These Easy Cranberry Shortbread Cookies are a cinch to make and are perfect for your holiday cookie platter. This roll out dough is chilled before cutting and baked to a thin, crisp bite. You can opt for any shape you’d like, just keep in mind these are dried cranberries so placement of the cookie cutter is key to a clean edge. Let me show you how to make them!
Ingredients needed to make this recipe
To make my Easy Cranberry Shortbread Cookies, you will need the following ingredients. They include:
- All Purpose Flour, plus more for rolling
- Vegan Margarine, softened to room temperature
- Granulated Sugar, plus more for sprinkling
- Pinch of Salt
- and Dried Cranberries
How to make my Easy Cranberry Shortbread Cookies
The first step in this recipe to to cream together the room temperature vegan margarine and the sugar. Using a stand (or hand) mixer, beat until lighter and fluffy or until all of the sugar granules have dissolved. This should take about 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides as needed.
Add the flour, dried cranberries and a pinch of salt. You may get a crumbly dough like this and that is completely normal! Press it together with your fingers and you’ll see it holds together. Think of this dough more like a pie crust dough in that sense.
Using your hands, form the dough onto parchment paper. I try to flatten it a bit before proceeding.
Here’s where I switch things up a bit. Most recipes would have you chill the dough and then roll it. For me, that creates too many cracks. So I place mine between two sheets of parchment and roll it into a round disk. I place the parchment onto a dinner plate and refrigerate the dough. Now it’s ready to cut!
I chose a simple fluted biscuit cutter for my cookies today, but you could opt for any shape. I would suggest however, the more intricate the shape you are going for, maybe chop the cranberries before adding them. The larger pieces are fine for a larger cutter, but they make cutting a challenge in those finer areas.
Carefully place your cut outs onto a lined baking sheet.
Sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake at 320 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until the edges are golden. Cool completely on the baking sheet before transferring to a rack or storage container as they are fragile until cooled.
Did you make my Easy Cranberry Shortbread Cookies? Leave a comment below and let me know what you thought.
Easy Cranberry Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 c All Purpose Flour you may need slightly more or less depending on humidity and the moisture content of your margarine
- 2/3 c Vegan Margarine softened to room temperature
- 1/2 c Granulated Sugar plus more for topping
- pinch Salt
- 1/4 c Dried Cranberries or more to taste, chop if using more intricate cutters
Instructions
- Beat the room temperature vegan margarine with the sugar until lighter and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes or so.
- Add the salt and cranberries.
- Add the flour gradually as you may not need all of it depending on humidity in your area and/or the moisture content of your vegan margarine. The mixture WILL be crumbly, but you should be able to get it to hold together when you squeeze some with your hand.
- Add the crumbly dough to a piece or parchment or plastic wrap and top with another piece. Form into a flat disk using a rolling pin. Squeeze together any cracked edges.
- Place the whole thing on a dinner plate or cookie sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes or so. 30 if you are in a warmer environment.
- Preheat the oven to 320 degrees. Note this is 320, not 350. The cookies will burn at anything higher than 320 degrees..
- Cut into shapes and place onto a lined baking sheet.
- Sprinkle with a bit more granulated sugar and bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden.
- Cool completely on the cookie sheet and store in a covered container at room temperature for up to 5 days.