Shortbread M&M Cookies

4.17 from 6 votes

Buttery shortbread m&m cookies! We love making these cookies for school lunches, picnics at the park, or lazy Sunday afternoons!

Buttery shortbread m&m cookies! We love making these cookies for school lunches, picnics at the park, or lazy Sunday afternoons! ohsweetbasil.com

I honestly can’t remember the last time I had a good shortbread cookie. They are light, perfectly crumbly and buttery, but chocolate chip cookies kind of rule the world so the simple shortbread is often overlooked.

Are Shortbread and Sugar Cookies the Same?

While both are very similar, it’s all about the ratio of ingredients.

Sugar cookies have the highest ratio of flour to fat, giving them a very sturdy dough.

Sugar cookies also hold their shapes well for decorative work and ship nicely, too.

Shortbread cookies have the highest ratio of butter to flour.

Shortbread cookies are usually baked at a lower temperature than sugar cookies and they tend to be more crumbly and very tender.

Everyone’s been posting about Twix cookies which inspired me to make a new version of the shortbread cookies with another candy favorite, M&Ms!

Can Shortbread Cookies be Frozen?

All cookies should be frozen individually after they’ve cooled completely, meaning they should be placed on a baking sheet, not touching, until frozen solid (they can be frozen like this in layers separated by parchment, wax, or freezer paper).

The dough is a simple dough but can easily be messed up by using too cold or too warm of butter or by overmixing. In other cookies the more you beat the butter and sugar the fluffier and softer the cookie but with shortbread, while we still want it soft we also want a nice break in it so cream the butter and then only beat the dough until just combined.

What Makes Shortbread Cookies Crumbly?

Use real butter when called for and not substitutes.

Butter substitutes and margarine contain water and can actually cause crumbly texture since they lack the fat to coat all of the flour.

Overbaking can also cause a crumbly cookie.

In fact, that’s why you’ll start mixing the dough and then add the m&m candies and finish mixing then roll it out on powdered sugar instead of flour so the cookie will not end up dry and crunchy.

When you cut out the cookies the less you twist the cookie cutter or glass the more they will fluff up when baking and just gently press together the scraps to use up all the dough so nothing is over done.

An old fashioned cookie with a new twist!