I am in full Christmas cookie baking mode. My mind is absolutely swimming with all kinds of possible ideas for new cookies to share here! No doubt I’ll run out of time to bake, test, and shoot them all, but I’ll sure try. I rarely make shortbread cookies because I don’t love rolling them out. It just feels a little time consuming and fussy for me right now. But I love how simple, crisp, and buttery they are. I love how easy these Slice and Bake Shortbread Cookies are!
The dough is made in the electric stand mixer with only six ingredients, and then roll it up in a long piece of plastic wrap. You can chill the dough and then slice off what you’d like to bake whenever needed!
I shaped these cookies into little wreaths for Christmas by using my large metal piping tip to cut a hole out of the center. Five minutes before they finished baking, I pulled them out of the oven and added the holly leaf and berry decorations. Then I put them back in the oven so the decorations would bake in a little. I tried adding them prior to baking, but the ones I used melted and lost detail.
I also rolled my dough log in sparkling sugar before I sliced it into disks, but honestly, you could hardly tell! You could use green sprinkles or nonpareils (green would be so cute!) and they’d look more like wreaths. These are the holly leaf and berries I used.
A few tips on making good shortbread cookies. I used a good quality butter to make these. Typically, I just buy Costco butter, but I splurged and used Kerry Gold. I could taste the difference, especially when I sampled the dough.
Make sure your dough is well chilled before putting the cookies in the oven. If you need to slice them, cut out the middle hole, and then put them back in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking, they will hold their shape better.
Lastly, don’t rush the baking time. Shortbread should be crisp! If the baking time is too high, the outside will brown before the inside is truly baked and this will give you a chewy shortbread cookie.
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Slice and Bake Shortbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 32 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
I love how easy these Slice and Bake Shortbread Cookies are with no rolling required, and they are perfectly crisp and buttery!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces good quality salted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
- sprinkles, sparkling sugar, holly leaf decorations (optional)
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add vanilla, flour, and salt and mix until a crumbly dough forms. Add the milk and mix until the dough comes together.
- Transfer the dough to a large piece of plastic wrap and roll into a log shape about 16 inches long. Chill for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Roll the dough log in sprinkles or sparkling sugar if desired (so the edges of finished cookies will be decorated). With a sharp knife, cut the dough log in half so there are two 8 inch pieces. Rewrap one portion and place and chill until ready to use. Slice the remaining portion into 1/2 inch disks, placing each one on an unlined, ungreased baking sheet (16 per sheet). Reshape individual cookies by hand if they are not round. If you want to make a wreath shape, cut out a hole in the center of each circle with a large piping tip. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven to quickly add holly leaves and berries if desired. Return to oven and bake 5 more minutes, or until the bottom edges of the cookies are just golden brown. Bake for a total of 25-26 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Repeat slicing and baking with remaining dough. Store in an airtight container. These cookies freeze well, up to 3 months.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 92
- Sugar: 3.2g
- Sodium: 54mg
- Fat: 5.8g
- Saturated Fat: 3.7g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1.8g
- Trans Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 9.1g
- Fiber: 0.2g
- Protein: 0.9g
- Cholesterol: 15mg
kim says
can you freeze the dough then pull out and slice when needed?