Welcome to The Ferguson Recipes: Shortbread Cookies (Darren McGrady's Balmoral Shortbread)

The Ferguson Recipes

Sheet-Pan Mojo Chicken With Green Beans & Potatoes 🌄 💤
Shish-kabob With Basmati Rice 🌄 💤 ✨
Shortbread Cookies (Darren McGrady's Balmoral Shortbread) 🌄 💤 ⏳
Shortbread Cookies and/or Butter Cookies 💤 ⏳
Shrimp Cocktail 🌄 💤
Shrimp Scampi 🌄 💤 ⏳
Shrimp Scampi with Pasta 🌄 💤
Shrimp Spread 💤 ⏳

🖨 🖨

Shortbread Cookies (Darren McGrady's Balmoral Shortbread)

{Serving suggestion only*}
Click Image to Zoom

Recreate royal-worthy treats with this authentic shortbread recipe from former royal chef Darren McGrady. These buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookies feature the perfect balance of butter, flour, and sweetness with a delicate sandy texture that's simultaneously rich and light. Adapted into convenient rounds from the traditional Balmoral format, these sophisticated cookies pair perfectly with tea for an afternoon treat fit for royalty.

Ingredients

225g (8oz) plain flour
225g (8oz) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
115g (4oz) icing sugar (some people prefer granulated sugar for shortbread)
115g (4oz) corn starch
1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 175° C/350° F.

Dump all the ingredients (except the vanilla) into a large bowl and mix everything together until it looks like breadcrumbs. The dough will be super crumbly at first, but don't worry about it.

Add the vanilla and mix it in with the crumbly dough.

Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until it forms a solid dough.

Roll the dough out to about 3/8" thickness and cut into 2" rounds.

Place the rounds onto a parchment lined baking tray.

Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until they get a light sandy color. Don't overbake or they'll get too hard!

Once baked, pull them out of the oven and immediately dust the tops generously with granulated sugar while they're still hot. Shake off any excess sugar and transfer to a cooling rack.

Let them cool for at least 1 hour before serving or storing.

Servings\Yield

Makes about 2 doz. 2" round cookies

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition Per Serving (1 cookie) - Calories: 140; Total Fat: 9g (Saturated Fat: 5g); Cholesterol: 25mg; Sodium: 95mg; Total Carbohydrates: 14g (Dietary Fiber: 0g, Sugars: 4g); Protein: 1g

*Nutrition information is provided as a general estimate only. Nutrient information is not available for all ingredients, and is based on available nutrient data. Variations may occur based on ingredient brands and preparation methods.

💬 Uncle Dave says...

Darren McGrady's Balmoral Shortbread

This is the recipe royal chef Darren McGrady would make for the royal family at Balmoral. I modified his recipe to make it into round cookies.

🧑‍🍳 The Cook: Dave Ferguson 🔑 Keywords: cookies, cookie, shortbread
🗂️ Categories: 🍪 Cookies & Bars
📚 Collections: The TFR Cookbook
Shortbread Cookies (Darren McGrady's Balmoral Shortbread) was added on December 09, 2023 and last updated on April 20, 2025.

*Serving suggestion only. 😂 If a food photo doesn't look like it was taken by a monkey named Frank, it was most likely AI generated and not the result of Frank's minimal culinary or photographic skills. Unless you failed the "I'm not a robot" test, your recipes will probably not look like the ones in the pictures. See Creamy Turkey Veggie Soup to read more about AI images.

📄 A Quick Note About The Recipes At The Ferguson Recipes: We love sharing recipes, but please be aware that most haven't been professionally tested in our kitchen or independantly verified. Your safety is important to us, so always practice safe food handling and cooking techniques. Cook smart and use your best judgment! Eggs: If you make a recipe that uses raw eggs, please consider using pasteurized eggs. Allergens: Food allergens have not been identified in each individual recipe. Please use caution if you have any food allergies. Have questions about a specific recipe? Feel free to reach out to us.

💡️ Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, Disclaimers, and Terms of Service

🍪 Cookie Policy: Cookies are only used for registered users for the keep logged-in function, if you select it. They are also used to let us know that you don't want cookies set. Ironic, ain't it!
🤐 Privacy Policy: I don't share your information with anyone; I don't even know how!
📜 Terms of Service: Be nice!
ℹ️ About TFR: Click me to learn more about The Ferguson Recipes!
🏛️ Founded April 13, 2006
©️ 2006 - 2026 fergusonrecipes.com
📧 Contact!

📄Recipe Disclaimer: While The Ferguson Recipes strives to present reliable and delicious recipes, please note that most of the recipes on this site have not undergone rigorous testing or independent verification. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you always follow standard food safety guidelines when preparing any dish. Eggs: If you make a recipe that uses raw eggs, please consider using pasteurized eggs. Allergens: Food allergens have not been identified in each individual recipe. Please use caution if you have any food allergies. If you have any questions or concerns about a specific recipe, please feel free to contact us.

🔎️ About Searches

‼️ Please enter at least 3 characters with at least 1 letter. (50 character limit.)
🍏 Use quotes for exact match (e.g.,"apple pie")
🍲 Use + to require words (e.g.,+chicken +rice)
🥩 Use | for "OR" (e.g., beef|chicken)
🚫 Use - to exclude (e.g., chocolate -nuts)
🌟 Use * as a wildcard (e.g., chick*)
🥣 Combine filters

🥣 Try (e.g., +Mexican +taco* -rice)
🥣 or (e.g., +"green beans" +ferguson)

⚠️ Some special characters might be ignored.
🍪 Search by category (e.g., sweets|cookies)
🧂 Search by ingredient (e.g., cinnamon, nutmeg)
🔍 Try multiple words for better results
🛑️ NOTE: One or more "-" without anything else will find no recipes.
⚠️ Occasionally, the highlighting process breaks due to embedded hyperlinks, some wierd characters, some weird punctuation, sun spots, acne spots, etc. Nowt to be done about it.

✖