Name: Pink Shortbread Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 32 min
Yield: 72 bite-sized cookies
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 3/4 cup powdered sugar; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 2 cups flour, all-purpose; 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted; 3-4 tablespoon milk; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract (optional); pink food coloring

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Pink Shortbread Cookies are classic shortbread/cutout cookies with a simple icing. Check out my easy method for rolling out the dough and cutting it into shapes such as these butterflies.

Pink Shortbread Cookies--displayed on a serving plage

For most people, myself included, cut-out cookies are reserved for holidays. They seem like a lot of trouble, don’t you think? Sticky dough, cleaning up the sticky dough, getting the shaped sticky dough unstuck from whatever you’re rolling them on and transferring the cookie to a cookie sheet, etc. Ugh!

On top of that, they need to be frosted. Furthermore, the kids usually want to decorate them, too. Just thinking about the potential mess is a “Calgon” moment.

Check out this shortcut…

The other day, I ran across a great idea in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking cookbook. It’s so easy!

How to roll out Pink Shortbread Cookies:

shortbread cookie dough in a zippered plastic bag

Simply put the dough in a gallon-size Ziplock bag and seal.

rolling out dough inside plastic bag — Roll the dough until it fills the bag and is a uniform thickness.

Cookie dough ready to put in the freezer. — Place the bag in the freezer and chill the dough until hard.

peeling the plastic back from the dough — Uncover dough by trimming two edges and unzipping the top of the bag. Pull back the plastic.

Open the bag on 3 sides and let your cookie-cutter go wild. Because the dough has been thoroughly chilled, the cut-out cookies are easy to pick up with your hands or peel off the plastic before transferring to a cookie sheet, ready to bake.

Cutting out Shamrock Shortbread Cookies with a cookie cutter — Use cookie cutters of choice to cut out cookies. You may need to use a toothpick or dull point of a knife to extract small pieces i.e. legs, tails, stems, etc.

Here’s the best part…

Easy clean-up

Clean-up is as simple as throwing the bag away. No flour to sweep up. No sticky dough to scrape from your counter or cutting board.

Dorie’s technique is adaptable to most any roll-out-the-dough-and-cut-into-a shape recipe. Give it a try!

Kitchen Secret for these cookies:

Small cookie cutters are recommended for this recipe. Not only are small cookies more appealing to eat at parties, but they’re easier to handle before they’re baked.

niece eating cookie — Kid-tested and approved!

If you make this recipe and enjoy it, consider helping other readers and me by returning to this post. Leave a rating on the recipe card itself underneath the picture. Although always appreciated, comments aren’t required. Thank you for visiting! Paula

Yield: 72 bite-sized cookies