This guide on how to make shortbread will teach you the best way to make these delicious cookies. Mint Chocolate Shortbread Cookies consist of delicious shortbread in snowflake shapes with a hint of mint flavor and drizzled with melted chocolate. These easy shortbread cookies are perfect for hostess gifts and class parties!
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👩🏻🍳 Why You'll Love This Recipe
If you've always wondered how to make shortbread, this recipe is perfect for you! Mint chocolate shortbread is perfect for the holiday season, and with a cookie cutter you can easily make these cookies into fun shapes like snowflakes or trees for Christmas time.
Great to wrap up and hand out as hostess gifts or to add to your holiday cookie spread, these easy shortbread cookies are just as delicious as they are beautiful!
And if you're looking for even more ways to diversify your cookie platter, check out this post with 30+ Easy Christmas Cookies.
🥘 Ingredients Needed
- butter - a very important ingredient for shortbread; use unsalted butter as different brands include different amounts in salted butter.
- sugar
- vanilla extract - for a boost of sweetness in your shortbread.
- mint extract - gives your cookies their signature minty flavor.
- flour - both cake flour and all purpose flour would work for this recipe.
- salt - balances out the sweetness.
- food coloring - technically optional, but the green really captures the mint flavor and makes these cookies festive!
- chocolate chips - you'll melt these down to drizzle over top.
- mint Oreos - regular Oreos (or other kinds of mint chocolate cookies) would also work.
🧈 Tip for quick butter softening
Uh oh...you are ready to make your cookies but realize you forgot to take the butter out of the fridge to soften. Ack!
No worries - use this trick! Place the butter on a plate or other clean surface. You might even want to cut the sticks in half or quarters for quicker softening.
Then find a microwave-safe glass or bowl (or even something like a large Pyrex measuring cup) that will fit upside down over top of the butter.
Fill the microwave-safe container with water and microwave it until boiling. Carefully pour out the water and then place it over the butter. Wait 15 -30 minutes and your butter will be softened!
🔪 Instructions
- Beat together butter and sugar, then add vanilla and mint extract. (I find a stand mixer makes this process super easy!)
- Sift together flour and salt.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing as you go.
- Once you have a dough formed, add the food coloring a drop at a time.
- Repeat until the cookies reach a color you like.
- Use a cookie cutter to shape the dough into snowflakes. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- If you don't have a cookie cutter, you can also scoop the dough into balls and bake as directed.
- Meanwhile, crush the Oreos, cream and all. It's easiest to use a food processor for this.
- Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave.
- Drizzle the melted chocolate over your cookies and top with cookie crumbs.
👪 FAQs
Place the cookies in an airtight container and store at room temperature for a week or in the fridge for up to 10 days. You may want to use parchment paper if you have to store in layers to avoid sticking.
Yes, you can freeze your shortbread cookies for up to 3 months. Just be sure to give them time to return to room temperature before eating!
This can happen when you overwork the dough. Also be sure not to melt the butter before creaming it with the sugar. Melted butter will absorb into the dry ingredients too quickly which results in an uneven consistency.
💭 Other Helpful Tips on How to Make Shortbread
- Rolling out shortbread dough can be difficult, so it may benefit you to use a cookie press instead if you have one.
- If you do want to roll out the dough, it can be helpful to let it sit in the fridge for half an hour or so beforehand. This will help it stay together. Be sure to wrap it in plastic to avoid drying it out, and coat your surface with some powdered sugar for best results.
- Pastry bags can be difficult to work with, so you could also put the melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle.
- If you want to speed up the cooling process, transfer the cookies from the baking sheet to a wire rack. You want the cookies to be nice and cool before adding the chocolate.
- While baking, watch the edges of the cookie for a golden brown color that indicates they're finishing baking.
These easy shortbread cookies make the perfect stocking stuffers or a great addition to a cookie exchange! Once you learn how to make shortbread, you'll see that the possibilities are endless for customization!
📖 Variations
- Omit the mint extract and food coloring for classic, easy shortbread cookies.
- For a more tender and balanced cookie, a mix of cake flour and all purpose flour will provide just the right amount of gluten.
- You could also drizzle these cookies with white chocolate, dark chocolate, or use a mix of chocolates for a slightly more complex flavor.
🎄 What to Serve with Easy Shortbread Cookies
Sometimes it's important to have a nice balanced meal before you get to the cookies, so here are some great ideas for your holiday meal!
Start with this festive and flavorful Christmas Salad, then serve Pan Fried Chicken Thighs or Crock Pot Turkey Legs for your main course.
If you want even more dessert, serve your easy shortbread cookies alongside a Malted Chocolate Stout Cake.
🍪 More Cookie Recipes You'll Love
- Maple Thumbprint Cookies - With a sweet and mapley icing, these simple and cute shortbread cookies are perfect for dessert or a sweet snack!
- Double Chocolate Crunch Cookies - These fun cookies have cereal baked right into the dough for a crunchy eating experience.
- Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies - Stuffed with your favorite flavor of Oreos, these decadent cookies are full of flavor.
- Best Snickerdoodles - This recipe from Modern Honey is so sweet and cinnamon-y!
Easy Shortbread Cookies
Love this recipe? Awesome! Please give it a 5 star ⭐ rating below! And if you make this, snap a photo and tag me on Instagram. You can find me at DizzyBusyandHungry or #dizzybusyandhungry!
📋 Recipe Card
Chocolate Mint Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ pound butter (3 sticks) (room temperature)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon mint extract
- 3 ½ cups flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2-3 drops green food coloring
- 6 ounces chocolate chips or chocolate candy melts (about ¾ cup)
- 10-12 Cool Mint Oreos
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl, then add vanilla and mint extracts.¾ pound butter (3 sticks), 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon mint extract
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour and salt. Once combined, slowly add to wet ingredients while mixing.3 ½ cups flour, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Once dough has formed, add a drop of food coloring and mix. Repeat until desired color is reached.2-3 drops green food coloring
- Place dough in a cookie press, or roll dough to about ¼ inch thick and cut cookies using cookie cutters of desired shape. Or, if you are in a hurry, you can just scoop the dough with a small cookie scoop and roll into balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 18-20 minutes.
- While the cookies bake, crush the Oreos (best done in a food processor). Use the entire Oreo, filling and all!10-12 Cool Mint Oreos
- Once cookies are cool, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave (or the candy melts according to the package directions) and transfer into a candy decorating bag. Cut of the corner tip of the bag and use it to drizzle the cookies with melted chocolate.6 ounces chocolate chips or chocolate candy melts
- After drizzling chocolate on 3-4 cookies, sprinkle them with the Oreo crumbs so that they will stick. Repeat the process for 3-4 cookies at a time until they are all covered.
Notes
- If you forgot to take out the butter ahead of time to warm up to room temperature, use this trick! Place the butter on a plate or other clean surface. Find a microwave-safe bowl that will fit upside down over top of the butter. Fill it with water and microwave it until boiling. Carefully pour out the water and place it over the butter. Wait 15 minutes or so. Voila!
- It can be tricky to roll out shortbread to create shapes with a cookie cutter. I recommend either using a cookie press or, if you don't need to create any particular shape, using a cookie scoop to create balls of dough.
- If you want to roll the dough and cut into shapes, it can be helpful to chill it first. Wrap it in plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. Then unwrap it and roll it out. To prevent sticking, use powdered sugar on your rolling surface and dust your rolling pin with it as well.
- For easier clean-up, I used a mini food processor to pulverize the Oreos into crumbs.
- I struggle with candy decorating bags. If you do as well, try using a condiment squeeze bottle instead to drizzle the chocolate on the cookies!
Video
Nutrition
Update Notes: This post was originally published in December 2014, but was republished with tips, step by step photos, and a recipe change in December 2021.
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Happy cooking!
Heather Perine
I love, love, love mint chocolate anything so I can't wait to try these cookies! They sounds fabulous!
Jyoti Behrani
These shortbread cookies look so beautiful! I love the addition of mint, perfect for the holidays! Thanks for an amazing recipe!!
Elizabeth
These were so good! I like regular shortbread, but it turns out that I LOVE mint chocolate shortbread! 😉 Thanks for the helpful tips, my cookies turned out perfectly.
Sharon
I love traditional shortbread cookies but the addition of mint adds the perfect holiday flavor to them.
Jessica Formicola
Mint and chocolate is one of my favorite combinations! These cookies are being added to my cookie trays for sure!
Liz
Loved thing 1's comments, learning to cook is an adventure with many mistakes along the way. Thank you for bringing them to FF.