Make these delicious crisp and melt-in-mouth shortbread cookies studded with dried cranberry pieces and crunchy nuts in vanilla, matcha, and chocolate flavors. These eggless shortbread cookies are just lightly sweetened, perfect as holiday cookies, Chinese New year cookies or just to go with that cuppa.
Why you’ll like this recipe
1. They are made with only 6 basic ingredients
If you make original flavor, all you need is butter, sugar, salt, flour, dried cranberries, and nuts of your choice
2. Three different flavors
You can easily adapt the original recipe to make matcha shortbread cookies and chocolate shortbread cookies by adding matcha powder and cocoa powder. You only need to make one basic cookie dough
3. Amazing texture and taste
It’s hard to explain when it comes to shortbread. I love shortbread cookies because they are not too sweet, and dense in texture but it snaps when you break the cookie apart and crumbles inside your mouth. Adding lightly sweet and tart dried cranberry pieces and crunchy nut pieces add that nice contrast of texture.
Important tips
1. Please make sure the butter is at room temperature
2. Remember to chill the cookie dough for at least 1 hour before shaping
3. It is important not to overbake. It is very easy to overbake shortbread cookies and you will end up with shortbread cookies that are crispy and dry in texture (unless that’s what you like)
4.Don’t eat the cookies the same day you make them. They will feel dry and lack of flavor. Age for at least 24 hours if possible. You’ll be rewarded with buttery, crisp, and melt-in-mouth shortbread cookies
How to make cranberry and nuts shortbread cookies in three different flavors
1. Please make sure the butter is soft but not melting. Put butter and sugar in a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Use a paddle attachment to cream until the butter is creamy and the sugar is incorporated into the butter. Add vanilla extract and salt and cream to combine
2. Divide the butter mixture into 3 equal portions by weight, about 54 grams per portion. Add the all-purpose flour and dried cranberries to one of the butter portions. Use a sturdy spatula to combine until no dry flour is visible. Form into a tight log about 2 1/2 to 3 inch diameter. If you want it square, you can use a bench scraper to help you shape it into a square shape instead. Wrap in a cling wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to one week, about 1 month in the freezer
3. Repeat the same steps for matcha and chocolate powder.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for a conventional oven and 320 F (160 C) for a convection oven. Line a baking or cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remove the shortbread cookie dough from the fridge and use a sharp knife to cut into 1/2-inch thick slices if you shape it into a log. If you roll the dough out earlier, then cut into about 6 equal pieces for each dough, so you get a total of 18 cookies, roughly
5. Arrange them on the baking pan, about 1/2 inch apart. These cookies do not spread during baking
6. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, rotate halfway through baking. The cookies shouldn’t brown much at all. They should just start to brown on the edge. If not, you can add another minute and check again. Do not overbake these shortbread cookies.
7. Let them cool down on the baking pan for at least 10 minutes. They are still very soft when out of the oven. Trying to move them when they are still warm will crumble the cookies. Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool down completely
Did you make this cranberry and nuts shortbread cookies recipe?
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Cranberry and Nuts Shortbread Cookies (Eggless and 3 flavors)
Ingredients
- 113 g unsalted butter softened
- 50 g caster sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp salt
For vanilla shortbread:
- 57 g all-purpose flour
- 20 g dried cranberries cut into smaller pieces
For matcha shortbread:
- 50 g all-purpose flour
- 5 g matcha powder
- 10 g toasted almonds or nuts of your choice, roughly chopped
- 10 g dried cranberries cut into smaller pieces
For chocolate shortbread:
- 48 g all-purpose flour
- 8 g cocoa powder
- 10 g toasted almonds
- 10 g dried cranberries
Instructions
Prepare the dough:
- Please make sure the butter is soft but not melting. Put butter and sugar in a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Use a paddle attachment to cream until butter is creamy and the sugar is incorporated into the butter. Add vanilla extract and salt and cream to combine
- Divide the butter mixture into 3 equal portions by weight, about 54 grams per portion
Prepare vanilla dough:
- Add the all-purpose flour and dried cranberries to one of the butter portions. Use a sturdy spatula to combine until no dry flour is visible. Form into a tight log about 2 1/2 to 3 inch diameter. If you want it square, you can use a bench scraper to help you shape it into a square shape instead. Wrap in a cling wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to one week, about 1 month in the freezer
Prepare matcha dough:
- Add the all-purpose flour, matcha powder, chopped nuts, and dried cranberries to the second butter portions. Use a sturdy spatula to combine until no dry flour is visible. Form into a tight log about 2 1/2 to 3 inch diameter. If you want it square, you can use a bench scraper to help you shape it into a square shape instead. Wrap in a cling wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to one week, about 1 month in the freezer
Prepare chocolate dough:
- Add the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, chopped nuts, and dried cranberries to the last butter portions. Use a sturdy spatula to combine until no dry flour is visible. Form into a tight log about 2 1/2 to 3 inch diameter. If you want it square, you can use a bench scraper to help you shape it into a square shape instead. Wrap in a cling wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to one week, about 1 month in the freezer
Alternative way of shaping:
- Instead of shaping into a log or square log, you can also roll the cookie dough out in between two parchment paper to about 1/2-inch thick. Use a bench scraper to shape the edges so it has sharp corners. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to one week, about 1 month in the freezer
Baking:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for a conventional oven and 320 F (160 C) for a convection oven. Line a baking or cookie sheet with parchment paper
- Remove the shortbread cookie dough from the fridge and use a sharp knife to cut into 1/2-inch thick slices if you shape it into a log. If you roll the dough out earlier, then cut into about 6 equal pieces for each dough, so you get a total of 18 cookies, roughly
- Arrange them on the baking pan, about 1/2 inch apart. These cookies do not spread during baking
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, rotate halfway through baking. The cookies shouldn't brown much at all. They should just start to brown on the edge. If not, you can add another minute and check again. Do not overbake these shortbread cookies.
- Let them cool down on the baking pan for at least 10 minutes. They are still very soft when out of the oven. Trying to move them when they are still warm will crumble the cookies
- Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool down completely
Age the cookies:
- The shortbread cookies have little flavor and taste dry if you eat them on the same day you make them. I encourage you to store them in an air-tight container after they have cooled down completely. Let them age for at least 24 hours and then you will be able to taste that wonderful buttery flavor, crisp and melt in mouth texture.
Store the cookies:
- Shortbread cookies can be kept in an air-tight container at room temperature for about a month max
- For longer storage, baked shortbread cookies can be kept frozen in a sturdy air-tight container separated by parchment paper if you stack them. Simply let them thaw at room temperature before serving or packing them as a gift
4 comments
Great little cookies. I made the whole batch into plain ones and added almond extract which worked out very well (except the math required to add up all the separate measurements!! Augh!!). I made the dough ahead of time and froze it, and let it thaw for just a few minutes before slicing and baking, which I reckon is good for this kind of cookie. The cranberry and nuts sliced very neatly this way, so the cookies are very smooth. I tried adding some red food coloring, but because the fat content is high, it didn’t really work (I know better, but sometimes I just do dumb things lol). Lightly sweet, loads of nuts, and very convenient recipe.
yay!!! I’m glad you like it and sorry you have to do some math here 🙂 I agree that this is a great cookie that you can make ahead and bake whenever you want and it uses very basic ingredients too! Hmm..I thought it shouldn’t be a problem for adding food coloring to shortbread cookie dough despite the fat content. Just curious, what happened to the dough?
I added it after the the dough was already made, and the result was just sort of blotchy. I didn’t want to over-mix it and dye my hands, so I left it as is. I think the dye sticks to the flour, but avoids the butter… sort of like why you can’t use cheap food colorings for chocolate. It was also red food dye, which I didn’t want to add loads of. A good quality gel dye would probably be better, or even something like dried fruit powder, but yeah… not a big deal in my case. They’re just sort of pink and marble-looking with the nuts and such… before I eat them, that is hahahaha
ah…I see what you are saying now! Marble-looking can be pretty too 😉