A good shortbread cookie is a holiday must.
Timelessly tender and buttery, shortbread is simplicity at its best. We hear it’s the cookie Santa wants on his plate this year!
Founder and owner of Ruby Snap Cookies, Tami Steggell, shared her favorite holiday cookie recipe.
Tami’s special shortbread recipe is an heirloom passed down through generations in her family. It’s so beloved and familiar to her that she doesn’t even need to look at the recipe—she knows it by heart. For Tami, these cookies are the essence of Christmas, filling her home with warmth, love, and delicious aromas.
What makes Tami’s shortbread recipe even more special is her secret ingredient: a vanilla bean pod. While many people use vanilla extract in their baking, Tami prefers to scrape the seeds from a real vanilla bean. This gives the cookies a deeper, richer flavor and leaves behind pretty specks of vanilla throughout, making each bite even more beautiful.
Shortbread Cookie Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb Butter
- 1 c Granulated Sugar (Plus more, for dusting the cookies)
- 4 ½ c Flour
METHOD
- Mix all ingredients in stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Line pan with parchment paper. Use a half sheet pan for thinner cookies, or a quarter sheet pan (or a 9 x 13 dish) for thicker cookies. Press dough into pan of choice.
- Pre-score cookies before baking, or cut immediately when pulled from the oven.
- Dust the dough with sugar of your choice. (Can be dusted after baking, but Tami prefers before.)
- Bake at 275° for 60-70 minutes. Bake 70-75 minutes for thicker or my dry cookies. Bake 50 –75 minutes for more chewy cookies.
Use cookie cutters on pressed dough for fun shapes!
Playful Variations to Try
Toasted Sesame
Use basic dough recipe, add:
- 2 Tbs Toasted Sesame Oil
- Toss ¾ cup sesame seeds in sesame oil (non-toasted oil) or spray lighting with cooking oil such as olive or avocado oil, toast in oven until light brown on bun pan lined with parchment.
- Press prepared dough evenly onto bun pan that has toasted sesame seeds. Bake 70 minutes on 275°
Pistachio Rose
Use basic dough recipe, add:
- 2 tsp Rose Water
- ½ c clean dried rose petals
- ¾ c chopped pistachios
- Dust with vanilla bean sugar by tossing scraped vanilla beans to sugar and blending by hand.
- Press prepared dough evenly onto bun pan. Bake 60-70 minutes on 275° I like to use fluted biscuit cutter to create round or square shapes to show off ingredients.
Cardamom Vanilla Bean
Use basic recipe, add:
- 1 tbs Cardamom
- ½ tsp scraped vanilla bean seeds
- Dust with a fine raw turbinado sugar or a brown sanding sugar before baking (or dip bottoms in dark chocolate after baked and fully cooled).
- Press prepared dough evenly onto bun pan. Bake 60-70 minutes on 275° I like a thicker cookie cut into fluted squares using a fluted biscuit cutter.
Lavender White Chocolate
Use basic recipe, add:
- 1 Tbs Dried Lavender Buds. Lavender is very strong, add less for a less floral bouquet.
- Dip half of fully cooled cookies in white chocolate.
- Orson Gygi sells a variety of very nice white chocolates that can be tempered in a home microwave.
Note: Vanilla bean seeds are the “caviar” scraped from the center of the vanilla bean pod and have a lovely fragrant vanilla flavor in its purest form. You may substitute with ground vanilla, which contains both the seeds and husks
RubySnap Cookies, founded by Tami, offers a wide variety of cookies that change every month, featuring the freshest ingredients that reflect the season. If you’re craving a freshly baked cookie, you can visit their flagship store in Salt Lake City, or you can buy their take-and-bake dough at stores like Lee’s, Harmons, and Whole Foods. Whether you’re baking for the holidays or looking to try something new, Ruby Snap’s cookies are sure to impress.
Check out their website at rubysnap.com to find the full cookie menu and a store near you.
Find more from Tami on Instagram, @bitemeindustries, or her website, bitemeindustries.com.