These Christmas Shortbread Cookies are a delightful and festive treat that combines the rich, buttery flavor of my wildly popular shortbread cookies with the sweet and fruity goodness of jam. Start your Christmas baking off right by making these for a cookie exchange or add to a cookie variety plate for neighbor gifts this holiday season.
Ingredient Notes + Variations
This recipe sticks to the classics, which is exactly why it works so well. Everything blends into a soft, buttery dough that bakes into the most tender shortbread cookies. Here’s a couple key notes on a few ingredients:
- Butter: Use very soft butter, not melted. This gives the dough that smooth, shortbread texture.
- Jam or Nutella: Either works for the filling. Raspberry jam looks especially festive.
- Powdered sugar: Creates a simple icing that sets into a thin sweet glaze.
How to Make Christmas Shortbread Cookies
With just 4 simple ingredients, you’ll soon have perfect shortbread cookies to enjoy at Christmas time! For full recipe details, including ingredients and measurements, see the printable recipe card down below.
Step 1: Preheat Oven + Prep Pan
Preheat oven to 325° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Step 2: Make Shortbread Dough
In a large bowl, mix room temperature butter, white sugar, vanilla extract, and all purpose flour together on low to medium speed until incorporated. After a quick mix in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand mixer, it’ll look like this isn’t much of a dough at all; just a crumbly texture. NEVER FEAR! Dough should hold its shape when squeezed together.
Step 3: Form Dough into Logs
Divide the shortbread dough into 4 equal portions and form into logs down the length of the cookie sheet. Press your finger into the center to create an indent all the way down each log.
Step 4: Bake
Once you have all the logs are formed, bake 12-15 minutes at 325° F until golden brown. Bake time for my cookies was right at 14 minutes, but all ovens vary slightly. The cookies will spread a little, but that’s totally normal! Let these cool completely on a wire rack.
Step 5: Add the Filling
Now comes the fun part!! Fill each log with whatever you like. I like to use raspberry or strawberry jam because it’s more festive, but I’ve used peach preserves, blackberry jam, and even Nutella before. It’s all delish.
Step 6: Drizzle Icing Across the Cookies (Optional)
If you feel so inclined, drizzle an easy icing made from confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), milk, and vanilla extract. Mix all icing ingredients together in a mixing bowl until it’s the consistency of white school glue. Drizzle over each log generously. Cut into diagonal pieces once icing has set for 20 minutes or so.
Tips for Success
- Use a sharp knife to cut clean diagonal slices.
- Use very soft butter so the dough comes together smoothly.
- Don’t overbake. The edges should stay pale.
- Let the logs cool fully before adding the jam to prevent melting.
- Start with 1 teaspoon of milk in the icing, then add more as needed to thin it.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter room temperature, very soft
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
filling-
- 2/3 cup jam preserves or nutella
for the icing-
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325° F.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and flour together until incorporated. Dough should hold its shape when squeezed together.
- Divide dough into 4 equal portions and form into logs down the length of the cookie sheet.
- Press your finger into the center to create an indent all down each log.
- Bake 12-15 minutes. Cool completely.
- Fill each log with jam.
for the icing-
- In a small bowl, mix together powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of milk, and vanilla extract until its the consistency of white school glue. Add more milk as needed for desired consistency.
- Drizzle icing over each log generously. Allow to set for 20-30 minutes before slicing.
- Using a sharp knife, slice diagonally into 60 equal sized cookies and serve!
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