Salted Vanilla Shortbread with Rosemary
By Ben MimsPublished on December 1, 2025
Time
1½ hours, plus 1 hour cooling
Yield
Makes 36 cookies
Ingredients
Before You Begin
If preferred, you can substitute 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract for the vanilla beans. We like the rich, buttery taste of high-fat European butter here, but any high-quality salted butter will work. Be sure the butter is fully softened before beginning the recipe or it will be hard to mix the dough in step 2. Superfine sugar is available in most grocery stores, but you can also process regular granulated sugar in a food processor for about 30 seconds to a superfine consistency. For a less savory cookie, reduce the salt in the dough to ¼ teaspoon or use unsalted butter.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Make parchment paper sling by folding 1 long sheet of parchment 13 inches wide and laying across width of pan, with extra parchment hanging over edges of pan. Push parchment into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing parchment flush to pan. Grease parchment.
- Whisk 3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour, ⅔ cup (4⅔ ounces) superfine sugar, and ½ teaspoon table salt together in large bowl. Cut 2 vanilla beans in half lengthwise. Using tip of paring knife, scrape out seeds. Add 20 tablespoons softened salted butter, 1½ teaspoons minced rosemary, and vanilla seeds to bowl. Use your fingers to rub butter into flour mixture until crumbly, uniform dough forms. Crumble dough over bottom of prepared pan. Using bottom of dry measuring cup, press dough into even layer. Using fork poke dough all over, about 20 times. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon flake sea salt evenly over dough.
- Bake until edges are just starting to brown and top is dry to touch, 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Transfer pan to wire rack. Immediately cut hot shortbread into 3 lengthwise columns by 12 crosswise rows using paring knife or bench scraper.
- Let shortbread cool completely before removing from pan, at least 1 hour. Separate along cut lines. Serve.
Time
1½ hours, plus 1 hour coolingYield
Makes 36 cookiesIngredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
An extra pinch of salt and rosemary in the dough, along with flake salt sprinkled on top, add savoriness to a treat that would be equally at home on a cheeseboard as it would in a cookie spread. To further enhance the subtle savory flavor, we use salted butter rather than the unsalted kind. Superfine sugar (rather than granulated) dissolved more rapidly and evenly throughout the dough, providing more of shortbread’s signature melt-in-your-mouth texture. The complex array of flavors in vanilla beans brought even more dimension to the cookies, along with a slight pleasing crunch.
Before You Begin
If preferred, you can substitute 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract for the vanilla beans. We like the rich, buttery taste of high-fat European butter here, but any high-quality salted butter will work. Be sure the butter is fully softened before beginning the recipe or it will be hard to mix the dough in step 2. Superfine sugar is available in most grocery stores, but you can also process regular granulated sugar in a food processor for about 30 seconds to a superfine consistency. For a less savory cookie, reduce the salt in the dough to ¼ teaspoon or use unsalted butter.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Make parchment paper sling by folding 1 long sheet of parchment 13 inches wide and laying across width of pan, with extra parchment hanging over edges of pan. Push parchment into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing parchment flush to pan. Grease parchment.
- Whisk 3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour, ⅔ cup (4⅔ ounces) superfine sugar, and ½ teaspoon table salt together in large bowl. Cut 2 vanilla beans in half lengthwise. Using tip of paring knife, scrape out seeds. Add 20 tablespoons softened salted butter, 1½ teaspoons minced rosemary, and vanilla seeds to bowl. Use your fingers to rub butter into flour mixture until crumbly, uniform dough forms. Crumble dough over bottom of prepared pan. Using bottom of dry measuring cup, press dough into even layer. Using fork poke dough all over, about 20 times. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon flake sea salt evenly over dough.
- Bake until edges are just starting to brown and top is dry to touch, 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Transfer pan to wire rack. Immediately cut hot shortbread into 3 lengthwise columns by 12 crosswise rows using paring knife or bench scraper.
- Let shortbread cool completely before removing from pan, at least 1 hour. Separate along cut lines. Serve.
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