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!
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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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These a amazing!! Love them 💜
I’m only doing four stars because I don’t know if it’s my new oven or what but baking them at that temperature at a fourth of an inch thickness for even 10 minutes in the bottoms are burning I don’t know what I can be doing wrong I’m following the recipe but I had slightly better success with them lowering the temperature to just 300 and even then they weren’t fully done but it’s the best I could work with
Hi Ivy, I’m sorry that your cookies burned. Did you make sure to line the cookie sheet with parchment paper?
Hi! I’m planning on making these, but I only have roasted green tea. Do you think it will taste fine if I use it?
It will be a different flavor cookie but any tea should work in this recipe.
They were delicious. Simple to follow recipe and really a full proof bake. The only thing I would recommend is thinning out the glaze, it makes it easier to dip the cookies. But yeah sure yum!!
Have made these twice now and no one can get enough. Super addicting, and had to share the recipe. I found that the glaze wasn’t enough lemon juice for me, so I just kept adding until the consistency was right and the flavor was fine.
So glad you loved the recipe!
I loved the flavour of this shortbread. The Earl grey flavour wasn’t incredibly strong but still nice and light. I added zest of half a lemon and 1 tablespoon lemon juice and it was delicious! I also baked it in a slice and bake method so I didn’t need to roll out the dough – just took it from the freezer, sliced it, and baked it.
How long is the cooling process after cooking ? Mine were a bit soft, still super yummy though
Usually, you let shortbread cookies cool completely before enjoying them.
I made them using Miyokos vegan butter. They were super tasty, just wish they’d been denser and heavier with more of a crunch to them. Got more of a soft melt in your mouth type cookie with mine.
Hi there, I’m guessing the butter is why they were soft. These are not soft cookies.
These are actually amazing! A valuable addition to my Christmas cookies recipes collection. They are nothing like traditional Czech Christmas cookies, but that’s what I enoy about them. For a tea lover, these are surely a must.
If my shortbread is crumbling I moisten it with a cheap lemonade vodka.
I loved these!!! I served them at a tea party and they were a huge hit!!!! I found them really easy to make as well. Have you ever infused the butter with a flavor other than Earl Grey? Maybe something for Christmas?
So glad you enjoyed them! You can use any kind of tea but these Chai ones are popular this time of year! https://www.sugarandsoul.co/vanilla-chai-shortbread-cookies-recipe/
Can I use gluten free all purpose flour or one-to one instead ?
Yes, I like Bob’s Red Mill one for one flour!
I’ve made these before and loved them! But I was wondering if I Could use gluten free all purpose flour?
It skipped the crumpble stage and went straight to powder where did I go wrong?
Are you saying the dough was powdery?
I just tried this recipe and the same thing happened to me! It was crumbly but just too dry to even roll out or free hand cookies. Would crumble apart when even try to create a ball 🙁
It sounds like the dough needed to be mixed longer.
I have never left a review for an online recipe but…WOW. Just wow. I had been craving early grey baked goods all week (which is weird because I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten an earl grey-flavored baked good), and I made this recipe and it was just exactly what I was looking for. Baking these cookies and eating the final product was like falling in love for the first time – you’ve heard it’s possible, but you don’t quite believe it until you try for yourself. Simple, easy, and delicious.
(Also note I subbed out the butter for vegan butter and it worked great!)
I’m so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Looking to make your recipe but the lady I’m making it for has cancer so I’m trying to substitute the sugar for honey, would you recommend any other adjustments?
Hi Ashley, unfortunately I don’t think using honey is going to work and I’m not sure of any alternatives. Since the recipe is only a few ingredients, changing any of them could compromise the final cookies. So sorry to hear about your friend and I hope you find a recipe that will work!
Made these today and they are DELISH! I added some lemon zest because I love lemon with my Earl grey. But the recipe as-is was lovely. I want to note, I read some comments about the flavor of Earl Grey lacking so I did some research. The tea bags linked in the recipe are larger bags (1.44g) than what I keep in my cupboards (.70g).
So I measured out the bags and the recipe basically calls for 1-2 tbls. In my case, that was 4 tea bags as each bag was rough 1/2 tbls. each. With this in mind, the recipe was flavored perfectly. I even steeped the tea in the butter for 6 hours.
Hope this helps!!
Whoops. I meant ounces, not grams! Yikes!
Thank you, Brittany, I never even thought of that so I appreciate you taking the time to measure it!
Just made these (with 2 earl grey tea bags) and added lavender buds as well. I made this for my vegan friend so I used vegan butter and it came out PERFECT. Then I added a few more lavender buds right after I drizzled the icing and it really tied it all together and looked beautiful.
Great recipe for a new baker like myself!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Made these a bunch. I like them and everyone I share the cookies with loves them.
These taste just like basic shortbread cookies. Are used two bags of Earl Grey and really there’s no flavor difference. It’s good at all but very basic and not what I was looking for
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the cookies.
Perhaps the earl grey wasn’t ground enough? I used 2 earl grey bags (decaf too so it wasn’t as strong) and it came out great! Maybe even try 3? I love earl grey so the more the merrier.