Honey Cinnamon Shortbread is a delightful twist on traditional shortbread. Sweetened with honey and spiced perfectly with cinnamon, these delicious shortbread cookies are to die for!
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Shortbread is absolutely my favorite cookie! I love the salty, buttery and not too sweet flavor. Having a batch of traditional shortbread in my house is a dangerous venture, as I will certainly eat them all! I love to try new variations of shortbread as well! There are so many delicious flavors that marry perfectly to the buttery dough of shortbread.
Honey and cinnamon are a delectable combination and one I wanted to pair in a shortbread recipe!
Shortbread
Traditional shortbread cookies have a crumbly, buttery, flakey texture. This is created by the traditional 3:2:1 ratio of flour to butter to sugar by weight. This ratio is important to get that thick, flakey cookie. Altering the ratio too much results in the cookie not holding shape, browning too much, or being too crumbly.
Good shortbread is all relative to preference. Some like shortbread slightly less baked and softer, others like their shortbread to have crisp to it.
Honey Cinnamon Shortbread is a softer shortbread cookie due to the addition of the honey. To counter this, there is a bit more flour in the recipe and you may need to add small amounts beyond that 2 1/4 cups the recipe requires. I like to mix all of the ingredients in a stand mixer and then remove the dough from the mixer and slowly kneed small amounts into the dough. Aim for the consistency of soft play dough. Don’t add too much, you can’t take away! You can always add more!
Baking a few extra minutes is always an option to make the cookie a little crisper, however watch your cookies closely to ensure they do not brown too much.
Cookie Stamps
These Honey Cinnamon Shortbread cookies are delicious enough alone to ensure they are a favorite, but the detail added by incorporating cookie stamps will certainly elevate the appeal of these cookies. I love the Nordic Ware Cookie Stamps! There are multiple different designs, including a honey bee option, which of course I use! The starry night are so elegant.
Using the cookie stamp is so easy! I like to cut my cookies on a floured surface, transfer to the prepared cookie sheet and then press the cookie. Lightly flouring the surface of your cookie stamp will help prevent it from sticking.
Cookie stamps are an excellent addition to your baking accoutrements. Perfect to create interesting design on your rolled cookies and shortbread are the perfect canvas, so collect one for each season!
Honey Cinnamon Shortbread
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Butter Room Temperature
- ½ Cup Brown Sugar
- ⅓ Cup Honey Additional for glazing
- ¼ TSP Kosher Salt
- 1 TSP Cinnamon
- 2¼ Cups All-purpose Flour Additional ½ cup for consistency and rolling
Instructions
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
- Cream the honey into the other ingredients until combined.
- Add cinnamon and salt and mix.
- Slowly add 2¼ cups flour a half cup at a time and mix until blended. Do not overmix. Consistency should be similar soft play dough. Add small amounts of additional flour if needed to reach this consistency.
- Wrap cookie dough and chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325°. Prepare baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
- On a floured surface, roll dough to a ½ inch thickness. Using a round cookie cutter (I use a small drinking glass) cut 2 inch cookies.
- If using a cookie stamp, firmly yet gently press impression into the cookie.
- Bake for about 14-17 minutes, depending on preferred crisp for cookie.
- Allow to cool for 2 minutes then remove cookies to a wire rack.
- Optional: For added honey flavor, slightly heat 1 TBSP of honey and lightly brush cookies with honey.
- Store in an air tight container.
I really wanted the honey flavor to come forward in these cookies, so I added a pure honey glaze to the cookies. While the cookies are still warm, brush lightly with honey. I heat my honey for a few seconds in the microwave to make it a little easier to brush on the cookie.
Choose quality honey! Over processed grocery store honey tastes like sugar…select a high quality raw honey. It is thicker and has undertones of floral tastes.
Honey Cinnamon Shortbread cookies are a perfect compliment to afternoon tea or to satisfy a late night sweet tooth. Enjoy some of these delicate, tasty shortbread cookies today!!
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These honey cinnamon shortbread cookies look and sound AMAZING! I was wondering where you got three bee and honeycomb presses?? ( I didn’t reheat the entire article… I skipped directly to the recipe. If you listed where you got the cookie presses in your article, I miss that.)
Hi Jennifer! Yes, I did put in the article where I bought the cookie presses. They are Nordic Ware and I bought them on Amazon. They have a few patterns, including some holiday presses!
Your recipe for honey shortbread says to mix honey and cream? .. there isn’t any cream in the recipe.. what is the amount to use?
Oh, my apologies. In this context, I am using “cream” as a verb. Cream together the honey and other ingredients. Thanks for pointing out that might be confusing.
Does the honey glaze harden at room temperature? If not, I’m assuming stacking and storing the cookies would be problematic.
No, it does soak into the cookies a bit but they remain a bit sticky. I use a 9×13 pan that has a cover and put waxed paper between each layer.
Have you tried freezing the dough before? Just wondering if I can make the dough ahead of time 🙂 love your recipe!
Hi Katie! Thanks so much, glad you love the cookies. No, I have never tried to freeze the dough, but I have frozen the cookies without concern!