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Classic Scottish Shortbread
Because of its climate, Scotland's national grain has traditionally been the oat. This shortbread recipe is a toast to this tradition, using ground oats in addition to the standard all-purpose flour to create thick slabs of shortbread with crumbly/crunchy texture and delightfully nutty/buttery flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
- generous 1/2 teaspoon salt*
- 1 cup oats, traditional or quick
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- *If you use salted butter, reduce the salt to 1/4 teaspoon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8" round cake pan.
- The easiest way to make the dough is in a food processor. Place all of the ingredients into the work bowl, and process to make a smooth, sticky dough.
- If you don't have a food processor, grind the oats in a blender before using. If you don't have a blender or food processor, use quick oats, rather than traditional. Combine the oats with the remaining ingredients, and mix until smooth.
- Press the dough into the prepared pan, and score it into 16 wedges. A knife or baker's bench knife, dipped in water between cuts, is the tool to use here.
- Bake the shortbread for 35 to 40 minutes, until it's firm and golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out of the pan onto a piece of parchment, or a clean work surface. Cut all the way through the score marks to make wedges. Place them on a rack to cool completely.
- Yield: 16 shortbread wedges.
Tips from our bakers
- For more traditional shortbread, reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup. The Scots generally prefer their shortbread less sweet.
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Reviews
Yesterday I made a combo of this recipe and your chocolate shortbread recipe. They came out so amazingly good we made more today to take to a pot luck dinner. I used ground oats and the proportions from this recipe, incorporated cocoa and vanilla from the other recipe. I found that i had to add an extra tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of milk to get the dough to stick together. So delicious--not too sweet and the oats are a really nice touch.
These are so delicious! Buttery and sweet but not too sweet. Maybe it's the oats that balances out the recipe. I'll make these again!
LOVE this recipe. After trying quite a few shortbread recipes, this is now my go-to. So quick and easy to mix up when the sweet tooth hits. I do pulse the oats in the food processor a few times before adding the other ingredients. I've also played with the flavor by adding lemon zest, lime zest, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, or whatever I was in the mood for that day. Have made them MANY times and always delicious.
I did this recipe in the former of cookie "dough drops", then froze them. I took out a dozen from freezer, baked them at 350 degrees for 14 minutes plus 2-3 more minutes, cooled on rack, and put powered sugar on them. Very good! :) Thank you KAF and especially for the oatmeal in them!
I wasn't sure what was mean by 'firm' so I think I overcooked it be a couple of minutes and it came out brown and tasted a bit overdone
Great recipe. Worked perfectly first time, using food processor. Yummy
Just tried this recipe for the first time. It's cooled for 5 min. and been cut but hasn't cooled enough to try. It smells WONDERFUL!!! Trying to keep my husband from taking one till they cool. It's a challenge. Would appreciate tips for storage, air tight container or loosely covered? Judging by the smell, storage may not be a problem.We're guessing your shortbread has probably disappeared by now, but any leftovers should be kept in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Happy baking! Kye@KAF
I love shortbread and have baked a number of recipes. This has become my absolute favorite. Everyone who has tried it raves about the texture and taste. It is also the easiest because everything is mixed in a food processor and it does not require refrigeration or rolling out. Use a high quality butter or splurge on European style butter which has a higher butterfat content (kerrygold, Plugra and Lurpak come to mind) because that is the predominant flavor. I do run the oatmeal in the processor for a few minutes first to get a finer milled oat flour. I have also baked the dough in a square pan. In addition to scoring the dough, I dock it with a fork to minimize puffing up during baking. The raw dough freezes well and just needs to be thawed before baking.
Without a doubt. This recipe makes the best Scottish Shortbread that I have ever had. The oat flour and the toasted butter flavor make these totally addictive! The initial taste is mild as other shortbread cookies are, but the flavor develops into an explosion of delicious browned butter flavor!
This recipe turned out great - I really like the taste of the oats and they are just the right amount of sweetness. The only change I made was to add some lemon zest and I pressed it into an 8X8 square pan so I ended up with fingers. Next time I'll grind up the oats in the food processor first, then add the other ingredients because there were some larger pieces of oats left. I've tried many many recipes for shortbread over the years and think this is the one I'll stick with in the future.
