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These one-bowl, no-mixer Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies are crisp, buttery and super delicious! They're perfect for snacks, gifts and entertaining. Each one is a work of art!
Are you getting in the Thanksgiving frame of mind yet? If you live here in the U.S., you probably realize that the holidays, starting with Thanksgiving, are rapidly approaching. That means all kinds of planning, cooking, traveling (for many) and lots of special times with family and friends. These Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies are a delicious (and fun) way to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season! In addition to a sweet treat for snacking or dessert, they make wonderful gifts and decorative placeholders at the table.
If you're a follower of The Café you probably know that I'm always on the hunt for new and better recipes. But not in this case. This is a super easy, never fail shortbread recipe that I use over and over. It's one-bowl, no-mixer and the dough can be stirred together in less than 10 minutes. You may recognize that it's the same recipe I use with my Easy Decorated Shortbread Cookies, my Spring Shortbread Cookies and my Christmas Shortbread Cookies.
Shortbread cookies that don't spread in the oven
I was honestly on the hunt for years for a shortbread recipe that wouldn't spread in the oven. I tried recipe after recipe hoping to find "the one" but was disappointed time after time. The cookies would look great before baking but then would spread into ugly, almost unrecognizable shapes when retrieved from the oven.
Several years ago, I was thrilled to finally come up with delicious shortbread that comes out with clean, crisp edges. The secret? Actually, there are several. One is to substitute corn starch for a small portion of the flour. This recipe originally called for 2 cups of flour. I now use 1¾ cups flour and ¼ cup of cornstarch. The second trick is to chill the cut cookies before baking. The combination of these two steps, along with the right proportion of ingredients, yields a dough that's perfect for cutout shortbread cookies.
One other thing I love about this shortbread recipe - it's delicious!! Have you had any of those beautiful cookies that just don't taste very good? What good is a pretty face without good character, right? No problem here, these cookies come out buttery, crisp and so tasty!
An easy decorating technique
You might think that the beautiful marbling on these Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies would be tricky to achieve, but it really couldn't be much easier.
The cookies are simply dipped in an easy two-ingredient icing (plus flavoring) that has several drops of food coloring swirled through it. I call it my "Dip, Drip and Flip" technique. It's fun, and you'll feel like an artist when you're done! Check out the step-by-step picture tutorial below!
You can also check out a video of how to do this decorating technique on my Red, White and Blue Shortbread Cookies post. I used this same technique with my Glazed Shortbread Cutout Cookies. Hmm... I'm beginning to feel like an old stick in the mud, using the same ideas over and over...
I promise when you serve or give these Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies to family, friends, neighbors, teachers, hairdressers, etc., you WILL NOT be received like an old stick in the mud. I can't promise, however, that the family, friends, neighbors, teachers, hairdressers, etc. won't beg you to make these pretty treats over and over again!
Café Tips for making these Easy Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies
- Don't roll the cookies too thin if you're going to ice them, as they won't be sturdy enough for the icing technique. I love this rolling pin which enables me to roll an even thickness and is adjustable to just about any thickness you might want. I roll these cookies ¼-inch thick. You can also use ¼-inch wooden dowels on either side of a regular rolling pin to achieve a nice even dough.
- If you enjoy baking with kids, there's an adjustable rolling pin available that's just their size! It would make a wonderful Christmas gift for any little baker that you know!
- Allow enough time for the unbaked cutout cookies to chill in the refrigerator. You want to chill them at least an hour. If it's longer they'll be fine. I've left my unbaked cookies in the fridge for as long as 24 hours.
- There are lots of wonderful varieties of pure extracts available, so you can switch out the flavor of these Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies to just about anything flavor you might fancy. I use vanilla and almond but lemon, raspberry, mint or orange would also be delicious.
- If your dough seems to stick to the counter or to the rolling pin, just flour the counter and rolling pin with a little extra flour. Roll the dough ball around in the flour, so it's coated on all sides and lift up the edges to scoot a little flour under the dough as you roll.
- These cookies will harden nicely so they can be stacked on a platter, but not so hard that they would ship well.
- Since you're not using a mixer, the butter for this recipe needs to be very soft. That can be difficult during the colder months, even if you let the butter sit out for hours. A short stint in the microwave on power level 10 (10%) works like magic to soften butter. You'll need to experiment a bit with your microwave though, as they're all different. Start with 20 or 30-second increments at power level 10 until you learn how long your microwave will take to get the butter nice and soft, but not melted.
- A few tips on rolling and cutting out cookies:
- Keep your work surface and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour.
- I also like to rub the cutting edge of my cookie cutter in a little flour in between each cookie.
- Press fairly firmly when cutting out the cookies, but don't twist or wiggle the cookie-cutter as the shape will get distorted.
- If you don't have room in your refrigerator to chill the cookies on two sheet pans, just transfer all of them to one pan after cutting. Then later, once they're chilled, you can divide them between the two pans for baking.
- When re-rolling the scraps, incorporate as little of the flour on the work surface as possible to ensure tender cookies.
- Occasionally, some of the cookies will be slightly puffed on the top when removed from the oven. You can give them a nice flat top by pushing on the top gently with a metal spatula.
- I like to rub a toothpick along the edges of each cookie before dipping to remove any crumbs.
- Use a clean toothpick each time you dip into the food coloring to avoid contamination, as well as cross-color blending.
- I used Wilton gel food colors in Ivory, Brown, Copper and Orange for a pretty autumn look. You can vary the colors to suit your taste/decor.
- I got my turkey cookie cutter from Amazon.
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Easy Thanksgiving Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 8 ounces very soft butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Âľ cups all-purpose flour
- ÂĽ cup cornstarch
For the glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4-5 tablespoons half and half
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ÂĽ teaspoon almond extract
- 3-4 containers of gel food coloring
Instructions
For the cookies:
- Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside. Place soft butter in a medium-size mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula until nice and smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix together by hand for about 30 seconds until well blended.
- Add the flour and cornstarch. Stir until dry ingredients are incorporated. The dough will be a little shaggy. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and gather into a ball. Knead 5-6 times until fairly smooth.
- Form into a ball again and flatten with your hand to form a flat disk. Turn the disk to coat both sides with flour.
- Roll out the dough to an approximate ¼-inch thickness (see Café Tips above in the post). Keep work surface, dough and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour. Cut out turkeys and transfer to prepared pans with a thin, metal spatula. Re-roll scraps as many times as needed to use up the dough. Place cutouts in the refrigerator for at least one hour or up to 24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375ËšF. Remove 1 pan of cutouts from the refrigerator and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden at the edges. Rotate pans halfway through for even browning. Repeat with the second pan of cutouts. Cool completely before icing.
For the glaze:
- Combine powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons half and half and extracts in a medium-size bowl. Mix until smooth. The glaze should be fairly thick, but pourable. Add a little more half and half if too thick. Taste the glaze and add more extract, if a more intense flavor is desired. Transfer the glaze to a small shallow bowl (a little bigger than your cookies).
- With a toothpick, add a small amount of each desired color of gel food coloring swirl lightly through the icing. Don’t swirl too much or the icing will become a solid color. Use a light hand with the gel food coloring. A little goes a long way!
- To glaze the cookies, hold onto the edges of a cookie and dip the top surface into the glaze, being sure all of the top touches the glaze. Pull cookie straight up and out of the glaze. Allow excess glaze to drip back into the bowl for about 15-20 seconds. (see pictures above in post).
- When glaze stops dripping, quickly flip the cookie to the right side up and give it a gentle jiggle to allow the glaze to flow evenly over the surface. Repeat with remaining cookies. Place cookies on a cooling rack and allow glaze to dry for 20-30 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
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Cain't wait to make these! So many wondeerful ideas and recipes. Thanks again!
Would love these labels too, Hugs, Mecca
Hi Mecca, we do not have labels for this recipe at this time.
Hi Chris, I made these along with the pumkin cookies for Thanksgiving .. delicious as usual... all of your recipes that I have tried are just wonderful. The dough is so easy to roll out . The marbled effect of the glaze on the turkey cookies is beautiful. Thank you for all of your recipes. I also used the Thanksgiving cookie label and it helped to make such a nice presentation.
Bernice P
That's great, Bernice! Thanks for your review!
Could we have the metric button o thus recipe please Chris, it sounds great.
Done!
Thanks for the response and I took the cookies to a Thanksgiving dinner and they were a hit!
Great to know, Heather!
The cookies look and taste great. But, the frosting has air bubbles...did I let it sit too long? Also, I wasn't sure if I should take the cookies off of the cookie sheet right away, and I guess I should not have because I broke one trying to move it.
Hi Heather, for future reference, you can pop the tiny bubbles with a toothpick.
Can these cookies be frozen after they are glazed?
Yes, they can. Enjoy, Karen!
This a great recipe! I have made it twice and am about to make it for Christmas as well. I have a quick question. How long ahead of time can I make these, and how do I store them? Do they need to be refrigerated?
Hi Elizabeth, it's pretty crazy how well they keep in an airtight container. I've had them for a few weeks and they were still delicious. They don't need to be refrigerated.
What an easy and delicious recipe! My four kiddos and I had such fun in the kitchen today baking these to bring to our family Thanksgiving celebration. Thank you!
Awesome! Thanks for letting us know, C.H. 🙂
That shortbread is amazing. You wrote that the cutouts would not spread and they were perfect. The only issue was that they were made for the children and the adults wanted them too. Thank you for such a nice cookie recipe. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Yay! Thanks so much for your review, Nadine!
Hi planning on making these tomorrow. I only have vanilla extract. Will it taste fine if I sub the almond for all vanilla?
Hi Guadalupe, all vanilla will be delicious! I make them that way lots of times!
Melt in your mouth delicious cookies! Love the decorating technique! We doubled the cookie recipe and did one and a half times for the frosting. Can’t wait to make Christmas cookies!
Awesome, thanks so much for sharing your results, Connie! I think you'll love making our easy Christmas cookies!
Makes only 10-12 cookies? Those would be devoured in 20 minutes or less. If course the recipe can be doubled or more, I just can't ever imagine someone wanting to spend that much time for 10 cookies, but the writer did.
Haha! I get what you mean, Edward! The recipe is easily doubled and it does make very large turkey cookies. If your cutter is smaller, you could probably get 20-24 cookies out of a batch.
I use this recipe for shortbread cookies and your icing technique. Everyone likes receiving these anytime, not just on holidays. They're beautiful and quite easy! Thanks for all these great recipes a beautiful and easy maneuverable site .
Thank you, Shannon! I appreciate your kind comment and you taking the time to share your results. đź’•
These cookies are a hit with young and old, plus they are so easy to make! Thanks Chris for continuing to provide amazing recipes. :>)
Thanks, Kristie!! đź’•đź’•đź’•đź’•đź’•
That rolling pin has been on my wish list since last year. I’m going to buy it for myself so I can make these super cute cookies for work!
That rolling pin is worth it's weight in gold! 🙂
Just LOVE these.
Thank you Chris.
❤❤❤
Beautiful cookies Chris! And so perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday! What a great take home treat for dinner guests too!
Just ordered the cookie cutter 🙂 If I only have heavy whipping cream in the fridge, would that work for the glaze? Or is half and half preferred? (Or could I use whole milk?) Blessings, Becky
Hi Becky, whole milk will work just fine. Happy Thanksgiving!
Our granddaughter is allergic to eggs, so this recipe is great! I have used it many times. Unfortunately, I end up eating more than she does. Love all your recipes. Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks so much, Cassie. I love that there's a delicious cookie she can eat!
Had good friends in town and got so behind in my comments but getting there 🙂 I'm going to be making turkey cookies for my grands on Thanksgiving Day too 🙂 Would love to try your fall colored swirly frosting on some!
What a fun baking project, with such pretty and festive results! And then of course, there's the delicious part, too 🙂 Love these!
Love these! So festive and beautiful!
Thanks so much, Sandra!
Such a simple and beautiful technique for frosting these shortbread cookies! They're perfect for Thanksgiving snacking!!!
They are so adorable! Love your rolling pin too, very practical.
Aww so cute! Great project with the grands. My family would go nuts for these. PINNING!