I love to bake! It is one of my favourite things to do. And the Christmas season gives me all the incentive I need to bake as much as I want! Stay tuned, as I am going to be posting a lot of holiday treats for you to try at home! And today, I’m sharing this Whipped Shortbread recipe.
My mom has been making Whipped Shortbread for as long as I can remember. In fact, they are the cookie that stands out the most in my mind from my childhood. When Mom would bake them, I knew that the Christmas season had arrived! These cookies are melt in your mouth amazing!
To take this cookie up a notch, and make it a teensy bit more fancy, I added the vanilla bean to the recipe. I was a little skeptical about using a vanilla bean, as I have never baked with them before, but I will now! They are easy to use, and the taste they give is so different and so delicious! I found them at Costco for about $12 for 10 pods – not too bad.
** But don’t worry if you don’t have a vanilla bean! You can make this recipe without it as well. Just leave it out and add a 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract, or leave the vanilla out altogether if you wish! **
The key to making this recipe successful is to make sure you beat it for 10 minutes. You’ll have to scrape the bowl a few times, but whip, whip, whip! The batter should be light and fluffy before you bake it!

Whipped Shortbread
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Description
These Whipped Shortbread Cookies are so buttery, light and fluffy! A classic holiday cookie.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 vanilla bean (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Adding the vanilla bean is optional. If you are adding it, slide a knife along the outside of the vanilla bean to reveal the centre, then gently scrape out the centre of the bean. Set aside.
- Using a mixer, cream together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla bean, until fluffy.
- Add flour, then beat for 10 minutes.
- At this point you will have to scrape your bowl often to make sure all the ingredients are being whipped.
- When the batter is ready, it should be white and fluffy.
- Drop by the tablespoonful onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes, careful not to let them brown.
Keywords: shortbread, whipped shortbread
– – –
Tip! With the leftover vanilla bean pod, make Vanilla Sugar!
A neat thing about the vanilla bean is, after you have scraped out the centre, you can keep the shell, and put it in some sugar to make your own Vanilla Sugar. Just cover the pod with some sugar, let it sit for a few days. Use it in your coffee, or other baking. So good!
Enjoy!
14 Comments
Barb
November 28, 2010 at 12:46 AMmmmm, hoping to have some of them next weekend! I’ll say it again, too – your photography is fabulous!
Tiffany @ Eat at Home
December 8, 2011 at 2:01 AMThese sound so good!
Tracy S
October 30, 2012 at 8:39 AMDoes it matter if you use salted or unsalted butter?
Tracy S
October 30, 2012 at 9:49 AMok, I only have unsalted now, I will try it and see! thank you! can’t wait…love shortbread!
Ginger Spice Molasses Cookies {Holiday Eats} - A Pretty Life In The Suburbs
November 14, 2014 at 7:34 AM[…] holiday baking and it can never come fast enough for me…especially Christmas cookies like shortbread, Turtle cookies, and Rugelach. Christmas cookies are the best. […]
Vanilla Bean Sugar - A Pretty Life In The Suburbs
December 2, 2014 at 1:12 PM[…] you are using the centres of the vanilla beans in other recipes, like Vanilla Bean Whipped Shortbread, you can just use the empty bean shell to flavour your […]
Candy Cane Cloud Dessert - A Pretty Life In The Suburbs
December 11, 2014 at 6:00 AM[…] time with my family…the kids are going to be off of school soon so we’ll bake some whipped shortbread, make some cinnamon salt ornaments, build our gingerbread house, and hopefully get out to do some […]
Christmas Thumbprint Cookies - A Pretty Life In The Suburbs
July 22, 2016 at 7:41 PM[…] So now that we’ve decided that we must bake cookies, the biggest question is what kind? Whipped Shortbread? Rugelach? Turtle Cookies? Peppermint Kiss Sugar Cookies, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies? […]
April
May 23, 2020 at 5:35 PMThese are delicious. They’re delicate and light and melty in your mouth. Mine cooked in 9 minutes. It’s a keeper!
★★★★★
Jo-Anna Rooney
May 23, 2020 at 9:46 PMThank you April! I’m so happy you enjoyed these!
Jeri
September 22, 2020 at 1:46 PMHi Jo-Anna,
Can double the amount of dough be dropped to make a thicker, taller cookie, or am I asking the impossible? Thank You.
Jo-Anna Rooney
September 22, 2020 at 2:53 PMHi Jeri! My concern would be that they wouldn’t cook through to the middle properly. They will brown pretty fast on the outside, but may not cook inside…
Jeri
October 6, 2020 at 4:49 PMHi Jo-Anna,
I just want to say how great it is that you answered my question about your cookies (that I will be trying out at the next family gathering). I have commented and sent questions to other cooking sites over the years, and it seems, in some cases, they just go into a giant black hole. The owners of the sites never answer any, or they pick and choose which ones they will answer. Thank you for being one of the nice people in the universe who actually wants to help. Jeri
Jo-Anna Rooney
October 6, 2020 at 7:35 PMYou’re so welcome Jeri, I’m happy I could help! I hope your cookies are delicious!