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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These were so easy and delicious! Would definitely make them again.
Dough was really crumbly (as stated in the recipe) and came together very loosely. It was hard to cut out without the dough breaking even with chilling. Flavor is ok but I find it a little plain, using a higher quality butter may help though. Tea flavor was not strong at all my tea smelled fresh and I use one from a tin and not a sachet. Overall, not bad but it’s not something that I would prefer over a regular shortbread.
Absolutely delicious!! Didn’t have any lemons so I decided to do a lavender vanilla glaze and it was soooo good. Can’t wait to try your chai shortbread cookie recipe. Beside the glaze the only thing I did differently was pop the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes prior to baking. Thanks for such a great recipe!
My company had a cookie contest and I won 2nd place with this recipe!! Thank you for shearing this delicious and dedicated recipe!! Ingredients are so simple and I love earl gray flavor with lemon graze. Now I’ll make this cookies for friends as Christmas gift 🥳
Sorry…how does the 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice make a glaze? All I have is barely damp powdered sugar.
Hi Kathlene, glazes can be finicky, I recommend starting there but adding more juice until your reach the desired consistency, just a little juice/liquid can make a big difference in a glaze.
I made these and they are exquisite! I did sub 1 1/2 Tbsp. loose lead Earl Grey and 3/4 Tbsp culinary lavender for the 2 Tbsp Earl Grey, and it was the perfect amount to make these into Lavender Earl Grey shortbread. I think these will become a new favorite. Very easy to make and goes so well with my tea in the morning 🙂 Thank you!
So glad you loved the cookies – the addition of lavender sounds amazing!
These were a hit! Made them with two herbal tea blends-together, a lemon ginger, and a honey bush orange,I served them as a nice crisp cookie on the side of a homemade lemon pudding. Everyone raved about them!
These cookies turned out fantastic! The additional tips were very helpful and the cookies turned out the perfect texture and level of flavor. These will be added to the repertoire as my family loved them. Thank you for sharing!!
Hi, I’ve tried this recipe and it tastes great! Buttery and hints of earl grey 🙂 Just wanted to ask if you would know why my dough was sticky and not of rollable consistency? It didn’t come across as a dough that would roll out. Ended up piping it which was great too! But just curious~ 🤔
It sounds like maybe your butter was too soft or you needed more flour.
I might have done them wrong, but the cookies came out thick and no hint of earl grey came through. Cookies were also shrinking back in, so it was difficult to roll out.
I tried this recipe twice, and I’m very mixed on it. The cookies did come out very shortbread-like with a nice brown bottom – but the tea hasn’t worked either time. I let it sit out for around 2 hours with the butter, but even after processing the tea as fine as I could it still had too much of a gritty texture to the finished cookie. I just dunk them in drinks to get over it so they’re not wasted. I think I’ll keep this recipe on hand for a plain shortbread cookie – but I’ll try a different tea infusion method for cookies.
Hello Rebecca,
I’d like to know if you’ve tried patting this
dough in to a large circle as most
traditional shortbreads are done. Sometimes
the circle is baked as is on a cookie sheet.
Other times it is patted down into a cake pan.
Just curious. Thank you for your time.
I have not, I’ve only made them as roll out or slice and bake.
Delicious! I skipped the glaze as these were stacked to give away (we will glaze the next batch for home use) and that hint of citrus still comes through beautifully. Also had to use gluten free flour so they are a bit more delicate. Don’t think that will be much of a problem –they are going fast! Great recipe, thanks!
I’m so glad everyone is enjoying them, Jessica!
Delicious recipe! Definitely go for infusing the butter with the tea leaves…I thought it might be overpowering but not at all. Make sure you roll out the dough enough.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Abby!
Made them yesterday! They turned our great! I added some vanilla when i mixed the butter and powdered sugar together!
So glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
This looks so good! What a fun twist on a shortbread!
can i make these as slice and bake cookies instead of using cookie cutters? thanks!
Yes, you should be able to.
I made these for my book club and everyone loved them. I didn’t have Earl Grey, so used 4 tea bags of Lady Grey instead (to get to the Tbsp measurement listed). Going to try the recipe again with Constant Comment tea, thinking they’ll taste Christmas-y with those flavors. Thanks!
Absolutely amazing biscuits! At first I was worried they would taste too strongly of earl grey, but no the taste was just perfect, neither overpowering or too delicate. And with the lemon glaze too, they’re just scrumptious. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!