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:
It was so easy and fast to do! Butter comes in sticks of 250g here so that’s the quantity I used. I brought the shortbreads to our first in-person, post-confinement meeting at work, and my colleagues kept stealing the plate from each other. It was a big hit and soooo delicious! This is my new go-to recipe when needing to bring Something to parties!
Thank you so much Nagi!
Perfect Mathilde! N x
Hi Nagi! I love your recipes..they are simple yet delicious. Am just wondering, can we reheat the cookies to make them crunchy? Mine became a bit soggy 🙁 Thank you.
Hi Yuri, sorry they’ve gone soggy on you – was this after a day of so of storing them? You could place them in a hot oven for a minute or so to crisp them back up 🙂 N x
That’s great! I’ll reheat them in the oven. Yes it was a bit soggy the next day. I was pretty sure I stored them after they’ve cooled down. My son loves them. Thank you sooo much!!
Hi Nagi, I’ve gone and misplaced my kitchen scales (and what a time to do it, during lockdown when everyone is posting baking pics). Is there any chance you’re able to let me know a cup measure for the flour please, if I aerate & sprinkle?
I can gauge the butter from the pack & grate 2/3 cup from my parmesan block to try this recipe 🙂
Thank you so much! Aparna
Hi Aparna, oh no!!! It’s 2/3 of a cup 🙂 N x
Thank you, so 2/3 cup flour. Glad I checked with you as when I googled it said 95g flour was 3/4 cup (metric). I’ll give this recipe a whirl tomorrow with your measures, thanks again!
With the Parmesan Biscuits I add Dry Mustard Powder and Smokey Paprika. It brings out the Flavour of the Cheese.
YUM! Sounds great Gayel!! N x
Can I make these in a mixer. I have no food processor.
Thanks
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.
Literally the whizzed these together whilst my toast was. Cooking this morning. Thanks for the tip about double batching- second lôt 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
YES! SO easy, I’m so glad you love them!
Hi dear Nagi,
Can I freeze these Parmesan biscuits successfully?
Happy Christmas to you, your Mum and glorious Dozer xxx
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.
Hi Nagi,
Do you weigh the cheese before grating it or after ?
Hi Mayanka, you can weigh before grating or after – N x
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!
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!
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.
Hi Nagi,
These shortbreads are amazing. I‘be 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..
Hi Julia! So glad you love these too 🙂 I haven’t tried this with almond flour but unfortunately I don’t think it will work. Coconut flour, however, is an interesting proposition….
Thanks Nagi, I’ll try with coconut flour.
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
LOVE HEARING THAT! N x ❤️
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.
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 !!
Hi Gilda! For lemon I would add about 2 tsp zest. Lovely!
You are so right. Make a double batch. Easy to make but such a sophisticated little biscuit.
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!!!
I’m so pleased to hear that Mazza! Love that your ball came together in the food processor 🙂 N x
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
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?