These cinnamon sugar shortbread cookies are light and sweet, and feel like they both melt in your mouth and have the perfect crisp.
I love shortbread, it’s so buttery and delicious. I remember when I discovered Lorna Doone cookies and was like WHAT are these?? I don’t buy those anymore because I can make my own which are just as good and I can create tons of flavors like my Thai Tea Shortbread Cookies, Ted Lasso Shortbread Bars, and Simple Maple Shortbread Cookies. Eventually, I’ll probably just create every shortbread cookie flavor you could think of, but for now these cinnamon sugar shortbread cookies are probably at the top of the list.
Baking Tips
Keeping your ingredients at the right temperature is how you get shortbread to have the right texture. Your butter shouldn’t be too soft when you cream it with the sugar. You want the butter to be pliable but not mushy. If you press your finger into the butter at room temperature it should leave a small indent but not go all the way through (or even halfway). Then, chilling your dough is a must before slicing, and I chill the dough again while the oven preheats.
Additionally, on the subject of butter. If you hadn’t noticed, I made these cinnamon sugar shortbread cookies with salted butter. The salt is key in making sure the flavors are balanced and this cookie doesn’t become overly sweet. I also use high butterfat butter in shortbread cookies (and sometimes scones or other butter based bakes). I always test things with regular unsalted butter as well to make sure they work, and these do but I would highly recommend splurging on good butter because you WILL taste the difference.
Normally I like to make my shortbread with only powdered sugar as it lends to a beautifully tender texture. Granulated sugar can give you more of a crisp texture. I decided to blend both to have sort of the best of both worlds.
Cinnamon Sugar Shortbread Cookies Key Ingredients
- Butter – Honestly, butter could be considered the only star ingredient of shortbread. It plays such an important role in flavor and texture. This is why I often develop and urge bakers to buy really good butter when making shortbread or other butter forward bakes. European or higher butterfat American butters are going to shine in your recipe. Most bakes I often say to use unsalted, but for this cinnamon sugar shortbread (and many of my other shortbread recipes) I recommend salted.
- Cinnamon – I wanted these cookies to taste richly of cinnamon so that it didn’t end up tasting like a sugar cookie. The cookie itself has half a tablespoon and then there is additional cinnamon in the cinnamon sugar that the cookies are tossed in.
- Powdered Sugar – Powdered sugar is mixed with cornstarch when it’s made, which the cornstarch and fine texture of the sugar help cookies have a really tender melt in your mouth quality compared to using granulated sugar.
Ingredients
- 112 g Salted butter ½ cup, room temperature
- 30 g Powdered sugar ¼ cup
- 50 g Granulated sugar ¼ cup
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- ½ tbsp Cinnamon
- 120 g AP flour 1 cup
- 67 g Granulated sugar for sprinkling
- 1 tsp Cinnamon for sprinkling
- pinch Sea salt
Instructions
- In a medium to large bowl with a hand mixer or the bowl of your stand mixer with paddle attached, add butter ¼ cup granulated and ¼ cup powdered sugar and mix together until creamy and smooth (2-4 min).
- Add vanilla and mix in.
- Add your flour and cinnamon and mix into the dough on low until the dough starts to look like a bunch of pebble size clusters.
- Use your hands to bring the dough together the rest of the way into a ball.
- Using a sheet of parchment or plastic wrap, transfer the dough to it and shape into a round or rectangular log. How long and wide is up to you, I shaped mine into a cylinder about 2 inches wide and 6 inches long. Wrap the cookie dough up and place in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours.
- Mix together the remaining ⅓ cup of sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon and pinch of sea salt in a bowl.
- When the dough has chilled, remove from the fridge and slice into slices that are about ¼-½ inch thick. Thinner slices will give you about 20 cookies and thicker slices will yield about 14-15 slices.
- After the cookies have been sliced, toss each cookie in the cinnamon sugar bowl.
- Place on a parchment lined baking sheet with about 2 inches between cookie slices.
- Place the tray of cookies in the fridge to chill and preheat your oven to 325°F.
- When oven is preheated, place the baking sheet in the center rack of your oven and let bake for about 14-15 minutes.
- Remove cookies from oven and let cool on the tray for 3-5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Enjoy!
