Looking for easy cranberry recipes this month? This mouthwatering homemade shortbread takes only minutes to assemble and has a rich but simple flavor. Since I stock up on cranberries every fall, I am always looking for new ways to use them. I mean, cranberry sauce is delicious but I don’t want to eat it every day! However, I would happily gorge myself on shortbread cookies all year round! I added fresh orange zest to this cranberry shortbread cookie recipe and I think the two flavors blend beautifully together!
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Table of Contents
What are Shortbread Cookies?
Shortbread cookies are seriously the simplest cookie you can possibly make. Just butter, flour, a small amount of sugar and whatever flavor or add in you want to include. Today’s shortbread cookies used cranberries and orange zest. But if you want something more exotic, try my lavender shortbread cookies. If you have a bit more time for rolling and cutting, make my easy gingerbread cookies.
What is the difference between a sugar cookie and a shortbread cookie? Sugar cookies tend to me MUCH sweeter and have a ton more ingredients like eggs, vanilla, etc. The beauty of homemade shortbread is in it’s simple ingredients and buttery flavor. Basically, the ingredients are just one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour.
Why are shortbread cookies called shortbread?
Why do they call it shortbread? The term short, when applied to biscuits and pastry, means crumbly. The large percentage of butter in a shortbread cookie recipe makes the texture very crumbly. Hence, the name ‘shortbread’.
More Cranberry Recipes
Cranberry Blue Cheese Spread
Fresh Cranberry Butter Recipe with Orange and Vanilla
Cranberry Bliss Bar
Tips for Making Homemade Shortbread Cookies
Ok, shortbread cookies are incredibly simple to make, but, these tips will make them even easier. Use only REAL butter. There is no substitute! You will need it to be very soft. I recommend leaving it at room temperature overnight so that it is soft enough to blend easily in with the rest of the ingredients.
In addition, finely chop your add ins. You don’t want large chunks of stuff in your shortbread cookies. It will be much harder to slice. I used a food processor to finely chop the fresh cranberries. Don’t worry about baking the dough immediately. You can store the rolled dough in the refrigerator for several days.
How do you know when shortbread cookies are done?
This cranberry shortbread cookie recipe really does not really brown much, even when they are done cooking. You will just be able to see a slight browning around the edges. Do not overcook!
If you want a shape other than round, check out Amazon for some beautiful shortbread pans. You can get some amazing patterns in your shortbread by making them in a traditional shortbread pan.
Cranberry Shortbread Cookie Recipe
Thiseasy shortbread cookie recipe is perfect for fall entertaining. Make up the dough ahead of time and bake right before your guests arrive. And if you have extra cranberries, use them in my homemade cranberry scrub or makeCranberry Wreath DIY Place Cards!
Orange zest and freshcranberriesgive these homemade shortbread cookies loads of flavor. This Cranberry Shortbread Cookie recipe is seriously addictive!
Prep Time2 hours
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time2 hours20 minutes
Ingredients
1 cup butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup fresh cranberries finely chopped
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
Instructions
Combine the butter and sugar. Mix on medium speed until well blended.
Add flour about 1/2 cup at a time and mix until combined.
Add cranberries and orange zest. Mix well.
Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a log and wrap in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to three days
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cut dough into 1/4 inch rounds.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until the cookies start to brown.
Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet.
Makes about 2 dozen
Notes
This shortbread dough will stay good in the refrigerator for several days.
Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician atGood Pill Pharmacy. She earned her BS in Microbiology at theUniversity of New Hampshire and has worked in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging and freelance writing to share this knowledge with others. Learn more about her HERE.
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.
The key with shortbread is not to overhandle it. Make the dough exactly as instructed, but don't mess around making shapes or over rolling the dough - you will end up with delicious but tough biscuits. Stretching and pulling the dough activates the gluten in the flour, making chewy cookies and not crisp ones.
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.
Should butter be cold or room temperature for making shortbread? Always start with cold butter straight from the refrigerator. This will keep the dough from warming up, making it greasy and difficult to roll out.
Piercing the shortbread with a fork is not only for decoration, but it's meant for more even baking. Poking holes in the shortbread allows the heat to penetrate the cookie, hence more even baking. Notice I'm using powdered sugar here. You'll see lots of shortbread recipes using granulated sugar.
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.
Since you will be cooking your shortbread in the lower third of the oven, you will get some top browning as the cookie bakes. The surface of the shortbread should be a toasty light brown when it is cooked. It should never appear raw or slightly opaque in the middle.
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.
Bake for 20 minutes until the biscuits are just turning pale golden around the edges, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust generously with icing sugar. The biscuits will keep fresh for up to one week stored in an airtight tin.
Use unsalted butter for balanced flavour. Unsalted butter was traditionally used in baking because it was a superior product to salted - salt is used as a preservative so unsalted butter was thought to be fresher.
Compared to butter cookies, shortbread uses a higher ratio of butter to flour, and is baked at a lower temperature. This gives it its signature delicate consistency that crumbles in the mouth when bitten. It's also often baked in a pan and cut up after baking, rather than being cut into shapes before baking.
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.
Good shortbread is pale, buttery, crunchy, and 'short'. This means it crumbles at every bite, giving that characteristic shortbread texture. It shouldn't be soft or chewy like cookies, and it shouldn't be browned.
Making shortbread cookies with cornstarch is necessary for a tender and delicate cookie. Next time you make chocolate chip cookies, I suggest you try adding 1 Tbsp of cornstarch to the batch to help keep them extra soft and tender.
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