Fauzia's Kitchen Fun

Royal Shortbread Cookies

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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!
Servings 4 Dozen

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!!

Join the Conversation

  1. 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 ?

  2. Can I use salted butter so I don’t put salt as it says in recepie Or has to be unsalted?

    1. 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

  3. W/Salaam, sugar is one of the main ingredients in this recipe. Did you miss it when reading through the ingredients list?

    1. assalamu alaikum,
      sorry my mistake, i didn’t realise it
      jazakallah for the recipe, very nice shortbreads

  4. 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 🙂

  5. 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

  6. 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?

    1. 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.

  7. Thank you
    Thank you
    Can I replace vanilla extract or essence to Vanilla Custard Powder? If yes, would 1 tsp suffice?

    1. Custard powder is not an
      Custard powder is not an essence, it will not be enough to adequately flavour the cookies.

  8. 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

    1. 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.

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