463 short bread recipes

Buttery thumbprint cookies with a tender shortbread base waiting for a spoonful of jam or icing in the dimpled center. Egg-yolk-rich dough that bakes pale and sandy, never browned.

Tangy lemon drops are tender shortbread slice-and-bake cookies made with butter, cake flour, lemon zest, and a snowy dusting of powdered sugar. Four ingredients, melt-in-your-mouth crumb.

Kopenhai is a Greek almond torte with an orange-scented shortbread base, fluffy ground-almond souffle filling, crackly phyllo top, and a fragrant lemon-cinnamon syrup soaked through every diamond slice.

A reduced-calorie fruit pizza with a shortbread-style crust, vanilla cream cheese spread, and fresh strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, and bananas under a glossy citrus glaze. A potluck favorite, lightened up.

Decadent chocolate mint melt-aways: tender piped mint shortbread topped with white chocolate mint ganache and dipped in bittersweet chocolate. Three layers of cool mint and rich chocolate in one cookie.

Ann's chocolate pie with a buttery shortbread crust, airy egg white mousse filling swirled with melted chocolate, and whipped cream folded in. A no-bake chocolate mousse pie with a crumb topping.

Sticky pecan bars with a buttery shortbread crust and gooey brown sugar-corn syrup filling loaded with pecan halves. Like pecan pie in bar form, easier to make and easier to share.

Orange custard cookies are mini tartlets with buttery shortbread shells filled with an almond-orange flower water custard, baked in muffin tins. Two dozen elegant bite-sized desserts with a Mediterranean fragrance.

Sour cream apple pie with a cinnamon-spiced shortbread crust and a buttery walnut streusel top. McIntosh apples bake into a custardy filling that sets up creamy under the crunchy walnut topping.

European-style apple cake presses a rum-spiked shortbread base into a sheet pan, then tops it with grated tart apples, raisins, nuts, and cinnamon sugar. A sliceable, freezable bar-style cake.

Christmas cookie slices are old-fashioned icebox cookies: vanilla shortbread dough rolled into logs, chilled, sliced thin, and baked into crisp golden rounds. Make ahead and ready to slice for holiday baking.

Shamrock cookies for St. Patrick's Day, a tender mint-scented shortbread tinted green, shaped from three little dough balls plus a stem and dusted with green sugar. A fun holiday baking project.

Lemon cream and nut cookies, buttery shortbread ovals spread with homemade lemon curd and crowned with toasted almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, prunes, rum-soaked raisins, and candied orange. A jewel-box holiday cookie.

Secret kiss cookies hide a whole chocolate kiss inside a buttery, walnut-flecked shortbread, baked until just set and rolled in powdered sugar. Bite in and the soft chocolate center is the surprise. A Christmas cookie tin favorite.

Swedish butter cookies are slice-and-bake shortbread topped with browned butter frosting. Five ingredients in the dough, nutty caramelized butter on top, and the kind of crisp-edge melt that makes Christmas cookie tins worth opening.

Lemon lush layered dessert with a buttery pecan shortbread crust, cream cheese filling, lemon pudding, and whipped topping. A four-layer no-bake icebox dessert that chills overnight and cuts into clean squares.