Christmas Shortbread Recipes

You make them by creaming butter and sugar, mixing in flour (plus a little cornstarch for tenderness), chilling the dough, then baking low at 300 to 325°F until pale and set. That is the whole method behind every recipe on this page: the flavors change, but the butter, the chill and the low oven never do. Start with the Classic Traditional Shortbread if it is your first time.

Many of them are, but not all Christmas cookies are shortbread. Shortbread is one specific family: butter, sugar and flour with no egg and no leavening, which gives it the dense, sandy crumb. Sugar cookies, by contrast, contain egg and baking powder and roll out into softer, cakier rounds, so a cookie is only shortbread if the dough follows the no-egg formula.

They spread because the butter was too warm, either when you mixed the dough or when the tray went into the oven. Melted or greasy butter, skipped chilling and an under-measured cup of flour are the three usual causes. Chill shaped dough for at least 20 minutes, use cool room temperature butter, and weigh or spoon and level your flour.

Yes, shortbread dough freezes for up to 3 months and is one of the best doughs to freeze. Wrap logs tightly, or freeze pressed pans and cut shapes on their trays before bagging. Slice-and-bake logs can be sliced straight from frozen; just add 1 to 2 minutes to the baking time.

They stay fresh for up to 2 weeks in an airtight tin at room temperature, longer than almost any other holiday cookie. Keep parchment between the layers, store strongly flavored batches like candy cane or spice in their own tin, and freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months if you need them to last past New Year.

Cornstarch softens the crumb and gives shortbread its tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture. It dilutes the flour’s protein, so the cookie stays delicate instead of tough, which is why so many recipes here swap a quarter cup of the flour for cornstarch. Rice flour does a similar job with a slightly sandier, more traditional bite.

Both work, and the right choice depends on the shape. Bake thick wedges, fingers and whipped cookies at 300°F so the centers set before the edges color, and bake thin slices and small rounds at 325°F for 12 to 16 minutes. Either way, pull the tray when the surface looks matte and set and the bottoms are barely golden.

Yes, shortbread takes icing well because the firm, flat surface holds it without sliding. A simple powdered sugar and milk glaze, like the one on the Christmas Tree Shortbread above, sets in about 30 minutes and makes the cookies sturdy enough to stack and ship. Dip or drizzle only once the cookies are completely cool, or the glaze melts and slides off.

Shortbread has no egg and a higher ratio of butter to flour, which makes it denser and more crumbly, while butter cookies usually include egg and more sugar for a lighter, crisper snap. If a recipe pipes easily and holds a swirl, it is almost always a butter cookie; if it presses, slices or pats into a pan, it is shortbread.

Crumbly is normal at the mixing stage: shortbread dough looks like damp crumbs before it is pressed, rolled or squeezed together. If it truly will not hold a shape after a minute of mixing, work in 1 to 2 teaspoons of milk or let the dough sit at room temperature for 10 minutes so the butter softens enough to bind it.

Yes, refrigerate it for at least 20 to 30 minutes before baking, and 1 to 2 hours for slice-and-bake logs. Chilling firms the butter so shapes keep their edges, and it hydrates the flour, which is what keeps the baked crumb tender instead of gritty. Warm dough going into the oven is the single most common reason for greasy, spread cookies.