Ready to eat in under an hour, this easy-to-make Wholemeal Vanilla Shortbread is rich, buttery, and nutty. With just four ingredients—butter, sugar, flour, and vanilla—it’s simple yet delicious. Add some Chocolate Melting Moments, to your biscuit collection.
You will get 12 portions from this recipe. But you could slice them into 24 smaller, bite sizes portions
Wholemeal vs Wholegrain.
In a nutshell, wholemeal and wholegrain flour is basically the same. They are referred to differently in other countries. In the UK, we call it wholemeal, in the USA these products are referred to as Wholegrain or wholemeal. Source - Cotswold Flour
Ingredients
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used to make this recipe, along with possible alternatives and why I may have used them. A complete list of ingredients and full instructions can be found in the Recipe Card below. Or click the 'Jump to Recipe' button at the top of this post.
- Butter - Unsalted at room temperature
- Sugar - soft brown sugar. You can use white caster sugar, but avoid using demerara or granulated sugar as the granules are much larger and could burn during baking leaving brown patches in the biscuits.
- Vanilla extract or Vanilla paste. Try using Maple Syrup as an alternative.
- Flour - wholemeal flour or any wholemeal or wholegrain flour. If you use all-white flour, it will give a different taste and appearance.
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 160 deg fan assisted. Before you make this simple wholemeal shortbread recipe, line the base of an 8” square loose bottom cake tin with baking parchment.
Using an electric mixer, with the paddle beater, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined.
Add the flour and slowly mix together to form a smooth firm dough.
Place the dough into the prepared cake tin, and, using the back of a spoon, press down firmly and evenly to form a smooth base.
Mark the dough into equal portions with a knife cutting only a partial way through the dough. Add decorative holes in each section with a fork.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 – 30 mins, or until baked. Before the wholemeal shortbread begins to cool, cut the portions all the way through.
To avoid crumbling, leave the shortbread in the baking tin to cool completely before breaking into portions and serving.
Storage
Although you may find nothing is left after a couple of days, these wholemeal shortbread biscuits will keep for several days when stored in an airtight container.
Serve
Slice the shortbread into sections while still warm. Cool completely before breaking into portions and serving. However, they do taste nice while still slightly warm.
Tips and FAQ
Wholemeal flour adds texture and flavour to this simple shortbread recipe, which plain white flour lacks and is a great way of introducing wholemeal and whole grain flour to your baking.
Wholemeal Vanilla Shortbread
Equipment
- 1 x 8"/20cm Square Cake tin
- Baking parchment
Ingredients
- 200 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 100 g soft brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 300 g wholemeal flour or any wholemeal/wholegrain flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160 deg fan assisted. Line the base of an 8”/20cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
- Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter 200 g unsalted butter , sugar 100 g soft brown sugar and vanilla extract 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, until smooth and well combined.
- Add the flour 300 g wholemeal flour and slowly mix together to form a smooth firm dough.
- Place the dough into the prepared cake tin and using the back of a spoon, press down firmly and evenly to form a smooth base.
- Mark the dough into equal portions with a knife cutting only partial way through the dough. Add decorative holes in each section with a fork.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 – 30 mins, or until baked all the way through.
- Before the wholemeal shortbread begins to cool, cut the portions all the way through.
- To avoid crumbling, leave the shortbread in the tin to cool completely before breaking into portions and serving.
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