Walker's Scottish Shortbread Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making good shortbread cookies? ›

While our packaging is new, our all-butter shortbread is still baked to same delicious recipe you know and love using only 4 ingredients; butter, flour, sugar and salt. Embodying Scotland's essence, the Walker's new tartan echoes the spirit of Aberlour, our home by the River Spey.

As mentioned above, the main differences between the two styles of cookies are butter content and inclusion of leavening agents. These differences result in very different texture and taste experiences. No matter your preference, you can be sure to get a quality product from Walkers Shortbread.

Of course, as with all Walker's Shortbread cookies, there's not a artificial flavoring, additive or coloring to be found and are made with only the finest ingredients. Creamery butter, finest flour, sugar and salt, along with four generations of Scottish baking expertise.

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.

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. You should use unsalted butter to control the salt content, but if you only have salted on hand, reduce the amount of added salt accordingly.

So what makes it so good? “Good shortbread should have many different qualities, including taste and texture” says Jim. “But the most important quality is the flavour of the finest pure butter. Walkers Shortbread is virtually the only company of any size that uses only pure butter in its shortbreads.”

The high butter quantity in shortbread (one part sugar to two parts butter) gives it that delightfully crumbly feel. And also its name. This is because the old meaning of the world “short” reflects this crumbliness and so the name 'shortbread' stuck.

Why do you put shortbread cut-out cookies in the fridge before baking? This is to resolidify the butter. The butter is at room temperature when making the dough resulting in a soft dough. If baked straight away, the butter would melt away immediately when hitting the hot oven and the shortbread would spread.

Shortbread is now Trefoils®! April Bowen that's a good point.

What is shortbread called in America? ›

To most of the rest of the English-speaking world, a biscuit is what Americans would refer to as either a cookie or a cracker. Biscuits can be sweet (shortbread) or savory. They're baked in the oven, and they're crisp, not chewy.

It has been suggested that a French term for the wedges of shortbread was petit* gâteaux or petites gatelles – little cakes, and this became "petticoat tails". It is now thought the Scots term derives from the decorated round edge of the segments which resemble petticoats.

Joseph Walker founded the company when he opened his village bakery in 1898; now it is his grandchildren and great grandchildren that continue the tradition of fine baking that he started.

Our Traditions:

From day one, we have always vowed to deliver the best that Scotland has to offer – driving quality and excellence to form a true Scottish classic.

Recipe video above.

I'm a firm believer that shortbread cookies should be sinfully buttery and delectably tender. And these are, as great shortbread cookies should be, not that sweet, quite delicate and when you bite into them, they crumble softly, as demonstrated in the VIDEO!

Then chill the dough, so that it's easier to cut into fingers (or any other shape you like using cookie cutters), pierce the cookies with a fork (to minimize spreading), and chill the cut cookie dough a little more before baking.

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. If the dough does get soft or sticky as you're rolling or cutting it, just put it back in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to chill the butter.

Cornstarch provides the shortbread with structure, but its biggest job is keeping the cookies extra soft, tender, and light. I love adding a small amount to chocolate chip cookies too. Optional Coarse Sugar Topping: For an optional sparkly crunch on your shortbread wedges, add a sprinkle of coarse sugar before baking.