they got lost between Scotland and Maryland (i.e. I ate them). But that was okay. The following year my mom went to Scotland and brought me a couple of shortbread cookbooks.
Christmas Goodie Fail
Last year I decided to add shortbread cookies to my Christmas treat gift boxes. The cookies were good, but as I was packing up my house to move while making cookies, a lot of them got burned.
I then tried to decorate the cookies while packing up my kitchen. So, I tried to cut corners and quickly make the icing look interesting. I swirled red and green food coloring into some glaze and then dipped the cookies in.
It was a fail. The cookies turned into an ugly brown mess. I just looked for a photo of them to show you, but it appears I just skipped that step altogether.
My husband, who has little appreciation for food aesthetics, admitted that they did not look appetizing.
Redemption
I needed to redeem myself this year because after all, the cookies were really delicious. So, I took more time, experimented, watched and timed them, and finally got them to a point where I’m excited to share the recipe!
Ingredients
The ingredients for these cookies are:
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Ratios
There are SO many different shortbread cookie recipes, and the ratios of sugar to butter to flour vary greatly.
I landed on the above ingredient combination because it makes for a crumbly cookie that is a bit on the soft side, and not overly sweet. My version of shortbread perfection!
Butter
If you don’t have unsalted butter, it’s okay to use salted butter – but you’ll need to cut back the amount of added salt. As various brands have differing amounts of salt in their butter, I mostly use unsalted butter in my recipes so that I know we’re all on the same salt page.
Decoration
The top of the cookes are dipped in glaze. But this year, instead of making a brown mess, I used white glaze. It works out well because it gives you a clean slate to decorate however you want.
You could certainly put sprinkles on the glaze, but I chose to draw designs using a royal icing. My royal icing recipe is in my Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing post.
These Glazed Shortbread Cookies are crumbly, buttery and lightly sweetened. Topped with a sweet glaze, they’re both delicious and beautiful!
Glazed Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
Method
- Use electric mixer to beat butter and sugar until just combined (do not overmix).
- Mix in vanilla extract until incorporated.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Slowly mix in flour mixture until combined. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Place dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Lightly flour a working surface. Roll dough out until it’s about 1/4″ thick. Use 2 1/2 inch round cookie or biscuit cutter to cut out dough. Place rounds 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet, or cookie sheet lined with silicone baking mats.
- Bake for 13-16 minutes, or until cookies just turn a light golden brown. Let cool completely before decorating.
- In bowl with shallow sides, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Slowly whisk in milk until desired consistency is reached.
- Dip tops of the cooled cookies into glaze. Shake off excess glaze. Set on cooling rack and let set for several hours before storing or before adding royal icing.
- Stir together powdered sugar and meringue powder. Gradually still in water. Stir in vanilla until smooth.
- Divide icing into number of bowls corresponding to number of colors you want to use.
- Add gel food coloring and mix until desired color is reached.
- Icing can be applied using a pastry bag or bottles. I prefer Wilton 6oz squeeze bottles.
- Let royal icing sit for at least 3 hours before storing (overnight is okay as well).
If you enjoyed these Glazed Shortbread Cookies, you might also enjoy these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies with Nutella Filling
Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
Easy Cutout Sugar Cookies
Sugar Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Homemade Funfetti Cake
Santa love these!
haha agreed, he definitely does! 🙂