Melt in your mouth tender shortbread. Perfect for snacking alongside a cup of coffee or tea.

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“What is this it’s amazing?” Is what everyone says the first time they try this shortbread recipe, followed up with, “Can you give me the recipe?” I am always delighted to share it because it only calls for a few ingredients, is easy to make, and stores really well (fresh up to 5 days in an airtight container).

The shortbread is extremely snackable, and if I am in the mood for an indulgent treat with my morning coffee, it goes perfectly with it.

The original version of this recipe has fresh rosemary in it, and I tried it at a friend’s wedding. It was sitting on a dessert table, and I only grabbed it because I was doubtful that the brownie I chose would be any good (baker’s curse—I have high standards). I tried them & had the “have you tried these? They’re so good & I’m not sharing,” conversation with my husband on the way back to the table.

I told the couple sitting with us (related to the bride) how good they were, & asked if they knew what I was eating. To my delight, he said “Yes, it’s Rosemary shortbread. My mom made them, & she would love to share the recipe with you.” I found her & she emailed the recipe the next week. This version has brown butter in it, but I will share the rosemary version soon!

The shortbread is soft, & melts in your mouth, not crunchy (or dry) like most shortbread. It’s extremely snackable & divine with coffee. I recommend having a plan for where it will go when you make it, or you might accidentally keep them all for yourself in a single afternoon.

Bonus that peoples’ reaction is always,“What is this? It’s amazing.” Enjoy!

Ingredients

1/2 cup Unsalted butter, browned
1/4 cup sugar + 4 teaspoons, for dusting
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon Sea salt
1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour

Equipment you’ll need

Stand mixer or hand mixer: For mixing the dough. I find the hand mixer works particularly well with this recipe.

Medium and large metal mixing bowl: For cooling the butter

Large balloon whisk: For whipping the butter, could also use hand mixer

Measuring cups & spoons: For measuring the ingredients

Kitchen scale: For measuring the flour, if you own one

Parchment Paper: For lining the baking pan

8x8 baking pan (metal preferred): For baking the shortbread

When I use this recipe

I don’t usually make this recipe for an every day craving, since I tend to eat most of it myself (as I mentioned, extremely snackable). This recipe in particular was developed for my Home Coffee shop combined with a love of browned butter in baked goods. I also love to make shortbread for wedding showers, baby showers, and holiday treat boxes. They are the perfect dessert for the person who doesn’t really like sweets since they are small and melt in your mouth butter flavor.

Step by step instructions with pictures

Method:

Preheat the oven to 300°F, and line an 8"x8" baking pan with parchment paper. You technically don't need the parchment, but it is much easier to remove when it has parchment, so you can get prettier pieces.

Prepare a large bowl with a couple of handfuls of ice and cold water, then place a medium-sized metal bowl in the ice water. Place a container with two tablespoons of water next to it.

Brown the butter in a small saucepan (see explanation on browning butter if needed). Once the butter starts to foam and the crackling slows down to a polite applause, removed the pan from the heat and pour all of the butter into the metal bowl sitting in the ice bath. Be sure to scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom and get it into the mixing bowl--that's where you'll get the caramel flavor.

Start whisking immediately with a large balloon whisk or electric mixer on low. After about 30 seconds, add two tablespoons of water to the butter. Keep whisking until the butter reaches a soft room temperature, about 2 minutes.

If the butter starts to freeze to the sides, remove from the ice bath and continue whisking. Check the temperature of the butter, and return to the ice bath if it still feels warm to the touch. If the butter is still warm, it will liquify when the sugar is added and not be able to hold air, and you’ll miss out on the flakey buttery texture. When the butter is at the right consistency, it should feel at least body temperature or a little bit cooler and have a whipped appearance (see below).

Remove the bowl from the ice bath. Add sugar to the butter, and whip together for two minutes with a hand mixer, scraping the sides with a rubber spatula as needed.

Add the salt and vanilla and mix for 30 more seconds until thoroughly combined.

Scrape the side of the bowl with a large rubber spatula. Add the flour (fluff flour with a whisk, and scoop into measuring cup to measure if you aren't measuring by weight. Use the flat side of a butter knife to level; do not shake to level.), and mix on low until butter just starts to coat all of the flour and form small clumps. Use a rubber spatula to stir and make sure no dry pockets of flour are at the bottom.

Press into the prepared baking pan and dust evenly with 4 teaspoons of sugar. I like to use organic granulated sugar because the crystals are larger, but nonorganic sugar works here as well.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the corners barely start to brown and the middle starts to look puffy. You can kind of see the puffy spots in the below picture.

Let cool for 15 minutes or until the pan is cool to the touch before removing from pan and cutting. I like to cut into 16-20 squares or rectangles, but sometimes I cut them into triangles. They are slightly more fragile when they are cut into triangles, so be mindful when you store them. Store in an airtight container for up to five days or in the freezer for up to one month.

How to Brown Butter

If you’ve never browned butter before, you may feel intimidated, but I promise with a little bit of supervision you’ll know how to zhuzh up an every day ingredient into something even more complex and special.

The process of browning the butter does two things: 1) Cooks off the water in the butter, which means that the resulting browned butter will be about 20-25 grams lighter, and have about 30% less volume than butter that has been simply melted; and 2) Separates the whey, or milk proteins, from the butter fat and toasts the milk protein so that it has a wonderful nutty caramel aroma and flavor (if you’re a food science nerd, this is called the Maillard Reaction, and is the same process that makes perfectly browned grilled cheese so delicious).

If you start the process with butter cold from the fridge, it takes about 5 minutes over a medium heat. The trick with browning butter, is that it can go from browned to burnt in a matter of seconds, even after it is taken off the heat. When I had my home bakery, I had a cookie recipe that I used to make thousands of massive (almost 1/2 lb cookies), and the recipe took a lot of browned butter, so I have had quite a bit of practice, and here is what I have learned:

Use a small - medium stainless steal (not non-stick or glass) saucepan to brown the butter. If you are browning a large amount, then make sure you use a medium-large sauce pan since the butter foams and expands as the water is evaporating.
Once the butter is fully melted and starts to crackle (this is the sound of the water evaporating) watch it very closely. Don’t walk away or multitask or you could miss the window.
Keep an eye on the pan as it is cooking, and rotate it or scrape the sides with a rubber spatula if you notice one part of the pan is browning the butter early.
Use your ears to tell when it is close. Dorie Greenspan described the crackling slowing down to a “polite applause” when it is almost done, and a few seconds after is when I typically remove the pan from the heat.
Another sign it is ready is when it starts to foam and smell nutty, take it off the heat. You won’t be able to see the browning, but trust me it is forming beneath the foam.
If you move the foam aside and can see the bottom of the pan, and nothing looks browned yet, do not fret—the carry over heat from the pan will finish the browning. If you wait a few seconds too long and the butter is turning dark brown, then quickly use a rubber spatula to scrape all of the browned bits into an empty bowl before the residual heat from the pan over cooks it.
Be careful adding any other ingredients to it, if it has moisture, it will seize, and the steam can burn.
Wait a few minutes for the pan to cool before using a rubber spatula to scrape all of the lovely brown bits you can into a heat proof bowl

Can this recipe be doubled?

Yes! I double it all of the time, and make it in a 9x13” pan. I wouldn’t try to triple or quadruple and bake in a larger pan, because it can be difficult to bake properly and may dry out before fully cooking.

My shortbread turned out crunchy, what went wrong?

You probably over mixed the dough. You want the dough to look like wet sand and barely come together (see the picture). The alternative is that they were over baked. If they start to brown then they have gone too far. Make sure you watch closely at the end of baking and bake on the center rack of the oven.