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:
So easy & so good.
The hardest part, apart from eating them all, was getting the dough logs the right size
Hi Nagi!
These look delicious and I am planning to make them soon for a holiday get together. I have a blend of grated Parmigiano Reggiano, Romano and Grano Padano and wondering if you think that would work well in this recipe or if I should use only Parmesan?
Thank you!! 😀
These are THE most delicious savoury biscuits, & they ARE so easy to make.11/10😀
I’ve tried other versions of this recipe before, and this is the best version of this recipe – weighing the ingredients guarantees that they are equal measure.
I added 1 tsp of cayenne for a bit of heat. Very nice, if you like a bit of heat.
I also tried adding toasted sesame seeds, ‘everything but the bagel’ seasoning, and cracked black pepper as toppers because I don’t love rosemary. All were good additions – my favorite was ‘everything but the bagel.’.
These little biscuits are very rich & tasty. Prep time is quick & simple and with ingredients I always have on hand. A keeper recipe, they will be a lovely addition to any snack plate or charcuterie board.
Thank you for this recipe – I am now on a “kidney watch” diet so the low sodium and potassium is just what I am looking for. I really hate most vegetables and fruits (my mom was the youngest of 13 and never cooked); I don’t like eating peppers, onions, etc – the flavor is okay (I take the onion out of the ring and eat the batter!). I am a corn and green bean person; I make most everything from scratch because my husband had cancer – I have so many of your recipes and wanted to thank you – you explain stuff and why – and they are mighty tasty too – our love to Dozer ☮ ☮ ☮
These came out PERFECT! They look and taste like they took much more work than they did! This recipe is definitely a keeper. I’m going to make these instead of having cheese and crackers the next time I have guests over. 10/10 recommend. 👌🏻
They taste like the best part of Cheds – delicious!!
The perfect gift with a bottle of bubbles!
Ridiculously easy and delicious
The flavour of cheesey goodness with a crumbly texture – what more could you want!
This is such an easy yet spectacular recipe. How to impress your friends in one simple recipe
Can you make these Parmesan shortbreads with gluten free flour?
Omg so easy so delicious. Made these to gift for Christmas thankfully took advice to make double batch!
SO easy (especially if you have a food processor) and SO delicious! I’ll be making this as gifts and to take to Christmas celebrations this year – thanks Nagi!
I’ve made these… scrumptious.
What other nibblies would go well with the Parmesan shortbreads?
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