Let me teach you how to make buttery shortbread wedge cookies using this simple 6 ingredient dough. There’s no chilling necessary and the cookies will never over-spread because you’re baking them in round pans. Keep the cookies vanilla flavored or spruce up the dough with add-ins such as cinnamon, pecans, sprinkles, peppermint extract, chocolate chips, and more.
One reader, Alison, commented: “Delicious! Love shortbread cookies and this may be one of my favorites! Love how quick, easy, and customizable you can make these. ★★★★★“
Another reader, Autumn, commented: “I love how easy they are to make and the versatility of the recipe to make lots of different types. My personal favorite was cinnamon pecan. Delicious! ★★★★★“
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the word “wedges” while putting this recipe together. But it’s been so many times that I’ve accidentally typed “shortbread wedgies” at least twice now. Anyway, let me tell you about these shortbread WEDGES!
These are my perfect shortbread wedge cookies flavored virtually however you’d like, baked in a cake pan, and cut into triangles/wedges. With no add-ins, they’re pleasantly sweet with rich butter and vanilla flavors. You’ll divide the dough in half to make 2 pans of cookies, so you can flavor each half of dough different ways. Creativity is welcome here!
You Will Love This Shortbread Recipe:
- 6 ingredient dough with lots of optional add-ins
- No rolling pin, no cookie cutters
- 1 mixing bowl
- No dough chilling—ready in under an hour, making it the perfect recipe to tackle while waiting for your other Christmas cookies to chill. This recipe also joins 30+ others in my collection of Quick Dessert Recipes—ready in 1 hour or less!
- Cookies will never over-spread
- Another egg-free baking recipe
- Delicious alongside coffee, tea, & hot chocolate
- Texture: crumbly, yet tender
- Flavor: buttery, vanilla, mildly sweet
Traditional shortbread recipes are 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour. Sometimes there’s vanilla and salt, but there’s no egg and no leavening. Delicious, for sure, but I’ve been making shortbread cookies with a slightly different ratio. Some of my favorite recipes include these flavored cherry almond shortbread, pecan shortbread, lemon shortbread, & brown sugar shortbread that are icebox/slice & bake style, and sweet & salty chocolate pistachio shortbread. I also make chocolate cashew shortbread wedges, a recipe you can find in my cookbook along with a few other variations!
6 Ingredient Shortbread Dough
- Unsalted Butter: As the base of nearly all shortbread recipes, butter supplies these classic cookies with flavor and softness. Make sure you use room temperature butter that’s still cool to the touch. If it’s too warm, the butter and sugar cannot properly cream and the cookies will taste dense. (Here’s more on how to cream butter and sugar, if you’re interested.) Many shortbread recipes call for cold butter worked into the dry ingredients and that gives you a wonderfully flaky cookie but if not mixed properly, the results can be inconsistent. I usually stick with creamed room temperature butter.
- Granulated Sugar: I go back and forth between confectioners’ sugar or granulated sugar in shortbread recipes. Confectioners’ sugar keeps the cookies light and tender, but you often need more of it to get the same amount of sweetness. (And then an adjustment to butter or flour is ideal.) I’ve been using granulated sugar in these shortbread wedge cookies and I replace some flour with cornstarch, which helps give us that light texture again. By the way, this recipe is a great place to use homemade vanilla sugar because the vanilla flavor can really shine!
- Vanilla: 1 and 1/2 teaspoons gives us substantial vanilla flavor, especially if you use homemade vanilla extract. Feel free to add the beans scraped from 1/2 of a vanilla bean.
- Salt: 1/4 teaspoon of regular salt keeps the flavor balanced and the cookies are pleasantly sweet. If you like a little more salt flavor, increase the amount to 1/2 teaspoon.
- All-Purpose Flour: I test varying amounts of flour in shortbread recipes regularly and find 2 cups of spooned & leveled flour paired with 1/4 cup cornstarch produces sturdy, yet terrifically tender shortbread wedge cookies.
- Cornstarch: Again, cornstarch really is the “secret” to texture success here. Cornstarch provides the shortbread with structure, but its biggest job is keeping the cookies extra soft, tender, and light, just like it does in peppermint meltaway cookies. 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. I usually reach for white “sparkling sugar” sold as sprinkles in the baking aisle.
Overview: How to Make These Shortbread Cookies
These shortbread wedge cookies are great for beginners because the prepwork is fairly simple and the dough comes together in just 1 bowl.
The video tutorial and full printable recipe are below, but let me walk you through the basics with step photos so you know what to expect. Start by creaming the butter and sugar together, and then add the vanilla and salt. Finally, mix in the flour and cornstarch. Beat on low speed to begin bringing all of the ingredients together. The dough will be very crumbly at first, but then clump up when you turn up the speed. Let me show you the difference.
Below, left: Dough is crumbly and dry at first. Below, right: Dough finally clumps together.
Divide the dough in half and press into 2 lined 8-inch cake pans. If you’re shopping for new pans, I use and love these cake pans and these cake pans. If you use 9-inch cake pans instead, the cookies will be quite thin unless you add an add-in such as nuts, dried cranberries, or chocolate chips.
Now you’ll have 2 pans of pressed dough. Top with optional coarse sugar and dock with a fork so steam can escape these butter-heavy treats. And whoops… my hand got a little heavy with the coarse sugar here. You don’t need quite as much unless you love the sweet crunch!
Bake, cool, and then slice into 8 large, 12 medium, or 16 small wedges.
Can I Use This Dough for Other Shortbread Cookies?
Yes! Let me detail the specifics for you:
- Shortbread Bars: Instead of wedges, bake this dough as shortbread bars in 2 8-inch square baking pans. Or bake the dough in 1 9×13-inch baking pan. The bars baked in a 9×13-inch pan will be quite thin unless you add an add-in such as chocolate chips or nuts. The bake time for bars in either size pan is about the same as below, but begin checking at 25 minutes. They’re done when the tops and edges are very lightly browned.
- Thumbprints: You can use a variation of this dough to make thumbprint cookies. Substitute the cornstarch for the same amount (about 30g or 1/4 cup) of all-purpose flour. Chill the dough for 3 hours. This is exactly the recipe I use when making raspberry almond thumbprints—and I add a touch of almond extract to the dough. Follow the assembly/baking instructions from that recipe.
- As a Shortbread Crust: Press the dough into a 9×13-inch pan and use as the crust for lemon bars. Or you can halve all of the ingredients in the recipe below and use as the crust for lemon blueberry tart, raspberry streusel bars, or apple pie bars. Each of these 4 linked recipes call for melted butter in the crust, but using today’s recipe provides a slightly sturdier and flakier foundation. Follow each linked recipe as instructed (including pre-baking the crust if necessary), only swapping in today’s dough.
I do not recommend using this recipe for shaped/cookie cutter shortbread cookies. The butter-heavy dough loses shape in the oven. Instead, I recommend my regular sugar cookies or these lemon shortbread cookies.
And finally, let’s add some goodies!
Flavors & Add-Ins
Add liquids/zest when you add the vanilla & beat in dry add-ins (such as nuts, sprinkles, or chocolate chips) on low speed after the dough is all mixed/clumped together. If adding spices such as cinnamon, add when you add the flour & cornstarch. *You can also divide the dough in half and beat half of these add-ins (including liquids/extracts if needed) into half of the dough.
- Plain: Keep the recipe as written below. Feel free to drizzle with salted caramel or melted chocolate or decorate with royal icing, this cookie icing, or vanilla buttercream. The pictured green cookies are decorated with vanilla buttercream tinted green to look like a Christmas tree! I used Wilton #32 piping tip.
- Peppermint: Add 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract. After the cookies have cooled, drizzle 4 ounces (113g) of melted semi-sweet chocolate on top, and sprinkle with crushed candy canes.
- Sprinkles: Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract and 1/3 cup (about 50g) of sprinkles. Instead of coarse sugar, sprinkle a few teaspoons of more sprinkles on top of the pressed dough before docking and baking.
- Chocolate Chip: Add 3/4 cup (135g) mini chocolate chips. I recommend mini size so you get more chocolate in each cookie. Keeping that in mind, feel free to use 1 cup (180g) regular size instead.
- Cinnamon Pecan: Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 cup (130g) chopped pecans. Instead of coarse sugar, sprinkle the pressed dough with a mixture of 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
Other add-ins: 1 cup (about 130g) chopped any nut variety, 3/4 cup (about 115g) dried cranberries or raisins, 1 cup (about 180g) flavored morsels such as butterscotch or white chocolate, 1 teaspoon your favorite extract, 1 Tablespoon (15ml) citrus juice such as lemon or orange + 2 teaspoons zest, or 3/4 cup (about 115g) Heath Bar Bits O’ Brickle English Toffee. Feel free to combine add-ins such as citrus juice, zest, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup dried cranberries. These are the add-ins I’ve tested, so let me know if you try others!
Print
Shortbread Wedge Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 16 large, 24 medium, or 32 small
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Let me teach you how to make buttery shortbread wedge cookies using a simple 6 ingredient dough. There’s no chilling necessary and the cookies will never over-spread because you’re baking them in round pans. See above for optional flavors & add-ins.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2/3 cup (135g) granulated sugar
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (28g) cornstarch
- optional: coarse sparkling sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper leaving enough overhang around the sides to easily lift shortbread out. (Tip: Parchment is used so you can easily remove the shortbread and not cut it while it’s in the pan. I like to use a square of parchment and I cut a 1-inch slit in the center of each side. This helps reduce the amount of creases when lined in the pan.)
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla and salt and beat until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as necessary. Add the flour and cornstarch and beat on low speed for 1 minute as the mixture begins to combine. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 1-3 minutes or until the dough clumps together. (It will eventually, just keep mixing it.) If you’re adding dry add-ins (see above), this is when you’ll add them.
- Divide dough in half. If you want to be totally accurate, weigh the halves to make sure they’re even. Recipe makes almost 1.5 lbs of plain dough (will weigh more if you added add-ins). Press each half of dough into a prepared cake pan. You want it nice and compact in the pans. Sprinkle with optional coarse sugar. Dock the surface all over with a fork to prevent air bubbles.
- Bake the shortbread for 28-30 minutes or until very lightly browned on top and around the edges.
- Remove from the oven, place pans on a wire rack, and cool shortbread for 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove the shortbread from the pans by picking it up with the parchment paper on the sides. Cut each into 8 large, 12 medium, or 16 small wedges. You want to make sure you cut the shortbread while it’s still warm. Enjoy warm or cool shortbread completely on wire racks.
- Cover and store shortbread at room temperature for up to 1 week. If you added a topping such as glaze, icing, buttercream, or melted chocolate, refrigerate after 2 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the shortbread dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 3. Baked shortbread freezes well for up to 3 months. Unbaked shortbread dough freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before continuing with step 3.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Fat Daddio’s 8-inch Round Cake Pan or Wilton 8-inch Round Cake Pan | Parchment Paper | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Coarse Sprinkling Sugar | Cooling Rack
- Vanilla: Feel free to add the beans scraped from 1/2 of a vanilla bean in addition to the vanilla extract. Add when you add the vanilla extract. If you want to swap in vanilla bean paste, substitute it for the same amount of extract.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch can also be known as cornflour. (Not to be confused with cornmeal.) It keeps the cookies soft and tender. If you don’t have it, replace with the same amount of all-purpose flour.
- Pan Size: I recommend 8-inch round cake pans. If using 9-inch round cake pans, the cookies will be quite thin unless you added an add-in to the dough. Bake time will be slightly shorter if using 9-inch pans. Bake until tops and edges are very lightly browned. See post above for directions for shortbread bars in square or rectangle pans.
- Half Batch: You can halve this recipe to yield 1 pan of shortbread wedges. Same bake time.
Reader Comments and Reviews
These are incredible!I made exactly per directions, made one 8″ plain and the other 8″ I added dried cranberries, orange zest and white chocolate chips. Both so good, buttery, soft with a crisp edge and the perfect amount of sweetness. Great recipe, thank you!
I’ve made these before but this time after I added flour and cornstarch, the mixture seemed to clump together rather quickly – way less than a minute – so I continued to mix and it became thinner like a regular cookie batter. Any ideas what might have caused this? Thank you!
Hi Celine, it sounds like your butter may have been a bit too warm (here is a bit more about what room temperature butter really means—it may be cooler than you think!). You can stop when the mixture starts to clump together. Hope this helps for your next batch!
Sally these cookies are excellent the best ever that I have made so easy thank you so much lynda
Why so much cornstarch?
Hi Emilia! The the post above: cornstarch really is the “secret” to texture success here. Cornstarch provides the shortbread with structure, but its biggest job is keeping the cookies extra soft, tender, and light,
I made these in 9″ round pans (for some reason I don’t own 8″ rounds – something to fix shortly!) with white chocolate chips and a little cinnamon. Possibly in part due to the larger pans, the white chocolate caramelized in the oven. I wasn’t expecting that, but it was a happy accident as the caramelized chocolate added an extra kick of delicious flavor – they were divine!
Would you recommend using sweetened or unsweetened dried cranberries? Thank you!
Either are fine, April! We usually use sweetened.
Great! Thanks for your help! I’ve made this recipe before, but with different flavors and people always love it. Thanks for sharing!!
Can I use an 8×8″ pan instead?
Hi Carole, you can, but expect the cookies to be thinner, and adjust the bake time for less time.
I made these cookies for St. Patrick’s Day, and they were delicious! The flakey yet almost dense layers are amazing in this recipe! So glad I found my go-to shortbread cookies recipe! I recently made your brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies, and thought that the icing from those cookies would go well on these shortbread cookies. I made the icing and colored it green and my kids thought it was so fun to have green “pizza cookies” to celebrate! Thanks again Sally for amazing recipes!
These were terrific! I drizzled with melted chocolate. Easy and quick!
These were perfection!
Help! I’ve been mixing and my dough is still so crumbly I feel like I’ve done everything by the recipe but what could I have messed up!?
Hi Samantha, it will be a crumbly dough and should eventually come together. If it’s too crumbly, how are you measuring your flour? Be sure to spoon and level your flour (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure it’s not over-measured, which can cause it to turn out crumbly.
I am a big fan of SBA recipes. Last night I made this shortbread and feel pretty sure that I followed each part of the instructions exactly. The taste was great but I hope you can help me troubleshoot a couple of consistency issues. Let me state upfront that I don’t have one of the modern mixers, but rather an old Sunbeam with the two “popsicle” beaters. It works well and has huge sentimental value to me, so I hope it’s not a contributing factor. First consistency issue: the dough seemed to achieve the described “clump together” appearance, but when removed from the mixing bowl and put into the pans, it was so sticky that it wouldn’t press out as illustrated in the recipe. I finally dipped a wide bottomed drinking glass LIGHTLY into flour and was able to spread the dough out with that. Little if any flour was “added” to the dough. (My first thought was that the butter had softened too much – something you advised against – but it actually was LESS soft than I would usually use in a recipe calling for room temperature butter.) Second consistency issue: after baking and cooling, the shortbread was VERY crumbly. I managed to cut it into wedges, but it was impossible to pick up an intact wedge.
Hi Lulu, happy to help troubleshoot. How are you measuring your flour? It sounds like the dough may be a bit too dry which is making it crumbly. Be sure to spoon and level your flour (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure it’s not over-measured, which can cause it to turn out crumbly. Or could the shortbread possibly have been over-baked?
All look so good and not difficult. My question is can brown butter be used in just about any baking recipe? The flavor i can only imagine being divine and would dress up any recipe. Had never heard of it till I came upon your site. Have NEVER made cookies from cake mix but was wondering could you replace oil with brown butter? Looking forward to trying it in different recipes.
Hi Holly, typically you can use brown butter in place of butter in most baking recipes, but keep in mind that there is some moisture loss during the browning process, so you may need to make up for that in recipes where you are subbing brown butter for butter. Sometimes adding a Tablespoon or 2 of water or milk can do the trick. Replacing oil with brown butter is a little harder to predict; because brown butter will still solidify when cool the same way melted butter does, it’s not exactly a 1:1 swap for liquid oil. But you can certainly have fun testing it in different recipes and see what works and what doesn’t!
Help! I started making this recipe forgetting these were wedges, with the intent of making these are shortbread cookies for Christmas cutouts. I’ve added all of the ingredients the recipe has asked but just realized this recipe is for shortbread wedges I don’t have a cake pan, or a 8×8 pan, i just have cookie pans… How can I turn these around to be shortbread cookies for cookie cutters??
Hi AJ, this recipe isn’t ideal for cookie cutters—the cookies will simply spread too much.
Looking forward to trying this recipe. I was thinking of doing a 1.5 batch in 2 9 inch pans. What do you think?
Hi Lynda, here’s everything you need to know about Cake Pan Sizes & Conversions. Enjoy!
What method changes would you advise if making this in a Food Processor? I really like a delicate, flaky shortbread.
Hi Gigi, we haven’t tested it in a food processor, but we think it could work. If you try it, please let us know how it goes!
Wow, this is a HIT! With me and all the friends and family who have indulged. I added bitter almond flavoring (1 tsp plus left all the vanilla), and sprinkled (and pressed in) slivered almonds. They toasted up perfectly by the time the bake was done. This is shortbread with the “give” of a cookie. Delish! Thank you for another winner!
Hi Sally. I don’t have round cake pans, so what can I use instead?
Hi Jo-Jo, instead of wedges, bake this dough as shortbread bars in 2 8-inch square baking pans. Or bake the dough in 1 9×13-inch baking pan. The bars baked in a 9×13-inch pan will be quite thin unless you add an add-in such as chocolate chips or nuts. The bake time for bars in either size pan is about the same as below, but begin checking at 25 minutes. They’re done when the tops and edges are very lightly browned.
I noticed you mentioned you could use a 8×8 square pan in place of the round pan. Will they be significantly thinner if baked in two 8×8 square pans? Thank you!
Hi Maddie, they will be a little thinner, yes, but not too thin.
I have an English shortbread pan, would this recipe work well with the pattern on the pan?
Hi Lily! We haven’t tried it so can’t be certain. Let us know if you do!
Just made these! Delicious, perfect texture
After baking the shortbread in an 8 inch circular pan, I let it cool completely. I then wrapped it in saran wrap and I’m going to freeze it for two weeks. I forgot to cut it into pieces when it was warm. What do I do now? Thanks and I always love your Selections
Hi Mary, that’s okay! You’ll be able to cut it when you take it out of the freezer.
Can these bars be frozen?
Hi Marry, sure can! See recipe notes for Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions.
This is the first time that I have made shortbread cookies and they turned out great! As with all of Sally’s recipes, I appreciate the detailed notes and instructions. I tried them plain this time but may try a mix-in next time.
Sally, does arrowroot sub for corn starch?
We haven’t tested arrowroot, Carole! Let us know if you do.
I love shortbread cookies and these are delicious. Its an easy recipe too. When I bake them I have a hard time not eating them all myself.
Hi! Would this recipe work to roll and refrigerate and slice to make round shortbread cookies?
Hi Esti, this shortbread dough isn’t ideal for rolling out because the cookies won’t hold shape.
Thank you for your response. I think I wasn’t clear in my question… I meant to roll into a log and then refrigerate the log and then slice and bake.
These are amazing and SO easy!
OMG! Love this recipe so so much. I have made it multiple times and with assorted add ins, and it’s always a hit. Making a batch (or two) to take to a Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you!
Hi, can I used 9” rounds pans? If so, how would I adjust the time? Thank you.
Hi Roz, see recipe Notes! I recommend 8-inch round cake pans. If using 9-inch round cake pans, the cookies will be quite thin unless you added an add-in to the dough. Bake time will be slightly shorter if using 9-inch pans. Bake until tops and edges are very lightly browned.