I love shortbread, even better when it’s homemade. I love that some are slightly different shapes. Some are different colours. And more often than not, the thickness really varies. Since discovering this ginger shortbread recipe, I have made it so many times and it’s always a massive hit.
This is one of my favourite cookie recipes, as it combines shortbread and gingerbread. Both are traditional Christmas treats in my house.
They are perfect to give out as a holiday cookie, I just wrap a few in some cellophane with a ribbon. And one batch makes around 50 pieces, so there’s plenty to share.
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This ginger shortbread works great as a traditional round shape.
But they look extra cute cut into different shapes.
My favourite shapes to use are the butterfly and flower.
And these shapes make it so easy to decorate.
You can decorate the ginger shortbread cookies with traditional icing.
But my favourite way is to decorate them with different coloured chocolate.
These crisp rounds of shortbread are made with simple ingredients of traditional shortbread. But you can add any number of things to change the taste.
Try light brown sugar for a golden brown shortbread.
Add fresh ginger instead of ground ginger.
Replace the vanilla extract with fresh lemon juice to really change the flavour.
Sprinkle sea salt over your chocolate icing for a salty snack.
After all, these shortbreads were made for great things!
Ginger Shortbread
Ingredients
Ginger Shortbread
- 250g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2/3 cup caster sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup rice flour
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 1/4 cup rice flour (for rolling out the dough)
Icing
- 1 cup icing sugar (sifted)
- 1 tbsp milk
- food colouring of choice
Instructions
Ginger Shortbread
- Pre heat oven to 180°C
- Sift flours together in a medium bowl
- Starting at a low speed, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with the paddle attachment on your electric mixer. Add the ginger and golden syrup when fluffy
- Stir flour mixture into the butter mixture
- Transfer the dough to a flat work surface for rolling
- Roll dough to 1cm thick, using the extra rice flour as needed
- Cut the dough into shapes using cookie cutters
- Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a non-stick mat for 8-10 minutes, until pale gold.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking tray for about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing
- Add the icing sugar to a small bowl.
- Add the milk to the icing sugar ½ teaspoon at a time, until you reach the desired thickness. Thicker for borders, thinner to 'flood-fill'
- Add the food colouring 1 drop at a time, until you reach the desired colour
Spoon the icing mixture into a piping bag. If you don't have a piping bag, use a zip-lock plastic bag and cut the very tip of the corner off, start small and if you need to cut off more you can. - Decorate!
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