Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies
This simple recipe for Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies makes a delicious light, buttery, and crisp shortbread cookie that has the texture you know and love, but only uses half the butter with the addition of olive oil!
If you love shortbreads try Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies, Kamut Flour Shortbread Cookies, Gluten Free Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies, or Sourdough Chocolate Shortbread Cookies.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies
- Ready In: 37 minutes
- Makes: 24 cookies
- Main Ingredients: salted butter, EVOO, all purpose flour, trubinado sugar
- Flavor Profile: buttery, earthy, sweet
- Dietary Info: eggless, no seed oils
- Difficulty: Easy!
- Why You’ll Love It: buttery, sweet and crispy olive oil shortbreads
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Light & Crisp: These simple Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies are buttery, crisp, and incredibly light! They have the texture you know and love for traditional shortbread cookies, but with half the butter.
- Buttery & Sweet: While this healthy shortbread cookie is made with olive oil, it still has butter! The butter truly shines and really compliments the olive oil for a lightly sweet and buttery cookie.
- Subtle Crunch: I top these cookies with turbinado sugar for a subtle crunch. I love using this sugar on cookies and pie crust as it not only makes them sparkle, but it provides a little texture that is so good, just like on Brown Butter Apple Pie Without Eggs.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: I use extra virgin olive oil in this healthy shortbread cookie recipe. This recipe gives you a subtle olive oil flavor along with a little butter and sugar for a sweet treat you can feel good about indulging in!
Baking With Olive Oil
If you are new to baking with olive oil, welcome! Using extra virgin olive oil adds an earthy flavor to baked goods that compliments the sweet just perfectly. I love using extra virgin olive oil to make desserts a bit healthier, and give them a unique flavor.
Try some of my baked olive oil recipes like Olive Oil Strawberry Blondies, Maple Cinnamon Olive Oil Granola, Lemon Olive Oil Snack Cake With Lemon Frosting, Olive Oil Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies, Olive Oil Raspberry Brownies, or Crispy Chocolate Olive Oil Granola
Ingredients
- Butter: Be sure to use a high quality butter that you like. This is super important for shortbreads as there are so few ingredients. I use salted butter, but if you use unsalted, just add 1/4 teaspoon to the recipe. Also, check out Best Salted Butter for Baking for my top picks for butter when making shortbread cookies.
- EVOO: I use half extra virgin olive oil and half butter, giving you the best of both worlds in these Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies. We get the flavor of olive oil but with the texture of an all butter shortbread.
- Vanilla Bean: I use Lafaza Organic Ground Vanilla Bean for amazing depth of flavor in this cookie! While you can use vanilla extract instead, using ground vanilla bean really gives this a unique and delicious flavor.
- Turbinado Sugar: I roll the cookie dough in organic Turbinado sugar which gives these cookies an incredible crunch and great texture on top.
*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.
Baker's Tips
- Always use a digital food scale for the best results.
- If you only have unsalted butter, just add ¼ teaspoon of fine sea salt to the recipe.
- You can substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract for the vanilla bean if you don't have ground vanilla bean.
- Substitute avocado oil or canola oil if you don't have extra virgin olive oil.
- If you don't have turbinado sugar, feel free to sprinkle with cane sugar right after they come out of the oven for a similar texture.
- Feel free to add chocolate chips! I'd recommend adding 198 grams (1 cup).
- Feel free to add nuts, I'd start with 85 grams (3 ounces) of chopped almonds, pecans, or walnuts.
- Shortbread cookies are crisp, so they are best stored in a cool, dry place.
- High Altitude — Bake 350°F for 15 to 19 minutes or until golden brown on the bottoms.
How to Make Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the olive oil, powdered sugar, and cane sugar.
- Using a large box grater (think pizza cheese size) grate the butter. Add the butter into the mixing bowl with the sugar.
- Mix on low until combined, you’ll still see small bits of butter, that’s okay.
- Add the flour and vanilla bean to the mixing bowl.
- Mix on low until combined into a smooth cookie dough.
- In a small bowl, add the turbinado sugar.
- Using your hands, form the dough into 24 balls and roll in the turbinado sugar. Place on the parchment paper lined pan and flatten them slightly so they are about 2-inches in diameter. You'll have 12 cookie dough balls per sheet.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges and bottom. Allow to cool completely on the baking sheets. (If you're baking at high altitude, be sure to check the Notes at the bottom of the recipe for high altitude baking instructions).
Ways to Enjoy Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies
- Enjoy with a big glass of milk!
- I love these with Creamy Vegan Chocolate Smoothie With Almond Butter or Berry Protein Smoothie Without Banana for an afternoon snack.
- These are amazing crumbled on top of ice cream, try them over Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Without Eggs, Salted Caramel No Churn Ice Cream, or Healthy Homemade Cherry Frozen Yogurt.
Recipe FAQ's
Yes, but I don't use solely olive oil. Shortbread cookies are a style of cookies that is butter based. So, while I do replace half the butter with extra virgin olive oil, I'm still using butter so we get that signature buttery shortbread cookie texture!
Yes, if you don’t want the taste of olive oil you can use avocado oil or canola oil. Avocado oil will be similar and have a great flavor. Canola oil will just be neutral. And it's a seed oil, so there's really no benefit here, in my opinion, as you could just make a regular butter shortbread instead. Coconut oil does not give the same results for texture in this cookie.
Yes, the olive oil adds an earthy flavor that pairs really well with the butter and sugar. If you like olive oil desserts, this is going to be a new favorite.
I really like using unfiltered extra virgin olive oil in baking, Carapelli makes a great one. This kind of olive oil has a more fruity undertone. This is because it retains super small bits, which is what can give it this flavor. But, really, any high quality extra virgin olive oil you like will work.
No, we need some butter in this recipe to hold these shortbreads together. This is what makes them buttery and crisp like traditional shortbreads, but with the addition of olive oil. You need both.
For this cookie specifically, grating the cold butter allows us to get cold butter flakes into the dough. If you were going to cream the butter, it would need to be soft. The combination of chilled butter flakes with the olive oil is what creates a perfect texture in these cookies.
You could roll these in organic cane sugar if you don’t have turninado sugar, but they won’t be as good in my opinion. The turbinado sugar gives them a very unique texture that I love! Or you could also just sprinkle them with cane sugar after coming out of the oven, and skip the rolling.
You can tell they are done when they are golden brown around the edges. Don't be afraid to bake a little longer if yours are not golden brown yet. The magic of shortbreads like these is their buttery, crisp texture, which partially comes from baking them until golden brown.
Yes, when cookies are incredibly hot, such as just coming out of the oven, they can feel soft. This is why you need to look for visual signs the cookies are done, as in their color being golden brown and the edges will be dry. You should always let shortbreads cool completely on the baking sheet as this also helps them finish setting.
If you make your dough balls too big, this can happen. These shortbreads have more spread because of the olive oil. So, dough balls should be pretty small, watch the video to see!
No, I have not tested these for gluten free, sorry! Shortbreads are tricky to get the right texture for gluten free. If I were to test these gluten free, I would use my almond flour/coconut flour mixture that I like to use. I would recommend using 198 grams almond flour and 142 grams coconut flour if you want to try!
Shortbread cookies are buttery and crisp, so they are best stored in a cool dry place. You can also freeze them. But be sure to place in a Tupperware or zip bag before freezing.
They will last for up to a week at room temperature. You can store them in a freezer safe bag or airtight container for up to 3 months.
More Olive Oil Desserts
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Olive Oil Shortbread Cookies
Equipment
- Digital Food Scale
- Stand Mixer
- Half Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper Sheets
Ingredients
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 71 grams powdered sugar (sifted)
- 57 grams cane sugar
- 113 grams salted butter (cold)
- 255 grams all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground vanilla bean
- 48 grams Turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the olive oil, powdered sugar, and cane sugar.
- Using a large box grater (think pizza cheese size) grate the butter. Add the butter into the mixing bowl with the sugar. Mix on low until combined, you’ll still see small bits of butter, that’s okay.
- Add the flour and vanilla bean to the mixing bowl.
- Mix on low until combined into a smooth cookie dough.
- In a small bowl, add the turbinado sugar.
- Using your hands, form the dough into 24 balls and roll in the turbinado sugar. Place on the parchment paper lined pan and flatten them slightly so they are about 2-inches in diameter. You'll have 12 cookie dough balls per sheet.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges and bottom. Allow to cool completely on the baking sheets.
- Store in in a cool dry place for up to 7 days.
Video
Notes
- Always use a digital food scale for the best results.
- If you only have unsalted butter, just add ¼ teaspoon of fine sea salt to the recipe.
- You can substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract for the vanilla bean if you don't have ground vanilla bean.
- Substitute avocado oil or canola oil if you don't have extra virgin olive oil.
- If you don't have turbinado sugar, feel free to sprinkle with cane sugar right after they come out of the oven for a similar texture.
- Feel free to add chocolate chips! I'd recommend adding 198 grams (1 cup).
- Feel free to add nuts, I'd start with 85 grams (3 ounces) of chopped almonds, pecans, or walnuts.
- Shortbread cookies are crisp, so they are best stored in a cool, dry place.
- High Altitude — Bake 350°F for 15 to 19 minutes or until golden brown on the bottoms.
Nutrition
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These cookies are wonderful! They’re a great afternoon treat.