Shortbread
- Rahul Mandal
- Sep 12, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 14, 2025
This shortbread is simple to make, buttery, delicious and not overly sweet. It starts with the basic 1:2:3 ratio - 1part sugar, 2 parts butter and 3 parts flour. I personalise this recipe with added cardamom plus pinch of salt and it works beautifully.
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter
150g plain flour
50g caster sugar
3g salt
1tsp vanilla bean paste
1.5tsp ground cardamom
Decoration
10g granulated sugar to sprinkle on top
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 10mins
Baking time: 40-45mins
Method
Preheat the oven to 150o C. Grease and line an 8 inch loose bottom baking tin with baking paper or greaseproof paper (bottom and sides).
Rub the butter and flour together until it starts to get the texture of wet sand. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well to form a dough. Place the dough in the prepared baking tin.
Flatten the dough using the back of a spoon. Crimp the edges using two fingers to give it the distinctive shortbread appearance. Score the dough into 8 pieces and, using a skewer, make holes in concentric circles. Sprinkle the granulated sugar on top. Place the dough in the fridge for 20mins.
Bake the chilled dough in the oven for 25mins and then lower the temperature to 135oC and for a further 15mins. It will be golden around the edges.
Once baked, take it out of the oven, let it cool for 5 mins (in the tin), then score again on the previous scoring marks. This will make it easier to separate once cooled.
After about an hour, slowly take the biscuits out of the tin, and separate them carefully. Store in an airtight container and enjoy over 3-4 days.