Buttery Shortbread

Name: Buttery Shortbread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 16 fingers
Cuisine: Baking
Ingredients: 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, softened; ½ cup (100 g) caster sugar; 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour; ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch; ¼ tsp fine salt; 1 tbsp extra caster sugar, to finish

Three ingredients, melt-in-the-mouth, crisp and sandy.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time35 mins

Total Time1 hr 10 mins

Yield16 fingers

Before You Start

Real shortbread is just butter, sugar and flour, so the quality of each really shows. The texture you want is short and sandy, not tough, which comes from working the dough as little as possible. A little cornflour keeps it extra tender.

Instructions

1
Beat the butter and sugar just until smooth and pale, about a minute. Do not whip in lots of air.
2
Add the flour, cornflour and salt. Mix on low until the dough just clumps together. Bring it together gently with your hands.
3
Press evenly into a lined 20 cm square tin, smoothing the top. Prick all over with a fork and chill for 20 minutes.
4
Heat the oven to 150°C / 300°F. Bake for 33 to 38 minutes until pale gold, not browned.
5
While hot, sprinkle with the extra sugar and score into 16 fingers. Let it cool fully in the tin before lifting out and cutting through.

Ingredients

1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (100 g) caster sugar
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch
¼ tsp fine salt
1 tbsp extra caster sugar, to finish

Baker's Tip

For the most reliable results, weigh your ingredients with a digital scale. Measuring flour by cups can overpack it and dry out your bake. Tap any ingredient above to convert it.

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💡 Baker's tips

Keep it pale. Shortbread is meant to be barely coloured, and browning makes it taste bitter.
Score the fingers while warm but cut only once cool, so they do not crumble.

🔀 Make it your own

Add the zest of a lemon, or 2 tbsp chopped rosemary, to the sugar.
Dip cooled ends in melted chocolate for petticoat-tail style biscuits.

📦 Storing & freezing

Airtight at room temperature for 1 week. It also freezes well, baked or as raw pressed dough.

❓ Frequently asked

Why is my shortbread tough?

The dough was over-worked, which develops gluten. Mix only until it just comes together and press it into the tin rather than kneading.

How much is a cup of butter in grams?

One US cup of butter is 227 g (two sticks). Use the butter converter if you are scaling the batch up or down.

Baking in a different unit? Use the cups ↔ grams converter or the recipe scaler to halve or double this recipe.