Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies

Learn how to make these shortbread cookies using plantain and sweet potato flour. They are sweet, buttery, delicious, grain free, vegan friendly and contain no gluten. Perfect to nibble on anytime of day.

**Disclaimer - For the sake of search terms, this post will refer to them as shortbread cookies NOT biscuits. The correct teminology is actually "shortbread" or "shortbread biscuits"**

Although shortbread cookies may look quite complex they are probably the easiest baked goods you will ever make.

From a gluten free perspective, we often brace ourselves for endless mixing of blends, binders and much more just to get results that are near enough "normal" or "foolproof".

These cookies require no more than 6 ingredients and the whole process is very easy. Whether you are new to gluten free baking or advanced, this recipe caters to everyone!

You simply need to cream the butter and sugar, add the flour(s) along with the other ingredients to form the dough, chill the dough, roll it out, shape it and bake it (that rhymes).

Sounds too good to be true? Yes, it's that simple!

Did I mention this shortbread is suitable for most dietary requirements? They are paleo friendly, gluten free, grain free, unrefined free, vegan and dairy free!!

What is shortbread?

Shortbread is a crumbly type of biscuit (cookie) which originates from Scotland, but you can find it all over the UK.

For those of you who live in the UK, you most definitely will have tried shortbread or atleast heard of it.

The ratio to make shortbread is one part sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts in flour.

No leavening agents such as baking soda or baking powder are used.

The name comes from the difference in the ratio of sugar and butter to flour. As this results in a soft, buttery crumbly biscuit which is often compared to short crust pastry.

For my stateside folks, if you haven't tried shortbread, they are very similar to sugar cookies and are traditionally associated with Christmas.

However, you can eat them any time of the year and often see shortbread in supermarkets throughout the entire year.

Gluten free shortbread

Let's discuss the recipe ingredients, or should I say the flour in question. I purposely didn't go for a storebought flour blend. Infact I tested a few but didn't like the consistency.

In the end, I found that a balance of plantain flour and sweet potato flour worked best. Now I will admit, you don't have to use both flours as plantain flour works great as a standalone flour.

However, I feel that both combined yields a better taste, but it's not a requirement so don't worry if you don't have sweet potato flour.

I used my homemade sweet potato flour which I will leave a link to below but used white sweet potatoes not the orange ones.

What I really LOVE about these cookies is that they are made with flour that is not only gluten free but grain free too.

No nut, rice flour nor starch which makes a change from what would be normally used in gluten free baked goods.

Also, let me point out, when shaping the shortbread, there are a few ways you can do this. 

You can shape them using a cookie cutter as pictured or cut them out into rectanglar shapes though the width of these can vary from slim to wide.

There really is no wrong or right way in terms of shape.

The steps

• Preheat the oven to 160C/320F and line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
• Place the sugar and butter in a medium sized bowl.
• Use a hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy.
• Add the vanilla, pink salt and mix for about another minute.
• Add the sweet potato flour along with the plantain flour using your hands to mix the flour(s) with the butter/sugar mixture.
• Continue to mix until you form a soft pliable doughball.

• Wrap the doughball with saran wrap/cling film.
• Refrigerate the dough for 30-60 minutes or until the dough is firm.
• Place the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to be about ½ inch.
• If you are making shortbread slices you need to use the rolling pin to form a rectangle instead and then cut out rectangular slices.
• To make shortbread cookies, use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies (the amount you get will very depending on the size of the cutter).
• Use a toothprick or a skewer to make holes (not too deep) in the shortbread (see the pictures).
• Place each cookie on the lined baking tray and repeat the above step with the remaining few.
• Bake the shortbread for rough 15 minutes or until the edges are very lightly golden.
• Allow the shortbread to cool down before consuming.

Notes and tips

• Use a fork or a toothpick/skewer to poke holes in the cookies but be sure not to go too deep or to the other side of the cookie or it may break apart/crumble.
• The amount of shortbread made will vary depening on the size of the cutter and the chosen shape.
• If you want to make a double batch, do this seperately.
• These are the recipe links for my Plantain Flour and Sweet Potato Flour.
• Be sure that your vegan butter is room temperature, you don't want it to be too cold.
• When adding the flour, it is VERY important to add this by hand, do not use a mixer or you run the risk of turning it into a batter rather then a soft dough.
• The cookies will be soft when they come straight out of the oven so allow them to cool down first before devouring them.
• The baking time may vary so use this as a rough guide only.
• Store any leftovers cookies in an airtight container and consume within 3-4 days.
• You can use raw cane sugar if you don't want to use powdered sugar.
• Feel free to shape the shortbread how you wish, you can use a cookie cutter like I did or make the dough rectangular to make slices instead.

More festive sweet treats to try

• Pistachio Cookies
• Sweet Dairy Free Cornbread
• Sorrel Cookies
• Gluten Free Chocolate Sugar Cookies
• Gluten Free Gingerbread Muffins
• Butternut Squash Bread

Other cake recipes to try

• Jamaican Ginger Cake 
• Vegan Cherry Chocolate Cookies
• Gluten Free Orange and Almond Cake
• Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake
• Jamaican Toto

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