Melt in your mouth tender shortbread with a elevated floral twist: fresh lavender. The perfect dessert for people who don’t love sweets, or as a snack alongside coffee. Makes 32 thick shortbread.

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If I make this shortbread with no place for it to go, I pretty much eat it all on my own. This particular variation was made thicker after trying a thick shortbread at one of my favorite coffee shops and thinking I could do it better/wondering what would happen if I tried to make this shortbread thicker. The result was an even more fun to eat shortbread attributed to the thicker cookie. Most shortbread is quite crumbly and crunchy, but I love this one for its softer melt in your mouth texture.

I have the standard flat version of this recipe on my Instagram page, but thought it was time this one was added to the site as well so it’s easier for people to find.

Why I love this shortbread:

It can be made ahead. It still tastes fresh if you put it in a sealable container at room temperature for up to five days or frozen in an airtight container for up to three months.
It comes together easily. Once you have softened butter, it takes about five minutes to come together (quicker than most ovens preheat) and another few minutes to put into the pan.
I always have ingredients for it. All you need is flour, sugar, butter, salt, and a mix in. We have a rosemary plant that I can use in a pinch, but dried culinary lavender is very shelf stable and you only need a small amount.
It’s delicious. Truly so snackable. Beware making it without a destination (other than your own mouth).
It’s endlessly adaptable. I have made quite a few variations of this shortbread, and my favorites made it to the site (see the recipes below). Some lemon zest would also go really well if you want to add some spring/summer vibes to the lavender version.

When I use this recipe

I don’t usually make this recipe for an every day craving, since I tend to eat most of it myself (as I mentioned, extremely snackable). This recipe in particular is originally from my friend’s mom, and she loves to use it for all types of celebratory occasions, especially coffee shops. This variation always shows up at my galentine’s party since the lavender has such a romantic quality to it. I also love to make shortbread for wedding showers, baby showers, and holiday treat boxes. They are the perfect dessert for the person who doesn’t really like sweets since they are small and have a melt in your mouth butter flavor.

Ingredients

1 cup Unsalted butter, browned
1/2 cup sugar + 8 teaspoons, for dusting
1 1/4 teaspoon Sea salt
2 1/2 cups (300gr) All-purpose flour
4 tsp minced rosemary

Equipment you’ll need

Stand mixer or hand mixer: For mixing the dough. I find the hand mixer works particularly well with this recipe.

Large metal mixing bowl: For mixing the dough

Measuring cups & spoons: For measuring the ingredients

Kitchen scale: For measuring the flour, if you own one

Parchment Paper: For lining the baking pan

9x13 baking pan (metal preferred): For baking the shortbread

Step by step instructions with pictures

Method:

Preheat the oven to 300°F, and line an 8”x8” (20x20cm) baking pan with parchment paper. You technically don't need the parchment, but it is much easier to remove when it has parchment, so you can get prettier pieces.

Add sugar to the room temperature butter in the mixing bowl, and whip together for two minutes with a hand mixer, scraping the sides with a rubber spatula as needed. If you decide to “cheat” and soften the butter in the microwave, be very careful. Any wetness in the dough will cause it to be cruncy, and you’ll lose the signature melt in your mouth texture of this shortbread. You are better off cutting the fridge cold butter into 1/2” chunks and giving it a a bit longer to break down in the mixer than melting it in the microwave.

Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add the salt and lavender, and mix for 30 more seconds until thoroughly combined.

Scrape the side of the bowl with a large rubber spatula. Add the flour (fluff flour with a whisk, and scoop into measuring cup to measure if you aren't measuring by weight. Use the flat side of a butter knife to level; do not shake to level.), and mix on low until butter just starts to coat all of the flour and form very small clumps, like wet sand (see picture below for an example). It should hold together when you squeeze it but be quite loose on it’s own Use a rubber spatula to stir and make sure no dry pockets of flour or chunks of butter are at the bottom.

Press into the prepared baking pan and dust evenly with 8 teaspoons of sugar (like the below picture). I like to use organic granulated sugar because the crystals are larger, but nonorganic sugar works here as well.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the corners barely start to brown and the middle starts to look puffy. Let cool for 15 minutes or until the pan is cool to the touch before removing from pan and cutting. I like to cut into 32 squares or rectangles, but sometimes I cut them into triangles. They are slightly more fragile when they are cut into triangles, so be mindful when you store them. Store in an airtight container for up to five days or in the freezer for up to one month.

Below photos are examples of what the shortbread looks like when the dough is poured into the pan, and after pressing down and adding sugar. Photos taken of my standard Rosemary shortbread recipe.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I want the thinner shortbread?

That definitely still works for this recipe, just bake in a 9”x13” (23x33cm) baking pan and reduce the bake time to 22-25 minutes.

Can this recipe be halved?

Yes! To maintain the thickness of this recipe, you would bake in a 10”x5” (25x13.7cm) bread pan. I wouldn’t try to triple or quadruple and bake in a larger pan, because it can be difficult to bake properly and may dry out before fully cooking.

My shortbread turned out crunchy, what went wrong?

This shortbread should be soft and melt in your mouth, not crunchy. You probably over mixed the dough. You want the dough to look like wet sand and barely come together (see the above picture). The alternative is that they were over baked. If they start to brown across the top then they have gone too far. Make sure you watch closely at the end of baking and bake on the center rack of the oven.

My shortbread was really dry, what went wrong?

Your probably added too much flour, be extremely careful to fluff the flour before measuring, and use a baking scale to measure if possible. Flour is compacted when packaged, which creates a variety of headaches for the modern recipe developer, because when someone thinks they are getting a cup of flour, they could be getting close to 1 1/2-1 3/4 cup of flour. To get the most accurate results (and a shortbread that is not too dry), measure your flour by weight. Perfectly sifted and fluffed flour ends up being around 120 gr per cup, but I am slowly changing all of my recipes to 137 gr per cup to better match the average baker, though the real ones will know to measure flour if the gram measurement is available.