I searched a long time for a shortbread cookie recipe where the cookie retained its shape and didn't spread out without using a pan. The base recipe for shortbread is simple, but it's about the right ratio of ingredients. I tried various ratios of butter, flour and sugar; using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar; and freezing the cookies for longer lengths of time before placing them in the oven. The shortbread was good, but nothing worked in terms of the cookie keeping it's shape.
Then I discovered this simple recipe from Pauline at Mei Baking. I call it 3-2-1 Shortbread Cookie for the ratio of the three ingredients. It is 3 parts of flour to 2 parts butter to 1 part sugar. This recipe is so simple I can make it from memory. This formula works every single time and has allowed me to be more creative with variations such as this Cranberry and Pistachio Shortbread Cookie.
Not only does the cookie look pretty with the combination of forest green and jewel red, but it tastes good too. The pistachios are Iranian pistachios which I got while on a trip to Paris. I came across them in a specialty store called G. Detou and since I had never seen pistachios this shade of green I bought a bag. They are darker green than the pistachios in the US, but either kind will work for this recipe. In Portland, Trader Joe's is my favorite place to buy pistachios because of the price and quality.
The dough comes together quickly in a stand mixer. I chop the cranberries in a food processor so the pieces are small and will be evenly distributed throughout the dough. When I tested this recipe I left the cranberries in larger pieces and my cookie cutters more often got caught on the larger pieces cranberry. Also, I think the dough looks prettier.
After I cut out the cookies they go in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. I place the cookies on 1/4 cookie sheets so they fit in my refrigerator and then I can take them straight to the oven. At this point you can freeze the cookies for later. Place the cookies on a tray and then place in the freezer until frozen. Once frozen put them in freezer bags in a single layer. The cookies will be good in the freezer for about 2 months. When ready to bake, let cookies sit on the counter for about 20 minutes and then bake them.
Since the cookies bake at 300 degrees F, they are pale when baked. The cookie bottom is lightly browned and noticeably darker if you use a darker cookie sheet. Either way, you'll have a buttery delicious cookie. Just know that it's hard to eat just one or even just two. You can store the cookies in an air-tight container for about a week. I think these taste better two days later, so save some for later and enjoy!
If you're looking for more cookie recipes or ideas for the holidays check out these other recipes on my site:
- Apple and Tart Cherry Rugelach
- Apricot and Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
- Cocoa Molasses Spice Cookies
- Pecan Caramel Chocolate Bars
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Cranberry and Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 3-1/2 ounces (100 grams) unsalted raw pistachios toasted
- 3 ounces (85 grams) dried cranberries
- 4 ounces (112 grams) granulated sugar
- 8 ounces (227 grams) unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 12 ounces (340 grams) all-purpose flour sifted
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Toast the pistachios for about 10 minutes until slightly brown. Remove from the oven and chop them.
- At this point, you can turn off the oven or reduce the temperature to 300°F for baking the cookies.
- Place the cranberries in a food processor and pulse until cranberries are chopped into small pieces. I use a mini-food processor and pulse about 10-15 times. Chopping them in the food processor helps ensure better distribution throughout the dough. You can also chop them by hand.
- Place the butter, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer, scrape down the bowl and add all the flour at once. Turn the mixer to low speed and mix until all the flour is just combined. The dough will be crumbly at this point. Increase the mixer speed to medium and mix until the dough has completely come together. Add the pistachios and the cranberries and mix on low speed until they are well combined into the dough.
- Turn the cookie dough out onto a lightly floured surface. You can turn it out onto a large piece of parchment paper or Silpat. Use your hands to shape the dough into a rectangle and lightly flour the top of the dough. Do not use too much flour, just enough to keep the rolling pin from sticking.
- Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thick. Use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Place the cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet about 1-inch apart. Prick each cookie in the center with a fork. Pricking the cookies will ensure they bake in the center.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. Chilling the dough will help the cookies hold their shape when baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes. The cookies will be a pale golden color. They’re not supposed to turn golden brown. The bottoms of the cookies will be slightly brown.NOTE: I use a shiny cookie sheet. If you use a darker pan the bottoms will be a little darker and the bottom edges will be noticeably light brown.
- Take the cookies out of the oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to a cookie rack.
- The cookies can be stored in a container for about 1 week.
Izz says
I have tried this recipe and it was delicious. Didn't have cranberries so used a nut mix (pistachio, almond and peanut) but didn't change anything else. Can you let me know the correct temperature? because in the start of the recipe it says 350 and later on it says 300 F. I baked at 300 and it look so much time so i increased it later.
Cheryl Norris says
Thank you for writing and thank you for trying the recipe. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The 350 degrees at the beginning of the recipe is for toasting the nuts. The 300 degrees is for baking the cookies at a low temperature so they barely brown, which is why it takes 25-30 minutes to completely bake. You can bake the cookies at a higher temperature (350 or 325) just be sure to start checking them after 12-15 minutes. It sounds like you had good success at baking at a higher temperature, so I'm glad it worked out.
Nancy says
Hi, just discovered your site looking for a chocolate hazelnut shortbread recipe, which referred to this flavor combo too. Both sounds so delicious and ones I would like to try. I think they will be perfect for my cookie boxes to give as gifts for the holidays Wondering if you use regular butter or European butter for these cookies. Looking forward to trying your recipes.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Nancy
Thank you so much for visiting the blog. I really appreciate it. Hazelnut and chocolate are one of my favorite combinations. For these cookies are I use regular butter like Challenge Butter. Be careful to not use cheap butters, which tend to have a higher water content and will produce a crumbly cookie. I learned this the hard way.
Rebecca says
Hi!! These look so beautiful and delicious. I’m making them now, but my mixture is quite sandy looking… can you tell me if this is normal? Do I just need to mix it longer?
Cortney says
Same here. I was so looking forward to these cookies, but my mixture never came together. It was very crumbly and dry.
Asneel pritika Prasad says
That happened to me as well. I added 100g (individual yogurt cup) of vanilla Greek yogurt. It turned out perfect.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Cortney
I'm so sorry the cookie dough is not coming together. I've not had this issue when making the cookies. Did you weigh the ingredients on a scale? What brand of butter did you use? Any information you can share with me, will help me figure out the issue. Thank you.
Sylvie Denning says
HI, I love your blog! I discovered you by accident. My cookies are cooling in the fridge now, but I just wanted to comment to the others that thought they had to bake so much longer. I was wondering if my oven wasn't properly calibrated, so I purchased an oven thermometer; my oven is way off. I set the oven to 300F, when the dinger went off, the oven thermometer only registered 250 degrees! I am so glad I made a less than $10. purchase to figure out my baking problem. Just wanted to contribute what I learned
Thank you.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Sylvie
First of all, thank you for the compliment on my blog. And thank you for that information on calibrating your oven. I'm glad you were able to figure out the problem. I had that same issue with a new oven and couldn't figure out why my cakes only baked properly on the convection setting. I finally called for repair and they confirmed that the oven wasn't properly calibrated.
Jen says
My cookies taste great..but they did not maintain their shape..they spread and are thinner. Rereading the recipe I neglected to sift the flour, could that have done it? Otherwise..you made this non-baker look good!
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Jen
I'm so glad to read that I made you look good and that the cookies taste great. The most likely cause of the cookies spreading would be too little flour. The other potential cause is not chilling the cookie dough before the cookies went into the oven.
Ramya says
This looks so delicious cannot wait to try it.can you suggest which cranberries are best .I saw your post in instagram saying not to use dried ones from long time..little confused 😊
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Ramya
Any brand of dried cranberries will work with this cookie, but the dried cranberries dry out and get hard the older the package even if the package hasn't been opened. Which is why I recommend that you get a fresh package of dried cranberries, it will make the cookie easier to cut.
Josephine says
These sound lovely. Can I use a hand mixer?
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Josephine
You can use a hand mixer, but it will take longer for the dough to come together once the flour is added, which is why this recipe works better with a stand mixer.
Carol says
I did the lemon recipe and they were perfect. I weighed everything. Kneaded the crumbly mixture came together perfectly. Trying this one out next because the lemon was awesome. Weighing is a must.I used Costco butter. This will be my go to shortbread recipe! Love it!
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Carol
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the lemon shortbread cookies and that you plan to make the cranberry and pistachio shortbread cookies.
Alyssa says
I am also struggling with the mixture. It is not coming together and I used challenge butter and I weighed all of the ingredients.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Alyssa
If the dough has started to come together to the point that the dough has started to come together so it looks like peas, pour the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough together for about 30 seconds.
Marquitta says
Super easy to make.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Marquitta
Thank you. I hope you enjoyed them.
Joyce says
Do you know if plant-based butter would work with your recipe? TIA!
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Joyce
I don't know if plant based butter will work in this recipe. I am getting ready to test it with solid coconut oil to see how well it does.
Doris says
Please translate in cups
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Doris
I recommend that you weigh the flour, sugar, and buter, but here are the ingredients in volume measurements:
All-purpose flour: 2-3/4 cups using the spoon an sweep method
Granulated Sugar: 1 cup + 1 tablespoon
Unsalted Butter: 16 tablespoons or 1 cup
Make sure you're very precise when measuring the flour. If you add too much flour the dough will be dry and crumbly and won't hold together. I hope this helps.
Wendy says
How is this a 3-2-1 recipe?
I thought 3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, 1 part sugar?
I would love to start making these again using your recipe. I’ve done it before and I thought it was great but the recipe I used before was to turn the doughy into a log and I didn’t have to use a stand mixer.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Wendy
The 3-2-1 comes from the ratio of flour, butter, and sugar - 12 ounces of flour, 8 ounces of butter, and 4 ounces of granulated sugar. I hope this answer helps. Please let me know if you have more questions.
Susan Thomas says
Is the flour 1 1/2 cups before or after it's sifted or does it not matter? Also, at the beginning of the recipe it says preheat the oven to 350 but later in the recipe it says 300?? Thank you for the clarification! (PS I'm making the cranberry/pistachio shortbread) Susan
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Susan
Thanks for your questions. The 350°F is for toasting the nuts. It later says to preheat the oven to 300°F to bake the cookies. I added verbiage to the recipe for clarification on the baking temps. There are 12 ounces of flour in the recipe and it's sifted after it's weighed. I'm not sure where you got the 1-1/2 cups from.
Michelle W says
Looking for ingredient measurement confirmation - for the flour are you sifting before or after weighing? I understand the importance of ratios in this recipe and just want to make certain. Thank you
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Michelle
I sift the flour after weighing it.
Katy says
I wanted to love this, but like some other commenters, I weighed all the ingredients and chilled the cookies before baking but they all spread. Even when cooled, they fall apart too easily. There clearly wasn’t enough flour in the mixture, despite weighing.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Katy
I'm sorry this recipe didn't work for you, but I have never had these cookies or any of my other shortbread cookies spread. I agree it sounds like you didn't add enough flour (or could it have been too much butter). I would like to troubleshoot the issue if you're willing. Did you use all-purpose flour? When you weighed the flour, was anything touching the scale? If the scale is not level or something is touching it like a container or bag, that will throw off the measurement.
Ariana says
Can the dough be refrigerated for a day or two before baking, or is it best to freeze it instead if making the dough in advance? Thanks!
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Ariana
You can refrigerate the dough for up to 2 days. Make sure to cover it with plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out. If you're just refrigerating the dough for a 2-3 hours you don't need to cover it with plastic wrap. You can also freeze the dough if you want to make room in your refrigerator. If you freeze the dough, bake the cookies straight from the freezer.
Sally says
I'm making the shortbread cookie with cranberry and pistachio. The dough was a great consistency to work with and they look like they will be delicious! But at the beginning of the recipe it says to preheat the oven to 350 degrees and later when it's time to put them in the oven, it says to preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Which temperature is correct or am I supposed to lower the temperature to 300? Thanks!
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Sally
I'm sorry for getting to your question so late. We had a family emergency right before Christmas. With regard to oven temperature - the 350°F is for toasting the nuts and the 300°F is for baking the cookies.
Rosalva Arredondo says
Hello. Can’t wait to make these! Is it possible to roll into a log, chill and then slice cookies into rounds and bake?
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Rosalva
Yes, you can roll the dough into a log and slice them. Follow the directions in the Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookie recipe for directions on shaping the dough into logs, chilling, and slicing.
Rhonda says
Made your cookies for a Christmas party. They were a huge hit. Everyone wanted the recipe.
Kaecat says
Do you think it would work to shape the dough into a log and cut in slices rather than rolling it out?
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Kaecet
I just tested this recipe using the slice and bake method, where you roll it into a log first, so yes, that method will work for this recipe.
Stacy says
This is a great, straightforward recipe. I didn't have a cookie cutter, so I used a wine glass. I have a small kitchen and this recipe required very little space for preparation. My cookies came out super delicious and beautiful. I will be giving them with Christmas gifts.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Stacey
Thank you for trying this cookie recipe and leaving such a nice review. I'm glad you found the cookies delicious.
Stacy says
I made these a second time a couple days ago. I used 4oz each of the pistachios and craisins and the cookies still baked up great. I gave some to a friend for the holidays and she loved them. I would highly recommend using a good quality butter for better buttery flavor as well as the other reasons the author mentioned. I will try adding a little vanilla next time too. I didn't have a rolling pin handy or cookie cutter, so I used a wine bottle wrapped in Saran wrap and a wine glass. I made the dough first and cut out the cookies, put them in the refrigerator, then baked them when I got home. They turned out perfectly. This is a quick, easy recipe you can have fun and be creative with. With only 5 ingredients, you won't forget anything either.
Wayne says
Super easy recipe to follow, and absolutely delicious cookies. I entered the Cranberry and Pistachio Shortbread cookies in our Holiday Cookie competition at work and Won 😁
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Wayne
Woohoo! My recipe helped you win a cookie competition. Thank you for trying this recipe and leaving this fantastic review. I'm so glad you enjoyed them!
Wayne says
Cheryl,
Thanks so much for having this recipe on the Internet. We have a cookie competition at work during the holidays, so I entered these Cranberry and Pistachio cookies and Won 🏆
Your recipe is super easy to follow and they are just so Yummy! I weighed the ingredients and followed the recipe exactly as listed and had no problem whatsoever with the dough not coming together.
Winning the competition may have gone to my head - just a little, that I decided to also make these using Apricots and Pecans, which were just as tasty.
I'll be back at your site for another winning cookie recipe next year!
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Wayne
Thanks for letting me know the recipe came together for you. I'm also glad that you took the recipe and tried your own flavors. And thank you for the plans to come back next year! 😊
Susan says
Hi! I measured, sifted, etc. but they were dry... Yummy but dry. I did forget the 20 minutes in the fridge (I don't mind if they spread) Do you think that may have messed things up? I'm thinking that I pulsed the pistachios too much and it acted like additional flour maybe? Did you put a glaze on the top? It kind of looks pink on the top in your photos.
Cheryl Norris says
Hi Susan
Thank you for making this recipe and I'm sorry they didn't quite turn out. I'm glad you enjoyed the take though. If you pulverized the pistachios instead of chopping them it's possible they acted more like a nut powder in the recipe which would produce a drier cookie. I didn't add a glaze in the original recipe, but you can definitely add one to this recipe. Let me know if you have any more questions. I'm happy to help.
Susan says
I put 3 slices of bread in with them on top of a piece of parchment paper and that made them moist again - they actually came in 2nd place @ the hospital bake off! I did finely chop the rest of the cranberries and boil them with water and sugar, ran that thru the sieve and used the liquid to make a tart glaze with sifted powdered sugar - topped with the pistachio "dust" - they turned out very yummy!