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Peanut Butter Shortbreads

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Submitted by margcollen

Four-ingredient peanut butter shortbread with butter, sugar, peanut butter, and flour pressed into a pan and baked low and slow. Sandy, crumbly, and nutty with no mixer or rolling required.

YIELD

16 cookies

PREP

10 min

COOK

60 min

READY

70 min

These peanut butter shortbread cookies strip everything down to four ingredients: butter, sugar, creamy peanut butter, and flour. No eggs, no leavening, no vanilla. Just the pure, sandy crumble of butter shortbread with a warm peanut butter flavor baked through every wedge.

The dough comes together with your fingers, pinching and pressing until the mixture looks like coarse meal. That crumbly texture is the point. Shortbread isn’t supposed to be smooth and elastic like cookie dough. You press it into an ungreased pan, prick it with fork tines to mark the wedges, and bake low and slow at 300°F (150°C) for an hour.

The low oven temperature is what gives shortbread its trademark texture: dry, sandy, and crumbly rather than chewy or cakey. The fork marks aren’t just decorative. They help steam escape during the long bake and create natural breaking lines for cutting clean wedges.

Kitchen Tips

  • Cut the wedges while the shortbread is still warm. Once cooled, it shatters instead of cutting cleanly.
  • Use creamy peanut butter, not chunky. Chunky peanut butter disrupts the smooth, even crumb.
  • Don’t grease the pan. Shortbread has enough butter in the dough to prevent sticking.
  • The shortbread should be “very lightly browned” when done. Any darker and it tastes burnt.

Variations

  • Press a crosshatch pattern with the fork tines for a classic shortbread look.
  • Dip cooled wedges halfway into melted chocolate for a chocolate-peanut butter combo.
  • Add a pinch of flaky sea salt on top before baking for a sweet-salty contrast.

Ingredients

½ 118
CUP ML BUTTER
, softened
½ 118
CUP ML SUGAR
granulated
¼ 59
CUP ML PEANUT BUTTER
creamy
2 473

Directions

Preheat oven to 300℉ (150℃).

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Press the mixture into an ungreased 8 inch round pan.

With a fork, prick decorative wedges in the dough.

Bake for about 1 hour, or until very lightly browned.

Cut into wedges while warm.

* not incl. in nutrient facts Arrow up button

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Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 132g (4.7 oz)
Amount per Serving
Calories 622 46% from fat
 % Daily Value *
Total Fat 32g 49%
Saturated Fat 16g 82%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 61mg 20%
Sodium 239mg 10%
Total Carbohydrate 25g 25%
Dietary Fiber 3g 11%
Sugars g
Protein 21g
Vitamin A 14% Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 2% Iron 18%
* based on a 2,000 calorie diet How is this calculated?
Trans-fat Free, Good source of fiber
 

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