This One-Bowl Method Transforms 3 Simple Ingredients Into Delicious Old-Fashioned Cookies

When time is short and groceries are pricey, it's a good idea to add some three-ingredient desserts to your mental recipe bank. Even better if they use staple ingredients you probably have on hand and can be whipped up in a single bowl. One recipe that fulfills all of these criteria is Scottish shortbread, which involves blending butter, sugar, and flour in a single bowl before rolling it out and baking it.

To make your cookies, first cream your butter and sugar in a bowl together until light and fluffy, then mix in the flour until the dough holds together. Now, there is some variation to shortbread recipes when it comes to the next step: Some recipes recommend rolling the dough out, cutting it into your desired shapes, and then chilling it. Others recommend chilling it in a ball or log in the same bowl before cutting it — and some skip the chilling step altogether. However, it is worth chilling cookie dough, as this can improve the texture of the final product and give flavors more time to develop. Giving your shortbread dough 30 to 60 minutes in the refrigerator won't hurt.

Regardless of when you chill the dough, you'll eventually want to roll it out, cut out the shapes, and place the dough onto a baking tray. Don't forget to poke holes into the tops of your cookies with a fork. Not only does this give them that classic Scottish shortbread look, it allows steam to escape so the cookies can bake properly.

While these cookies can be made with just the three ingredients in one bowl, there is room to experiment. First, the sugar. Many shortbread recipes use powdered sugar for a tender bite, but others call for brown sugar for more flavor or granulated sugar or even castor sugar (which is similar to granulated sugar, but slightly finer) for a crisper cookie. If you're making these on the fly, the sugar you choose may be determined by what you already have in the pantry. 

Flour can also be variable, with certain recipes calling for rice flour or the addition of cornstarch to give the dough an even finer texture. But for the sake of simplicity, there's nothing wrong with using all-purpose flour. Finally, the butter. Of course, you may be grabbing whatever you happen to have in the fridge. But if you're preparing to make shortbread in advance, it's worth it to seek out a higher-fat European-style butter. Butter can really shine through when you only have three ingredients in total, so using this style will give your cookie that rich, classic shortbread taste.

Now that you've gotten the basics down, there's room for creativity. For example, our lemon shortbread cookie recipe adds lemon zest to the dough and tops the cookies with a powdered sugar and cream glaze. You can also change up the flavor of your shortbread by adding different citrus zests, herbs, or spices to the bowl with the three staple ingredients. Lemon-rosemary shortbread is fantastic if you like those flavors. Finally, you can dip the finished cookies in chocolate, perhaps finishing them off with a garnish of chopped nuts, sprinkles, or additional zest.