Spiced Christmas Shortbread Cookies made with cinnamon & allspice in the dough and topped with a simple icing recipe for perfect Christmas cookies! Buttery shortbread cookies with great flavor & texture for holiday baking.
We love cookies here (if you couldn’t tell already) and this shortbread recipe is perfect. It hardly uses any ingredients, it comes together quickly, and it just makes the most perfect soft and flavorful spiced Christmas cookie you can imagine. With the glaze on top, it’s perfect for decorating and you can adjust the sweetness of each cookie with how much glaze you put on top.
What are Spiced Christmas Shortbread Cookies?
They’re a unique and wonderful cookie that will add festiveness to your next holiday party, cookie exchange, dessert table or simply enjoy them on a weeknight. There’s really no wrong answer. These spiced shortbread cookies are simple and easy to make too. This makes them fantastic for new bakers trying to gain some simple skills in the kitchen or for making them with the kids and having some quality family time.
Spiced Christmas Shortbread Ingredients
Spiced Christmas Shortbread Ingredients-Powdered Sugar: We need 3/4 cups of powdered sugar to make these cookies perfect.
-Butter: With 3/4 cup of softened butter we get a rich and flavorful dough. Make sure to use unsalted butter so that they don’t turn out too salty.
-Vanilla Extract: You can use the cheap version or the high quality stuff (I like the high quality versions of vanilla) but we’ll need 1 teaspoon’s worth to get a good flavor base for these cookies.
-Flour: With 1 2/3 cups of all purpose flour we can get a good base for these cookies. You will need a little more for your countertops when rolling out the dough later.
-Salt: We only need 1/2 teaspoon of salt to make the flavors in this recipe enhanced.
-Spices: One teaspoon each of cinnamon and allspice is enough to spice these shortbread cookies and make them delicious!
For the Frosting you will need:
-Powdered Sugar: We will need 2 cups of powdered sugar to get a sweet and smooth base for the frosting.
-Water: Just 2 tablespoons of water is enough to thin down the powdered sugar into a good consistency.
-Corn Syrup: Use 2 tablespoons of light corn syrup to thicken the frosting and create a shiny appearance.
How to Make Spiced Christmas Shortbread Cookies
How to Make Spiced Christmas Shortbread CookiesMix together the powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer.
In another bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and spices.
Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and then whisk to form the dough.
Cover the dough and let it chill in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and then spray it lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
Roll out your cookie dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut out the cookies into your desired shapes.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the bottom is lightly golden brown.
Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack until room temperature.
Frost and decorate, if desired.
How to Make Frosting:
In a bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, water, and corn syrup until smooth. Add in any desired colors.
Frost your cookies and let them dry completely. Enjoy!
Why do these shortbread cookies not have cornstarch?
It’s true that many shortbread cookie recipes out there request cornstarch as an ingredient and that this one is a little different in requesting powdered sugar but there’s a good reason. Powdered sugar not only adds sweetness, but it also acts as a thickener too. In fact, powdered sugar contains cornstarch as an added ingredient. You can verify this by looking at the ingredient label of your powdered sugar. So with this one ingredient, we knock out two necessary things for our cookie recipe giving us a perfect no hassle dough.
Do I have to chill my shortbread dough?
Yes, please don’t skip this step! Shortbread cookies contain so few ingredients and require little effort to pull together, but the dough should be kept as cold as possible up until the moment it goes in the oven. This will help it to retain any cut shape, and stay puffed up and delicious after baking. If you allow your dough to get warm or cut corners by not chilling the dough long enough, the butter in the recipe will be too soft and cause the cookies to melt.
Why are my shortbread cookies tough?
Why are my shortbread cookies tough?If you overwork your dough you could cause the flour in the dough to create some gluten responses which will lead to a tough cookie. Remember, we aren’t kneading dough here, so you can be much more gentle with the cookies. You want things to just come together.
How do you store shortbread cookies?
If frosted, you’ll want your cookies to set completely before trying to store so that they are less likely to stick together. Simply place the cookies in a large airtight container and place the cookies in layers with wax paper or parchment paper between each. They will keep this way for almost 2 weeks.
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Spiced Christmas Shortbread Cookies made with cinnamon & allspice in the dough and topped with a simple icing recipe for perfect Christmas cookies! Buttery shortbread cookies with great flavor & texture for holiday baking.
Katie says
Made this recipe for my family and it was a hit!
Lisalia says
I did a test-run of these cookies. LOVED the spiced shortbread. Terrific variation from the traditional recipe!