Decorative Shortbread Biscuits

Hi friends, welcome to my first biscuit recipe: vegan shortbread biscuits!

These ornate decorative cookies are buttery, delicious and perfect with a cup of tea or coffee!

The more I improve my baking chops the more I realise that impressive desserts/treats are all about the finishes- this is an extremely simple recipe but piping the biscuits in this way gives it that wow factor that no one expects. Add some decorative hazelnuts and a little sharp kick from the dark chocolate and you’ve got yourself a crowd pleaser!

As a brit, we use this style of “butter cookie” for all sorts of recipes – viennese whirls, jammy dodgers, etc.! This recipe could easily be adapted for viennese whirls (just pipe into spirals instead of a circular frame) or jammy dodgers (just roll out the dough and cut out circles).

I wasn’t quite sure what to call this recipe as the biscuit recipe itself is just a simple butter biscuit (or cookie) and the rest of the elements are decorative. Maybe I’ll re-do them at Christmas and call them snowflake cookies? If you have any suggestions let me know in the comments!!

For this recipe you’ll need a piping bag, electric mixer or stand mixer and a star nozzle (most will work but the cookie dough is quite dense so don’t try anything too small or delicate).

As for the actual ingredients, be sure to use a vegan butter that is at least 75% fat (no “light” margarines or spreads). I use the “vegan block” by Naturli and it works really well; I’ve also used the Stork baking block with success too! Make sure you use plain flour and not self-raising flour, that will give you some issues!

The last ingredient that might cause some concern is the cornstarch. In the UK we call cornstarch “corn flour” which is completely counterintuitive because it’s not a flour at all but I’ve clarified here that it is cornstarch we are using for this recipe as it has the magical ability to thicken under heat (which helps the cookies keep their shape in the oven instead of falling apart). When you make these biscuits be really careful handling them, especially just after they come out of the oven, as they are quite delicate!

Last thing – if you want to prepare this recipe in advance I would suggest making the dough first, freezing it and then cooking it fresh when you need the cookies. After the dough is done, the cookies can be finished and ready in half an hour (minus some defrosting!)

Onto the recipe:

5 from 1 reviews

Vegan Butter Biscuits

January 22, 2020

Servings: 10 - 12 biscuits

Difficulty: Easy

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These vegan ornate cookies are buttery, delicious and perfect with a cup of tea or coffee! They're super easy to make with only 6 ingredients and a baking time of 8 minutes!

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• 120g vegan butter (at least 75% fat + must be soft before beating)
• 125g all-purpose (plain) flour
• 30g cornstarch
• 25g icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ½ tsp vanilla bean paste
• 75g dark chocolate
• Optional: 50g hazelnuts for decoration

Directions

• Step 1 Pre-heat the oven to 190C (350F).
• Step 2 Sift icing sugar into a bowl with the vegan butter and vanilla paste and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes until pale and creamy (I use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment).
• Step 3 Sift together flour, cornstarch and salt and add to the batter one spoon at a time. Beat together until the batter is fluffy and soft.
• Step 4 Transfer the batter to a piping bag with your choice of star nozzle.
• Step 5 Line a baking tray with parchment or use a silicon mat. A silicone mat is preferable as it prevents spreading and it’s really easy to remove the cookies.
• Step 6 Use the piping bag to pipe star “dots” into a circular frame shape. You could also do other shapes like a square or a full spiral. If the batter is too thick to pipe then you can warm it up in the bag with your hands.
• Step 7 Put the baking trays in the freezer to cool for 10 minutes before placing them in the oven.
• Step 8 Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
• Step 9 Take the biscuits out of the oven and let cool to room temperature.
• Step 10 Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave using 20 second bursts.
• Step 11 Use a spoon to fill cookies with the chocolate (or dip them if preferred) and decorate with chopped nuts.