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. ๐
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:
Craig says
Made for my work baking comp. came second and never made them before. I always use unsalted butter and grind in rock salt and black pepper for some bite. Great recipe.
Chris says
Literally the whizzed these together whilst my toast was. Cooking this morning. Thanks for the tip about double batching- second lรดt on the oven now and my my kitchen smells amazing! Hardest thing about these? Waiting til a civilised hour to enjoy with a drink. Thanks Nagi another brilliant recipe
Nagi says
YES! SO easy, I’m so glad you love them!
Paula says
Hi dear Nagi,
Can I freeze these Parmesan biscuits successfully?
Happy Christmas to you, your Mum and glorious Dozer xxx
Mary says
Made these and the daughter took some camping. Huge hit and have a stash in the freezer for those drop ins. Love them and they are so easy.
Mayanka Khetarpal says
Hi Nagi,
Do you weigh the cheese before grating it or after ?
Nagi says
Hi Mayanka, you can weigh before grating or after – N x
Renee says
Hi Nagi, how would 3.5 oz convert for the butter sticks? Does that mean using a stick, half a stick of butter, etc? Thx!
Eeka says
My US stick of butter has the weight/mass printed on the wrapper: 4oz/114g.
I just ysed a scale and weighed out an equal weight of flour & cheese. An extra slice or two is not a problem!
Lie says
Hi Nagi,
I try to make your cheese cookies, but it turned to be too crumbly, although I follow all your steps
I am living in a tropical country so is there any difference with the flour measurements?. Can I add more flour?
It seems that your cookies in the pic are sturdy and not crumbly.
Pls advice. thank you.
Julia says
Hi Nagi,
These shortbreads are amazing. Iโbe made them so many times – and all my friends love them. One question, would it be possible to use almond flour instead of the all purpose flour? Have you tried? More and more people are doing low carbs/Keto nowadays, so I thought almond flour or coconut flour could be an option? Thanks and I love your recipes… and Doozer..
Nagi says
Hi Julia! So glad you love these too ๐ I haven’t tried this with almond flour but unfortunately I don’t think it will work. Coconut flour, however, is an interesting proposition….
Julia says
Thanks Nagi, Iโll try with coconut flour.
Tracey says
Okay let me tell you these are stunning, I had to make a second batch.
This one has to one of the best parmesan biscuits I have ever had, thankyou
Nagi says
LOVE HEARING THAT! N x โค๏ธ
Wendy says
These are perfect and so easy to make. The bonus is I get my cheesy treats in a plastic free way. Thank you so much.
Gilda says
hi, i was wondering, if i want to make it to another flavour, like maybe lemon. Do i need to add more flour to make up for the parmesan? Thanks !!
Nagi says
Hi Gilda! For lemon I would add about 2 tsp zest. Lovely!
Thelma says
You are so right. Make a double batch. Easy to make but such a sophisticated little biscuit.
Mazza says
I have just made this dough – it’s in the fridge as I type! VERY easy recipe an I am hoping the baked biscuit is as good as everyone reports!
However, I found it even easier because I continued to process the mixture until it formed a ball on it’s own – like making pastry. Simples!!!
Nagi says
I’m so pleased to hear that Mazza! Love that your ball came together in the food processor ๐ N x
Lauren Curzon-Price says
What is the shelf life for these? I love the idea of making them for gifts, but not sure how far ahead I can make them> Shortbread normally last 2-3 months, but does the parmesan in this change that?
Thanks,
Lauren
Melissa Dumitru says
I absolutely loved your post for these Parmesan shortbreads. Your writing style is delightful and had me smiling the whole time. I can’t wait to make these, thanks happy baking Melissa x
May we please use your lovely recipe and pictures in a future edition of our magazine published in Australia?
Zen || fashion and interiors diy blogger says
I tried this with cheddar as I wanted to use up what was in my freezer. It was good but next time I ll try it with parmesan ๐ thanks for sharing- i love easy recipes ๐
Nagi says
I’m so pleased to hear that Zen, thank you for letting me know! N xx
Deborah says
These do freeze well. I put the uncooked dough into the freezer, sliced and individually wrapped, for when I am asked to make more, the batch is ready and waiting. I haven’t frozen the cooked biscuits. There are never any left to freeze :-)) They are deliciously moreish. I will be baking these this weekend, and your Salami Cheese bites, Nagi dear. Thanks for your lovely recipes, and your cookbooks. They are all awesome.
Nagi says
Fantastic to hear Deborah! Thanks for trying my recipe and taking the time to come back and let me know you enjoyed it! N x
Shruti Menon says
The aroma!!! To die for. I added Zathar (a middle eastern spice) in mine, and OMG! I can just die and go to heaven. My only issue with the recipe was that, you said I would get 25-30 of them, but I’ve barely gotten about 15-18. Nevertheless, it makes for a fantastic gift!
Nagi says
Hi Shruti, Iโm so glad you enjoyed it, thank you for letting me know! โค๏ธ N xx
Fab D says
Hi Nagi, I saw your biscuits today & had to try them but they didn’t look like yours! ๐
I must have done something wrong. Usually I’m good at cooking so not sure what I’ve done.
If you beat the butter mixture too much will that affect the recipe? Also perhaps my oven wasn’t hot enough because they kind of spread out & flattened ๐
Yours look so good!!!
Nagi says
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that ๐ I literally just made 6 batches of these! You definitely weighed the ingredients?? Also, did it look like wet sand before you formed into logs, without big clumps of butter? One time when I didn’t whizz the ingredients enough, I formed the logs and saw clumps of butter throughout and that’s when they spread out. But they were still YUM!! N xx
Fab D says
Hi Nagi, Merry Christmas!
thanks so much, yes I weighed and I whizzed but is it possible that I whizzed the ingredients too much?
Anyway, I will try again! And maybe add some olives to the mix ๐
thanks again ๐
Nagi says
Was the butter cold?? The ingredients specifically say to use cold butter. If it is at room temp then it isn’t shortbread and that’s the other cause for the biscuits spreading. ๐ N xx
Dana says
Hi Nagi, I’m thinking of making a triple batch for Christmas gifts this weekend but am worried about shelf life. Do you know how long they would last in a sealed container?
Nagi says
Hi Dana! In a really airtight container, they’re good for 5 – 6 days. For normal sealed containers, I’d say 3 -4 days ๐ They’re really buttery so forgiving even if a bit stale ๐