Desserts

Grandma’s Easy Shortbread Cookies

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It’s Christmas in July! “Why?”, you ask. Well, because it just doesn’t seem fair that we have to wait all year before we can again enjoy our favorite holiday treats. I mean…I get it…the Christmas holiday usually includes a lot of over-indulgence and so you can’t have Christmas cookies and desserts every day of the year, but having to wait 12 months…well that seems just cruel! So we figured July was a good compromise and so today we’re going to show you one of our favorite Christmas Holiday recipes, Easy Shortbread Cookies…just like Grandma makes.

Certain traditions get widely associated with certain holidays, but families tend to develop their own specific traditions. And we think this is super fun and super important! Fun family traditions foster togetherness, unity, and wonderful memories…the sorts of things that you want to be the bedrock of your family existence. Am I right? I am right. But as a bonus, it’s also a great excuse to enjoy great food!

We have seasonal food traditions like making homemade applesauce and Chocolate Pecan Pie in the Fall, but there’s nothing quite like holiday traditions. And when Christmas rolls around one of our traditions is making shortbread.

We tend to over-indulge during the holidays so it’s probably a good that we don’t often make many of our holiday favorites during the year, if at all, but 12 months does seem like a ridiculously long time to wait! We decided a compromise was in order and we’re adopting the theme of “Christmas in July” so we have a reason to break out Grandma Leone’s Shortbread Recipe. We’re totally allowed to do that, right? Who knows maybe Christmas in July will even become a new tradition.

What is Shortbread?

Shortbread originated in Scotland and is traditionally one part white sugar, 2 parts butter, and 4 parts flour. Our ingredient ration isn’t exactly that, but it’s close. You bake shortbread at a slow temperature to avoid over browning and the end result is a crumbly gold cookie — almost like a cross between a biscuit and a cookie — that is delicious and the perfect accompaniment to a warm cup of coffee. In the winter this might be a perfect combination to enjoy in front of the fire, but for Christmas in July the fire seems unlikely. But you best believe, I’m still drinking the coffee!

This recipe we acquired from Grandma Leone who is the inspiration for a lot of our recipes. She may have adapted it from somewhere else, but for us, it will always be connected to her as are a lot of our favorite recipes.

Want to check out more Shortbread Cookies?

Now, we love this shortbread and think you should give it a try, but take a look here for some other shortbread recipes to choose from. It’s beginning to look a look like Christmas! Okay, not really, but we’re still going to enjoy this shortbread as if it were.

On to the recipe: