Typical shortbread cookies are made up of one part sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour. Some recipes have eggs, some don’t. Some recipes have chemical leavening agents, some don’t. My shortbread cookie dough is just pure sugar-butter-flour with a little salt, plus almond and vanilla extracts. I like to use a variation of this dough for wedge-shaped shortbread cookies. The dough is quite easy to work with and I’m already dreaming up new shortbread cookie recipes using it! I have step-by-step photos for you today. Visual guides are always helpful when I’m making something new, so hopefully you won’t mind all the photos in this post. To start, make sure you have enough time. Shortbread cookie dough typically needs to chill for a very long time. My cookie dough will need to chill for at least 3 hours (the longer it chills, the puffier the cookie and more time the flavors have to meld with one another into the dough). You also need the cookies to cool for 30 minutes after baked before glazing, so plan accordingly. After you mix up the dough, it will be quite soft and buttery. Shortbread cookies are supposed to be buttery, so if the dough feels extra buttery—you’re on the right track. Press the dough down to compact it into the bowl and tightly cover with plastic wrap to chill until firm at least 3 hours. Shape the chilled cookie dough into balls. Mine were about 1 Tablespoon of dough per ball. Make sure they’re nice and smooth. Then, make an indentation with your thumb into each ball. The dough may crack slightly when you press your thumb into it. Simply smooth it out with your hands if you can. Otherwise, it’s perfectly fine to have a few cracks. Fill with raspberry jam. You can certainly use any flavor jam you like best! Raspberry is my favorite and pairs beautifully with the almond/vanilla flavored dough. Bake the shortbread thumbprint cookies until very lightly browned on the edges. The cookies will puff up and spread slightly. Do not overbake these! Now… the sweet, creamy glaze! A simple glaze made from cream and confectioners’ sugar. If you don’t have cream, use milk instead. Feel free to add a bit of almond extract to the glaze as well. Drizzle the glaze onto each cookie. See it glisten over the gorgeous red filling and buttery cookies.
More Thumbprint Cookies
Lemon Thumbprint Cookies Peanut Butter Jam Thumbprints Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprints Apricot Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies Caramel Apple Spice Thumbprints
For more cookie inspiration, here are all my favorite Christmas cookies.
