Butter, flour and parmesan. That’s all you need to make buttery parmesan shortbread biscuits. And you’ll be amazed how fast these are to make – no cookie cutter required! Watch the 15 second video here to see how easy these are to make!
PARMESAN BISCUITS
My mother makes these incredible parmesan biscuits that I frequently beg her to make. Until recently, I had no idea they were made with just 3 ingredients: butter, flour and parmesan. Nor that they took all of 2 minutes to make the dough.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?!” I exclaimed. “If I’d known they were that easy, I would have been making them myself!”
“I don’t know,” she said calmly. “I just never thought of it. They aren’t that special.”
“Aren’t that special?” I gasped, flabbergasted. “These are my favourite biscuits.”
“That’s so typical of you,” she said. “Just because it’s got cheese in it.”
OK, well that’s true. I couldn’t argue with that. And of course, having discovered they were made with only 3 ingredients, I declared them to be so fabulous that I had to share them on my blog.
These biscuits are savoury shortbread biscuits, which means they are buttery and crumbly, just like the sweet ones.
Except these are cheesy. Parmesan cheesy.
You barely need the recipe for this. Butter, flour and parmesan, whizz until crumbs form, form a log, wrap in cling wrap, refrigerate, slice, bake for 12 minutes.
3 ingredient magic. That’s what this is. Honestly, these exact biscuits are sold in a certain up market grocery store in Sydney (which shall remain unnamed!) for close to $10. And you get less than one batch of this!
I have 2 words of caution about these:
1. Making as a gift: If you make these with the intention of gifting them, please just make a double batch. Don’t kid yourself into believing that you won’t “taste test” so many that you end up with a dismal scant pile for your friend, so small that you can’t possibly give that as a gift so you end up doing an emergency present run énroute to the birthday lunch; and
2. To nibble with wine: These are brilliant to have as nibbles. But they go a little too well with wine. What happens is that that the cheesy buttery biscuits make you thirsty, so you drink more, and the more you drink the more you nibble. An endless viscous cycle. So as with #1, just make a double batch. 🙂
OK, so #1 may have happened to me last weekend. And come to think of it, #2 as well. Oops.
Happy weekend! – Nagi x
PS Please do not count the biscuits in the photos below. I can tell you now, there are 5 missing!!!
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Parmesan Shortbread Biscuits
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz / 100g salted butter , chopped (Note 1)
- 3.5 oz / 100g parmesan cheese , grated (Note 2)
- 3.3 oz / 95g plain flour
For rosemary flavoured biscuits
- 1 tbsp rosemary leaves , roughly chopped (or 2 1/2 tsp dried rosemary)
Instructions
Two Ways To Make The Dough
- Process the butter, flour and parmesan in a food processor until a wet crumbly dough; OR
- Alternative method: Place the flour and butter into a bowl and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour until a crumble dough forms. Then add the parmesan cheese and use your fingers to rub it into the mixture.
- If you are making rosemary biscuits, add the rosemary at the same time as the parmesan cheese.
Make the biscuits
- Lightly flour a surface and turn the dough out onto it. Knead to bring together, then shape into two logs with a diameter of around 3 cm / 1.2" and about 15cm/6" in length.
- Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. (Note 2)
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350F. Line 1 large baking tray or 2 ordinary baking trays with baking paper (parchment paper).
- Remove the log from the fridge and use a sharp knife to cut the log into 7mm/ 1/3" thick rounds.
- Place the biscuits onto the baking tray at least 2cm / 1" apart.
- Bake biscuits for 12 minutes or until light golden.
- Stand on trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Got to admit, these were a bit of a disaster at first. Even though my butter was icy cold, and my fingers icy cold, and my kitchen nice and cool, I could NOT get the butter rubbed into the flour. There just did not seem to be enough flour for it to go smoothly, no matter how many times I stuck the whole bowl back in the freezer, or how many extra tablespoons of flour I added. I might need new scales? Who knows. I decided to continue, even though there were still many lumps of butter visible, went to retrieve my cheese… no parmesan. NO. PARMESAN. Oh noooo…. so I used aged cheddar. Then kneaded the snot out of the whole lot to try and distribute that butter a bit. I didn’t have great hopes of ending up with anything like shortbread, not gonna lie. I’ve just cooked the first batch, and of lordy. Perfect! The rosemary makes them for me. I’ve got a giant rosemary bush in the front yard, so there’s just no stopping me now- not even a lack of the right cheese!
made them, they were delicious, but i cut them too thin… i got lots!!! very crispy!! i’m gonna make ’em again… i’ll try the correct thickness next time!!! xxxx
Could these be made with olive oil rather than butter?
This recipe rocks! Plan on making two batches because one will mysteriously vanish post haste. Another winner, Nagi!
Fab simple tasty recipe
Better than store-bought savoury biscuits. I’ll make these again and again. Oh yeah!
For the biscuits could I replace the flour with almond flour?
Thanks
Lesley
I have made and eaten😋these lovely morsels-question..are they supposed to be crispy or soft? Delicious anyway👍
I made these last week. Divine 😋
Can I make the dough and keep it in the fridge for a week before baking.
Hi, Nagi
Just made a batch of these beautiful biscuits. They are really morish!
Can they be frozen?
Thanks,
Leslie
Yes they freeze well Leslie! N x
Hi Nagi! Would these cookies hold up to being stamped (debossed) before baking?!
Hi Cat – I haven’t tried embossing those myself but it is quite a firm shortbread so it might hold a pattern – let me know how it goes! N x
They look amazing desperate to taste them.
Thanks Lesley – happy baking! N x
Yummo, absolutely 💯 great recipes.
THank you Esra! N x
Hi Nagi! Just made these yesterday and they were yum, thoroughly packed with cheesy flavour, but a bit on the salty side for my mum. I’d like to tone down the saltiness by about 25%. Do you think simply using unsalted butter without additional salt would make too bland, or should I still use salt but say 1/4 or 1/8 tsp instead? Would be grateful for your thoughts as its such a great snack I’d like to share with my family. Thanks!
Hi Caroline – the parmesan can add a lot of salt so try it with. unsalted and taste a bit of the dough to see if you think it needs a bit more salt. Once you know what quantity suits your taste, make a note and use that amount every time! N x
Hi! Can we sub parmesan with pecorino romano?
Hi Gayle – yes you could do that in this recipe. N x
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
They will keep for a few days in an airtight container and for a few months frozen! N x
This looks so good! I love that the ingredient list is so simple!
Excellent! I had success with this straight away! I had tried a different recipe previously which tasted good but ended up being rather greasy, but these were a lovely texture and difficult to resist!
Turned out great I cut recipe in 1/2 and used almond flour/ brown rice flour and 2 tbsp. Of corn starch
got so excited i forgot to give them stars ! 5 of course
Thanks Liz!! N x