Royal Shortbread Cookies
The tastiest, butteriest and most luxurious of cookies. Perfect with tea or coffee. You can have them plain, or dip them partially in chocolate like I did. I’ve decorated the chocolated sections using various nuts…pistachio flakes, toasted almond flakes, crushed hazelnuts, chopped walnuts and I even drizzled some with white chocolate for an extra chocolatey richness. Variety of decorative ideas for your cookies, you can pick whichever you prefer!
Ingredients
- 250 gm unsalted butter
- 1 cup sugar 200gm
- 1 egg
- 3 1/4 cups flour keep an extra 1/4 cup handy just in case (each cup is 120gm)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract or essence
- Good quality cooking chocolate for dipping
- Nuts or white chocolate for garnishing
Instructions
- Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and essence and continue beating. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, then gradually add it to the butter mixture using a wooden spoon, until just incorporated. Turn it out and, if needed, gradually add a bit of flour and mix together with your hands to firm it up slightly. It’s NOT supposed to be of dough consistency, it should be soft, almost too soft to handle. That’s ok. Divide the dough into 4 balls and place each in a cling film, then refrigerate for an hour to harden it slightly. Then remove one ball at a time, rolling it out between cling film to avoid adding more flour. Use a cutter and cut out whatever shapes you prefer. You need to be fast if you’re working in a warm environment!Place the cut out cookies on a greased tray, and again stick the tray in the fridge for about 10 mins or so for the cookies to firm up again. Pre-heat the oven at 170C and bake your cookies until firm and slightly golden. Don’t brown them too much. It should take about 15 minutes or a bit more or less depending on your oven.Let the cookies cool on a rack. Then, if you want them chocolate, melt about 100gm good quality chocolate either in a micro or using a double boiler. Quickly dip your cookies one at a time and place on grease-proof paper, sprinkle nuts of choice before the chocolate sets. Once all are done, refrigerate for about 10 mins or so until the chocolate is firm.Serve!!
Cani use the stove top baking for dese lovely cookies as im not gud with the oven nd also i use microwave so wat procedure should i use if im bakin in the oven ?
You can use stove top.
Can I use salted butter so I don’t put salt as it says in recepie Or has to be unsalted?
Yes you can do that.
Salam… although this post is pretty old, but I would like to leave a comment on this for future readers. Please don’t use salted butter for cookies (can use in cakes) coz they turn very salty. the salt required for cookies is just a pinch while the butter can have much more salt(and the butter used for cookies is quite a lot). Best to opt for unsalted versions.
Jazaakumullahi khair
Can i use margerine instead of butter ?
For these butter will be best.
Salams …i was wondaring is it plain flour you use
In this recipe??
W/Salaam, yes plain flour.
Jazaks….. Cant wait to try em….. Did u roast the
Pistachios before u cut them??
Thanks, and no I didn’t roast them, but you can roast them if you prefer.
asalamu alaikum im going to try the cookies now but shouldn’t you add sugar instead of salt to make it sweet?
W/Salaam, sugar is one of the main ingredients in this recipe. Did you miss it when reading through the ingredients list?
assalamu alaikum,
sorry my mistake, i didn’t realise it
jazakallah for the recipe, very nice shortbreads
Assalamu Aleykum…..should I beat the butter, sugar and egg using an electric beater?
W/Salaam, yes.
salaams! Wot z cling film?
W/Salaam, plastic wrap.
Salam, it says use 1 cup sugar. Can i use half of brown sugar and half white? i like mine soft and dont want these to turn out crispy, jazakallah in advance 🙂
W/Salaam. Yes that is absolutely ok.
hi.how many biscuits do you get from one dozen?
Hi, one dozen of?
hi,you indicated that the royal biscuits makes 4 dozen,so pls tell me how many biscuits do you make from a dozen,is it 6 or 8,cos ive no idea
A dozen means 12 pieces. So 4 dozen means you will get a total of 48 biscuits.
Can i omit vanilla essence?
Yes you can.
hi,thanks for your reply,indeed that was very helpful,God bless you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hey how thick shall i roll the dough 1/2 inch high or thin ?
Hi, quarter inch will be enough.
How much time it will take if
How much time it will take if i bake them on stove?
Around the same time.
Around the same time.
Assalamu Alaikhum..
Assalamu Alaikhum..
Love all your recipes posted in your website. Inspires beginners a lot. Would like to know if cooking chocolate is something like nutella or so?
W/Salaam, thanks. No actually
W/Salaam, thanks. No actually it is a bar of chocolate, but only that it is not as sweet. Sometimes it is known as baking chocolate or semi sweet chocolate. You can just use regular plain chocolate if you cannot find the other kind.
Thank you
Thank you
Can I replace vanilla extract or essence to Vanilla Custard Powder? If yes, would 1 tsp suffice?
Custard powder is not an
Custard powder is not an essence, it will not be enough to adequately flavour the cookies.
Hi can i add dry fruit in
Hi can i add dry fruit in this dough?
Hi, I’ve personally never
Hi, I’ve personally never tried to, not sure how it would turn out.
Assalam Fauzia Api
Assalam Fauzia Api
Will u plz name some brands of unsalted butter coz here in Malawi many products come from Kenya and South Africa .
And if I don’t get ang unsalted butter can I use salted butter as Buttercup margarine or Rama or Blue band
JazakAllah in advance
W/Salaam, I had already
W/Salaam, I had already responded to this question when you posted it under the FB Cookies/Biscuits recipe last week. Please check there.
JazkaAllah for the reply
JazkaAllah for the reply Fauzia Api 🙂