Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies
Crisp and buttery Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies with a hint of tea, with just 5-ingredients and an easy lemon glaze, they’re perfect for parties, tea time, or scarfing down all by yourself!
These Earl Grey Cookies are an easy and delightful sweet treat that’s perfect for afternoon tea, cookie swaps, and the cookie jar at home!
Shortbread cookies and my favorite!
I know, I know… I say every cookie is my favorite… but I REALLY love cookies!
Shortbread Cookies have always been a weakness for me. They are just simple and pure deliciousness.
If you’re looking for buttery shortbread cookies loaded with chocolate, try my Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookie recipe!
They’re just so buttery and addicting!
Matt and I will literally kill an entire box of Walker’s or Lorna Doone’s in one sitting, they’re just so addictive.
You might remember me mentioning that Matt and I lived off shortbread cookies for a day in Scotland and I wasn’t totally sad about it 😉
Earl Grey Cookies Are Easy To Make!
I always thought they’d be difficult to make, but when I stumbled across this three-ingredient recipe from Dine & Dish, I was floored!
No Way!
With three ingredients, you’d think maybe they were lacking. Nope, not at all! The end result is deliciously irresistible butter cookies!
These simple shortbread cookies are everything I dreamed they would be!
I decided to adapt the recipe a bit by adding Earl Grey Tea leaves and using unsalted butter and adding my own salt for more control over the flavor.
My version is just 5 ingredients (6 if you decide to go with the lemon glaze – highly recommended)!
Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies Are Delicious!
The end result is perfectly crisp shortbread cookies that are so buttery they almost melt in your mouth.
An essence of Earl Grey tea takes them to a whole new level of flavor and fun!
They’re so good, I’m not even willing to share, you’ll all just have to make them yourselves!
They’re just the thing if you’re looking for a slightly sweet cookie fix!
More Delicious Cookie Recipes
- Vanilla Chai Shortbread Cookies
- Classic Sugar Cookies
- Irish Cream No Bake Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
Let’s Connect!
If you’ve tried this recipe, please let me know how you liked it in the comments below and leave a review. I love hearing from you!
Don’t forget to tag me – @sugarandsoulco – on Instagram and Pinterest with your photos or join our Sugar & Soul Show-offs Community and share them there, where you can join our recipe challenges!
This post was originally published in January 2015 and was updated in March 2019 with new photos.
Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea leaves
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Blend the butter and earl grey tea leaves together and allow to sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours, longer is fine. If you are running short on time, this step can be skipped and the tea can be added with the powdered sugar. Just note that the flavor may not be as strong.
- Once the butter has finished setting. Preheat oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cream the butter and tea mixture and powdered sugar in a large bowl or stand mixer.
- Add in the flour and salt. Continue to mix until a soft dough forms. The mix will be dry and crumbly at first but will come together.
- Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it's 1/4-inch thick.
- Cut out cookies using a 2-inch round cookie cutter.
- Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown in color.
- Once cooled, whisk together the glaze ingredients and dip or drizzle the cookies as desired and place on wax paper to set.
Video
Notes
- Slightly Adapted from Dine & Dish.
- If using a large loose leaf tea, run the tea through a food processor or use a pestle and mortar to ground it so it’s finer.
- 1 cookie is 3 Weight Watchers SmartPoints.
- The longer these cookies sit, the more intense the flavor will get.
- The recipe has been updated to include a tablespoon measurement for the tea leaves since it was originally published.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Can I use icing sugar instead?
Yes, that is the same as powdered sugar 🙂
I’ve made this recipe a few times and its really good!
I strongly suggest rolling the dough into a log in plastic wrap, putting it in the fridge for a few minutes, and then slicing. It’s much easier than trying to roll and cut out such a crumbly dough which leads to overworking.
I also recommend melting the butter with the tea in a pot until hot and then letting it cool again to get the best earl grey flavor (not required, and an extra step and dish still good without just not as strong).
Thanks for the tips! 🙂
Wanna check with you, after you melt the butter, do you let it cool at room temperature or cool in fridge to solidify it a bit?
Hi Rebecca,
This is my first time naking shortbread cookies. So i have a few questions.
1) what do you mean when you said blend the butter with the tea leaves? Do i put it in a blender? Or mix the tea leaves in by hand?
2) and also, is it possible to use regular sugar/brown sugar instead of powdered sugar?
Thanks!:)
Just let the butter soften and then mix the tea leaves into it and let is sit on the counter for several hours.
Powdered sugar is finer and will give the best results.
Thanks for the fast reply! Will give it a try this weekend 🙂
Can I use salted butter instead of the unsalted and salt?
Thanks and super excited to try this!!!
Yes, I just like to have more control over the salt but you can definitely make it with salted butter instead.
Hi, with the recipe that you have provided, how many cookies / portion is that?
36 cookies as indicated in the recipe card.
These turned out fantastic! I used gluten free, 1:1 flour and cut the recipe in half (since it’s just for my husband and I) and they are PERFECT! Normally I am truly awful with baking cookies, but this recipe worked beautifully! Thank you!
I made these and they came out perfectly. My butter was very soft and the dough came together well, and was wondering if the bakers who had a hard time bringing the dough together used butter that wasn’t quite warm enough. The tea scent is very delicate. I did an icing using homemade raspberry syrup and icing sugar and skimmed a very, very thin coat on the shortbreads and they were delicious.
WOW! I just made them and they are so light, crispy, and gorgeous. I added lavender and next time I plan to make them with just lemon zest and lavender! The dough seemed a bit soft as I was rolling it out, but the cookies baked perfectly and barely spread! Lovely recipe – thank you!
P.S. If using loose leaf tea, listen to the instructions and grind it before hand (unlike me)! It turned out well, but there’s a little extra crunch haha.
Excellent! Crisp and flaky. I used vegan butter, fresh bergamot zest and 1 decaf earl grey tea bag which was all I had. For the frosting I used a mix of freshly squeezed bergamot and lemon. Really intriguing combo. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Love these biscuits. I’m going to try using Paris tea in them next.
Hi there! I love these cookies. One question, they seem to rise up and are kind of hollow on the bottom. Any suggestions for this?
Did you maybe use self-rising flour by accident?
No, Unbleached AP. Mixed by hand, rolled and cut out and refrigerated before baking..
I make shortbread often but I can’t figure out why this happens.
I make these every year (sans the icing) and they have always turned out perfectly!! They are everyone’s favorite. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
I’m so glad they’ve become a staple for you!
Tried this. Very disappointed. Followed recipe and instructions to a T. And it was like sand. When I tried rolling it, it crumbled apart. When I tried firming it into really just a small round flat surface. It crumbled apart. Nice concept. Waste of time and ingredients
Hi Jen, I’m sorry these didn’t turn out for you. The dough should have come together after several minutes of mixing with an electric mixer.
The same thing happened to me. The crumbs didnt come together to a form a dough. Just wondering how long did you mix it before the dough came together?
Also, any recommendations on what brand of tea leaves to use? I tried using twinnings tea leaves but the flavour didnt come up strongly despite allowing them to sit for about 3 hours. Any advice?
Hi Ruth, it can take several minutes of mixing for the dough to come together in a stand mixer. My favorite Earl Grey is Harney & Sons, it isn’t very fine so you would need to grind it or run it through the food processor first. The flavor of the tea will build over time and be more noticeable on day 2 or 3 than right out of the oven.
I am wondering if you mixed your flour before you measured it? What you described used to happen to me until I learned that before measuring the flour you have to mix it to fluff it up.
Yes, to measure flour properly you should spoon it into the measuring cup and then level it off with a knife.
It sure what went wrong. I doubled the recipe but the dough was soooo soft. I still managed to roll it in a shapeless log. It’s not in the fridge not sure if I should let it sit out on the counter and remix with more flour or just try baking it.
Hi there,
This dough shouldn’t be super soft. Is it possible you didn’t double one of the dry ingredients? You can also try firming it up in the fridge.
It’s firm in the fridge but will it mess up during the baking? Should I just bring it back to room temp and add more flour? Thanks
It shouldn’t mess up during baking if it’s cold.
Hi! I’m planning on making these and using a teapot cookie cutter. Do you think these will hold up?
I have seen others share pictures where they have used the teapot cookie cutters so you should be good to go!
Love these cookies! They were perfect with our lady grey tea!
Could you use the same recipe but omit the tea leaves for plain shortbread cookies? Or is there more in the recipe that you’d have to change?
Hi Kori,
You can use the same recipe!
I made this recipe and it was a disaster. The cookies were the consistency of sand, crumbly and fell apart. No never came together as it should have. I followed all the instructions. Consider myself an experienced short bread baker having had many successes before.They had no flavor and were virtually tasteless. Do you have any suggestions as to what went wrong? I think the recipe had too much flour and not enough butter but perhaps you have some other advice.
Hi Lori, I’m not sure, we make this recipe a lot and it’s one of the most popular recipes on this site with rave reviews. It takes several minutes before the dough comes together, but then it should resemble a nice cookie dough that is easy to work with and the cookies should at all fall apart. The flavor builds over time which is why I either recommend letting the butter infuse beforehand or putting them in a tin to set after baking.
Hi! II wanted to ask, how much is 1 bag of Earl grey leaves? 1 teabag? I have loose earl grey tea so I’m a bit confused. Thanks.
Hi Ela, each bag has about 1 teaspoon of finely ground tea.
I made these awhile back following the recipe exactly (the “short on time” method) and the cookies came together perfectly. I didn’t have lemon juice on hand so I left off the glaze, but they were still so delicious. I’m planning on making a batch with my teacup cookie cutter to bring to Easter tomorrow. Thanks for this recipe!
So glad you enjoyed them, they will be a hit for Easter, I’m sure!
I want to infuse the butter with the tea leaves for a stronger flavour. But your recipe calls for creaming butter with sugar. So does that mean after infusing butter with tea leaves, I have to somehow remove the leaves or I can leave them with the butter and mix them with the sugar?
Hi Erika, the tea leaves are meant to stay in the cookies, you’re simply just mixing the tea leaves and butter together a few hours before you mix the butter and sugar so that the flavor infuses a bit more.