The dough for these No Chill Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies comes together quick and easy! No needed to soften the butter or chill the dough before baking. Just roll into balls and flatten with the bottom of a cup to make them into a circle cookie. Use a toothpick to create the little “button holes”.
Why you will love this recipe
- It has everything you love about your favorite shortbread cookies – dense, buttery; melt in your mouth and made with 5 ingredients you probably already have in your pantry!
- These cookies have all the buttery shortbread flavor with less fuss. Recipe uses butter right from the fridge, no chilling of the dough needed and uses just one bowl.
Ingredients you will need
- Salted Butter – I bake almost exclusively with salted butter. Salted butter has the added bonus of bringing out the flavors in these cookies without the need to add salt. If you don’t have salted butter, feel free to use unsalted. Just add ⅛ teaspoon of salt in with your flour. You use the butter right from the fridge, NO softening required; just cut the butter up into little squares when adding to the mixing bowl.
- Brown Sugar – Light brown sugar is used for a delicious twist on the classic shortbread cookie. Light brown sugar give the shortbread a nice caramel flavor. You can also use dark brown sugar for an more intense molasses flavor and deeper color. Dark brown sugar is also a good substitution if you are unable to find molasses.
- Vanilla Extract – Vanilla complements the richness of the brown sugar in these shortbread cookies. Traditionally shortbread cookies do not have vanilla so feel free to omit but the combination in this recipe
- Molasses – The texture and deep color you get from molasses adds a really unique texture and a warm, sweet flavor. Most groceries stores carry molasses in their baking aisle but if you are unable to find molasses try substituting dark brown sugar (which contains molasses) for the light brown sugar.
- All Purpose Flour – Nothing fancy here just using regular all purpose flour. If you are not using a scale (I don’t either!), either scoop and level with a knife or fill the measuring cup up with a spoon. You DON’T want to pack the flour down.
Tips for making shortbread
- Cut the butter up into small pieces before you cream it with the brown sugar. The smaller pieces of butter combine better with the brown sugar.
- I used light brown sugar in this recipe and added molasses. Since dark brown sugar has more molasses already in the sugar, using dark brown sugar will give you a deeper molasses flavor.
- Liven these up with a favorite mix in like skor toffee bits (Heath bits), chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips.
Frequently asked questions
What if I can’t get molasses where I live?
If you can’t get molasses try using dark brown sugar. “The difference between light and dark brown sugar is simply the amount of molasses each contains. Light brown sugar has less molasses per total volume of sugar (about 3.5% according to Rose Levy Beranbaum) while dark brown sugar has more (6.5%).” This article from Serious Eats goes into more detail about the difference between light and dark brown sugar.
How much should I flatten the dough ball?
I like a thick shortbread so I only flatten the dough balls slightly. Remember the more you flatten the dough ball the less time it will take for the cookies to bake. Watch the edges of the cookie closely to ensure you don’t over bake the thinner cookies.
Can I add other mix ins to the dough?
These shortbreads have a classic brown butter flavor baked as per instructions but I did fold in 2 tbsps of Skor toffee bits to half of the dough and they turned out fantastic. I could see mini white chocolate chips being a good addition as well. Add only a small amount of mix ins if you want the base dough’s flavor to remain the most prominent flavor in the cookie.
Why don’t I move them to a cooling rack?
I like to bake my shortbreads just until they begin to get golden around the edges and then let them stand on the baking sheets to cool. I find letting them cool on the cookie sheet results in a firmer cookie.
More shortbread recipes to love
- No Chill Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies
- Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
This Small Pumpkin Slab Pie has a glorious shortbread crust!
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Recipe
No Chill Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon molasses
- 1 cup flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut butter into small pieces and place in a medium sized bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add both the ¼ cup and 2 tbsps of brown sugar. Beat until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
- Add vanilla extract and molasses. Beat until combined.
- Add flour ¼ cup at a time, mixing well between additions.
- Continue to beat until the dough starts to clump together.
- Using your hands take dough out of the bowl and push together to make one large dough ball.
- Pinch off about a tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball.
- Place dough balls on baking sheet and using the bottom of a cup, flatten out the dough ball to desired thickness.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges begin to become golden.
- Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet.
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