Baking · Biscuits and Cookies · Candy and Sweets · Chocolate

Mini Egg Shortbread

Mini Egg Shortbread – classic semolina shortbread recipe filled with chopped Cadbury Mini Eggs and chocolate chunks. 

This time last year I baked this Chocolate Chunk Shortbread (Marks & Spencer Copycat Recipe). Since then, it’s become one of the most popular recipes I’ve posted on my blog. So at it’s very nearly Easter and Mini Eggs are back on our shelves, I thought it would be a fun idea to incorporate them in a batch of shortbread.

All good shortbread recipes start with butter. I tend to go for salted butter, and this needs to be softened. Cream softened butter with sugar until fluffy, then add plain flour and semolina. Semolina is my secret ingredient for the traditional Scottish shortbread taste!

Finally, lots of chopped chocolate and Cadbury Mini Eggs are mixed throughout the shortbread dough.

Once baked, the shortbread is sprinkled with a little extra sugar, and it’s ready to be devoured and enjoyed.

There’s lots of Easter baking inspiration on the blog already. Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese FrostingCarrot Cake TraybakeEaster Chocolate Nest Cakes, Mini Egg Cheesecake and these incredible Mini Egg NYC Cookies all make a delicious addition to an Easter meal.

I recommend the same thing with every shortbread recipe, and that’s to serve the shortbread while it’s still warm from the oven. The texture is softer and simply divine.

Mini Egg Shortbread is the ultimate, easy, no-fuss Easter baking recipe. This shortbread really does taste as good as it looks!

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Mini Egg Shortbread

Mini Egg Shortbread - classic semolina shortbread recipe filled with chopped Cadbury Mini Eggs and chocolate chunks. 
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 12
Author What Jessica Baked Next

Ingredients

  • 200 g butter (salted or unsalted) softened
  • 100 caster or granulated sugar
  • 300 g plain flour
  • 50 g semolina
  • 200 g dark or milk chocolate roughly chopped
  • 150 g Cadbury Mini Eggs chopped in half

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. Line a 20cm / 8-inch square cake tin with parchment paper and set aside.
  • Start by preparing the shortbread dough - cream the softened butter and sugar until light and creamy.
  • Now add the flour and the semolina, mix until a crumbly dough forms. Be careful not to overwork the dough at this point, only mix until it comes together. Now fold through the chopped chocolate and halved Mini Eggs.
  • Transfer shortbread dough to a 20cm / 8-inch square cake tin and press down gently. Carefully score 12 squares from the dough, making sure not to cut all the way through. Bake for 25-30 minutes until slightly golden in colour. Leave the shortbread to cool for 5 minutes, then using a sharp knife, slice all the way through where you scored the shortbread before baking.
  • Finally, sprinkle with a small amount of extra sugar before devouring! The shortbread will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

I have your Easter recipes covered!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

Mini Egg Cheesecake

Easter Chocolate Nest Cakes

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Baking · Biscuits and Cookies · Chocolate

Valentine’s Shortbread Hearts

Special shortbread biscuits to celebrate Galentine’s/Valentine’s Day next month! Show your love with these adorable shortbreads.

Starting 2024 on WJBN on a sweet note with a stunning shortbread biscuit recipe.

2023 was a brilliant year, memorable for so many good reasons, both personally and professionally. December saw the most blog views all year, so we ended the year on a real high! Lots of you were viewing recipes and making these over the festive period from all corners of the world.

I’m ready to start the year, and I have many ideas ready to bring to the blog. In the past, I haven’t shared a lot of ‘Valentine’s’ themed recipes, but I wanted to do something about that and start a new tradition this year!

So here we have some delicious shortbread biscuits, dipped in chocolate, and the prettiest pink heart sprinkles.

I already have a Shortbread Biscuits recipe on the blog, but recently I discovered a different shortbread and adore it.

The new recipe has semolina added to the shortbread dough. Semolina gives shortbread an extra crunchy texture and reminds me of shortbread you can get in tins, but of course better because they’re homemade.

Shortbread is a bake that just cannot be beaten. It’s simple, but when made well, it’s hard to beat.

What Ingredients You’ll Need:

  • Butter – salted or unsalted is absolutely fine. Butter is essential in shortbread dough, no margarine or alternative, it just won’t taste like shortbread should, and they will spread/not keep their shape!
  • Sugar – only a little caster/granulated sugar is needed, shortbread is all about the buttery flavour, but isn’t overly sweet.
  • Plain Flour – just enough to bind the dough together.
  • Semolina – adds a lovely crunch to the shortbread biscuits. It’s optional, but I really recommend it!
  • Chocolate – any type of chocolate you like. You can half dip the shortbread hearts, or drizzle them with the chocolate.
  • Sprinkles – pretty ‘n’ pink sprinkles are great for Valentine’s! Even some freeze dried strawberries/raspberries would be great.

I refilled a tin of already eaten shortbread from Christmas with this new batch

Show your love and appreciation for someone special with a surprise batch of homemade chocolate-dipped shortbread.

Get your friends around, have a Galentine’s night, and bake and decorate these biscuits. Decorate with a combination of chocolate. I did half my shortbread half-dipped in milk chocolate and the remaining dipped in white chocolate. I then piped some remaining contrasting chocolate on top of the chocolate already on each shortbread.

Fun to make and wonderful for the upcoming Valentine’s Day! I can’t think of a more delicious way to say I love you than with these!

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Valentine's Shortbread Hearts

Special shortbread biscuits to celebrate Galentine's/Valentine's Day! Show your love with these adorable shortbreads. I can't think of a more delicious way to say I love you than with these!
Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 20
Author What Jessica Baked Next

Ingredients

  • 200 g butter (salted or unsalted) softened
  • 100 g caster or granulated sugar
  • 300 g plain flour
  • 50 g semolina
  • 100 g dark or milk chocolate
  • 100 g white chocolate
  • Sprinkles I used cute pink heart sprinkles

Instructions

  • Start by preparing the shortbread dough - cream the softened butter and sugar until light and creamy.
  • Now add the flour and the semolina, mix until a crumbly dough forms. Be careful not to overwork the dough at this point, only mix until it comes together.
  • Wrap the dough up in clingfilm and chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This step stops the biscuits spreading when baking.
  • Preheat oven to 170°C / 150°C Fan / 325°F / Gas Mark 3. Line two large baking trays with parchment paper.
  • Lightly flour a work surface with extra flour, roll the shortbread dough out until it's roughly the thickness of a pound coin. Take a 6cm heart cutter, and cut out roughly 20 from the dough, re-rolling and continuing to cut out more biscuits.
  • Transfer the unbaked shortbread biscuits onto the baking trays, sprinkle with a little extra sugar, and bake for 15-20 minutes until pale golden in colour - you don't want these too golden. They should be slightly firm to the touch when ready. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking trays, then move to a wire rack and leave the biscuits to cool completely on there.
  • Once the biscuits are cool, melt the two types of chocolate. Dip one biscuit at a time on one side into the chocolate. Allow to set, before drizzling the remaining chocolate on each biscuit. Finish with some sprinkles of your choice.
  • Once the chocolate has set, the biscuits are ready to enjoy. They'll keep in an airtight container/tin for up to 1 week.

Valentine’s Day Recipe Inspiration!

Chocolate Truffles 

Homemade Crêpes

Jammy Dodgers

Chocolate Shortbread

White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis

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Baking · Biscuits and Cookies

Scottish Shortbread

Buttery melt in the mouth shortbread biscuits. With just three ingredients, this moreish recipe is brilliant to make over Christmas, but is also great for a weekend treat! 

There really is no other biscuit that quite compares to classic Scottish shortbread. With a rich and beautiful buttery flavour, shortbread is favourite for many people.

Every single Christmas we always have a box (or two or even maybe three!) of shortbread biscuits on hand ready to devour our way through. But for me homemade is definitely better so I thought it would be great to share my favourite shortbread recipe ready for your Christmas festivities. I’ve been making shortbread for years with my mum. My maternal side of the family hail from Dunblane in Scotland – it must be my Scottish roots that are the reason why I love making and eating shortbread as much as I do!

I’ve baked my shortbread in a Victoria sandwich cake tin. I love baking shortbread this way because you don’t need to roll out the dough and therefore will not risk overworking the dough. Once the shortbread is baked it’s important to cut it into eight wedges whilst still hot. This ensures you get nice, clean slices. The finishing touch is to sprinkle over caster (superfine) sugar just before serving.

If you want to do something different you could definitely use your favourite cookie cutters and cut out festive shaped biscuits. But do remember baking time will differ for smaller biscuits.

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to shortbread, I’ve never really been a fan of fancy flavour pairings, so that’s why I prefer to keep mine plain and simple. I sometimes add some chocolate chips to the dough or even dip the baked shortbread in melted chocolate for a little twist. But you could easily add any of your favourite flavours to the mix such as lemon or orange zest or even spices like cinnamon or ginger.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you will know my favourite recipes are those that are both easy and quick to prepare. It may surprise you that this shortbread recipe only requires 3 ingredients and you will have homemade shortbread ready in less than an hour. So if you’re like me and sometimes forget about Christmas presents, but only remember at the last minute, they would make a brilliant edible gift for your close ones.

(Makes 8 shortbread wedges)

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter, softened

50g caster sugar

175g plain flour (all-purpose)

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 150°C / 130°C Fan / 300°F / Gas Mark 2. Lightly grease the base and sides of a 20cm/8 inch loose-bottomed cake tin. Set to one side.
  2. Cream the softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. This will take approx. 5 minutes – so use an electric mixer if you own one.
  3. Now add the flour and stir well until incorporated and a soft and slightly crumbly dough comes together.
  4. Press the dough into the cake tin and smooth into an even, flat layer with the back of a spoon, you can also use your hands to do this. Crimp the edges, score (don’t cut right through) the shortbread into 8 triangular portions. Then prick each portion with three fork stamps. Bake for 40 minutes, until pale gold.
  5. As soon as the shortbread has finished baking, cut into wedges and leave to cool completely in the tin. Once cool, sprinkle with caster sugar.

Recipe Notes:

  • Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Cream for at least 5 minutes to achieve the perfect textured shortbread.
  • Once you’ve added the flour, make sure you stir until it’s just about blended. Over handling the dough will mean your shortbread will not be as light and short as it could be.

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