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These Shortbread Cookies are soo soo good with hot tea. They are tasty as-is and even better with the raspberry preserves. These were one of the cookies I made for Christmas, but you can use any shape cookie cutters as long as they are symmetrical for the cookie sandwiches (i.e. heart, circle, star).
Get your kids in on making these with you. They can cut out the cookies, spread raspberry preserve and even dust the powered sugar. Of course, I had my 5 month old do all those things!
Ingredients Shortbread Cookies:
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
¾ cup raspberry preserves (I used “Smuckers Red Raspberry Preserves”)
Powdered sugar for dusting
How to Make Shortbread Cookies with Raspberry Preserves:
Preheat Oven to 350°F after step 3.
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the 3 sticks of butter and 1 cup of sugar on medium speed until they are combined. Add 1 tsp vanilla.
(You can use a hand mixer or a wooden spoon for this).
2. In a separate bowl, mix together 3 1/2 cups of flour and 1/4 tsp of salt and add 1 cup at a time into the sugar/butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. The sides of your bowl should be pretty clean when it’s done.
(If using a hand mixer, you will have to mix in the flour and salt by hand or using a wooden spoon).
3. Shape the dough into a disk and cover it with plastic wrap. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.
Preheat the Oven to 350˚F.
4. Remove dough from the fridge and roll ¼ of the dough at a time on a floured surface slightly larger 1/8” thick. Keep any unused portion wrapped up.
5. Use cookie cutters to stamp out your cookies. I used a straw to make the hole in the center. Have a sharp spatula or food scraper on hand to pick them up easier.
6. Place all cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn golden.
7. Let cookies cool to room temperature, then spread a thin layer of raspberry preserves on the flat side of half of the cookies. Press cookies together and dust the tops with powdered sugar. Keep them in tupperware in the fridge up to 3 days.
Notes:
These cookies were adapted from Barefoot Contessa’s Linzer cookies. You can add some ground nuts to the batter and have what are called “linzer” cookies. Raspberry preserves and raspberry jam is not the same thing. Also, sugar free preserves are nasty so don’t even go there!
If you want to serve the cookies without the raspberry preserves, cut them ¼” thick and bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 350˚ F. Try drizzling them with melted chocolate!
Shortbread Cookies with Raspberry Preserves
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¾ pound unsalted butter (3 sticks) , at room temperature
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- ¾ cup raspberry preserves
- Powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the 3 sticks of butter and 1 cup of sugar on medium speed until they are combined. Add 1 tsp vanilla.
- (You can use a hand mixer or a wooden spoon for this).
- In a separate bowl, mix together 3 1/2 cups of flour and 1/4 tsp of salt and add 1 cup at a time into the sugar/butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. The sides of your bowl should be pretty clean when it's done.
- (If using a hand mixer, you will have to mix in the flour and salt by hand or using a wooden spoon).
- Shape the dough into a disk and cover it with plastic wrap. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the Oven to 350˚F.
- Remove dough from the fridge and roll ¼ of the dough at a time on a floured surface slightly larger 1/8” thick. Keep any unused portion wrapped up.
- Use cookie cutters to stamp out your cookies. I used a straw to make the hole in the center. Have a sharp spatula or food scraper on hand to pick them up easier.
- Place all cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn golden.
- Let cookies cool to room temperature, then spread a thin layer of raspberry preserves on the flat side of half of the cookies. Press cookies together and dust the tops with powdered sugar. Keep them in tupperware in the fridge up to 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
A real winner ..my one mistake was that I only made one doze.. definitely will be making again..
I’m so glad you loved it, Donna! Thank you for sharing.
Really hard to roll out. I did what other reviewers said and added 3 egg yolks to it, popped in fridge again and it saved my cookies. Not sure why the original didn’t work. I followed it exactly.
Hi Diana, I wonder if maybe there was too much flour added or something was changed in the proportion of the ingredients? Check out our video on how we measure dry ingredients.
I was searching for a good shortbread cookie recipe and your site was displayed. I need look no further!
LA
I’m so glad you found it on my site! Welcome!
Hi, I love you recipes and introduce you blog to everyone, question about this cookie dough. How long can I fridge the dough ( uncooked)
Thank you for that, Araz. Yes, but you may need to sprinkle on a little extra flower after thawing the dough if it seems sticky when rolling out.
Hi Natasha, I tried the Baked salmon with garlic and Dijon on my Basa filets and it was fantastic. We eat fish twice a week and I’ve memorized the recipe because we use it all the time now. Thank you for posting it.
You’re welcome, Joanne! I’m happy you enjoyed that!
Hi Natasha can I substitute vanilla extract for honey?
Hi Rana, honey and vanilla extract work very differently and have different purposes in baking. Vanilla is a flavoring while honey is a sweetener. I think this recipe would still work out without the vanilla but it does add a nice flavor.
Hi, Natasha!
I have made my mind to make some of your cookies (Shortbread Stars, Finnish Meringue, Walnut Rugelach) and give them away as Christmas gifts (risky! 😀 ), but I am worried whether I could do the dough mixing by hand? (I don’t have any KithenAid-like mixer)…could you give me some guidance? Do I need to mix hard until I get non-sticky consistency and problem solved? Thank you! Happy Christmas!
Hi Oxana, the only one you really need a mixer for is the Finnish meringue cookies for the meringue part. Do you have an electric hand mixer? That would do the trick but beat an extra 2 to 3 minutes since a handmixer is not as efficient as a stand mixer. I hope that helps! Also, if you can be patient enough to wait until tomorrow, I have a really great new cookie recipe coming up, but that one also does require an electric hand mixer at least since it has meringue in it as well.
That one I do have! Thank you! Cant’t wait to see the new recipe.
Out of all these mentioned cookies, Meringue Shells were the biggest hit! I followed all instructions and all these recipes turned out perfect. Thank you!
You’re welcome Oxana! I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe. Thanks for sharing!
I want to make them for Christmas! Can I make this cookies and put icing on top that dries quickly?
Hi Julia, I do think that would work well 🙂 I hope you post a picture of your cookies online and tag me when they’re all done! I’d love to see them! 🙂
Sorry question can I chill the dough overnight
Yes, but you may need to sprinkle on a little extra flower after thawing the dough if it seems sticky when rolling out.
Wow these look really way good and yummm my aunt Shirley would totally love these and the fact that it’s optional to drizzle with chocolate I will definitely drizzle some cookies with chocolate gotta make these sometime
They won’t disappoint, you must give them a try 😁.
Same happened with my dough. It was way to crumbly and I didn’t use all the flour. I put 4 egg yolks in and still a bit dry. But I will try to refrigerate it and see.
Did you use the full 3 sticks of butter? Also, what kind of flour did you use? American or Canadian? If using Canadian, you usually have to use less because there is a higher gluten content in Canadian. That could be why??
Had same problem as ladies wrote up here in comments.
Had to put eggs in the dough so it sticks together..
A to vse kroshki byli.
I am making holiday treats for my son’s teachers, one of them has a nut allergy. I know some things contain nuts or are processed in factories that also contain nuts. Would you happen to know if this is nut-free?
Thank you!
These don’t have nuts in them unless you add them. Make sure you buy flour in a bag rather than from a bin if possible since cross-contamination is possible in the bins; in case there is an almond flour in a nearby bin. The ingredients for this recipe are nut-free. Always check the labels on the products you buy. The allergy statement is usually BOLD faced under the list of ingredients and it will say “Contains nuts.” The easy answer; yes; this is nut free 🙂
horrible experience with this recipe 🙁 couldn’t even roll the dough out!! I think you should edit it.. check and see what you missed…
Ina is it possible that you refrigerated the dough too long? You might try a little flour over the top of it to help it roll out easier.
Ladies, i had the same problem. The dough was too crumbly. I just added 3 egg yokes and they turned out perfect. My daughtet loved them!
i just made these and im having the same problem as angie…..too crumbly they wont roll out…..a bit disappointed 🙁 my 4 year old was really looking to cut out the shapes in the dough. i used an all purpose flour
I’m sorry to hear that 🙁 I’m not sure what might have gone wrong. Did you refrigerate for 30 min?
Natasha,
I made these with my sister and the dough turned out so crumbly that we could barely roll it out to make the cookies. Still trying to figure out what went wrong, maybe we just don’t know how to bake. But I followed everything in the instructions that you posted. Any suggestions?
When you measured the flour, did you use a dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape off the top? It sounds like you might have had a little too much flour. It really shouldn’t have been crumbly. Also, what kind of flour did you use? All-purpose, Canadian?
Natasha,
Approximatley, how many nuts would you add to this recipe to make the Linzer cookies (1 cup? 2?) I had a great Linzer cookie recipe but I lost it. I found a new one online but the cookies are way too crumbly and get soggy from the preserves if you do not eat them the very first day. I am hoping that this recipe will work, since everything else I have tried from your site has been wonderful. Thank you! 🙂
They didn’t get soggy. The second day, they were soft and wonderful, but not soggy. I don’t remember exactly how much nuts I used, but I don’t think it was more than 1 cup. I would try one cup. 2 may be too much.
My sweet tooth is asking for these. Stop taking such yummy pictures.