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This Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Shortbread is the dream gluten free biscuit! Rich and buttery, packed with chocolate chunks, with only 5 simple ingredients. These melt-in-the-mouth gluten free shortbread biscuits are so easy to make, and so delicious.
Buttery Shortbread with Chocolate Chunks
- Why Choose This Recipe? Chunky, buttery, melt-in-the-mouth gluten free shortbread studded with fat chocolate chunks – just like the choc chip shortbreads in Starbucks, but these are gluten free and coeliac-safe.
- A Reader Fave: Hopefully the reviews from readers speak for themselves – with Facebook commenters calling them ‘delicious’, ‘yummy’, ‘so easy’ and saying their gluten-eating friends didn’t believe they were gluten free!
- So Easy: You only need 5 ingredients and 30 minutes of hands-on time to make this simple, gluten free chocolate chip shortbread recipe.
- Flour of choice: I always use the FREEE Plain Gluten Free Flour for this but any plain gluten free flour blend will work, such as Asda or M&S flour.
- Don’t Like Chocolate? Swap the chocolate chunks for chopped nuts or raisins – or make my deliciously buttery plain gluten free shortbread recipe instead.
Table of Contents
Ingredients and Substitutions
There’s a printable recipe card below for these easy, gluten free chocolate chip shortbread cookies with the exact quantities. But here are the 5 ingredients and ideas for any swaps.
- Sugar: I use caster sugar, in the US you’ll need baker’s sugar or superfine sugar.
- Butter: You could use a hard vegan margarine for a dairy free version.
- Plain Gluten Free Flour: I usually use the FREEE by Dove’s Farm flour, but any plain gluten free flour or 1:1 gluten free baking flour should work.
- Xanthan Gum: Essential for a gluten free shortbread which doesn’t crumble to dust! You can omit this if your flour blend already contains it.
- Jumbo Milk Chocolate Chips: Feel free to use dark or white chocolate, or swap for a dairy free chocolate for a vegan/dairy free shortbread recipe.
Don’t just take my word for it…
Ellie made these and posted on Facebook: “Made these before they’re delicious. My non-gluten free friends couldn’t tell they were gluten free!“
Kelly also commented: “Made these last weekend. So easy and tasted amazing. Thanks for another great recipe.”
How to Make Gluten Free Choc Chip Shortbread
There’s a printable recipe card below with the method. But here are some step-by-step photos to show you how easy this gluten free chocolate chip shortbread recipe is to make:
Line two large baking trays with baking paper and set to one side. Add the sugar and softened butter to a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon (or electric mixer) until combined.
Stir the gluten free flour and xanthan gum together then add to the butter and sugar mix. Pour in the jumbo chocolate chips.
Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture until it starts to clump together. Once the mixture starts to form more of a dough, use your hands to bring it together into a ball.
Roll the mixture to around 1.5cm thick and cut out round shapes using a 3.5-inch cutter.
Lay the shapes on the lined baking trays, allowing around 3-4cm between them. Keep re-rolling the dough until you have cut out all of your shapes, around 8 shortbread cookies.
Once you have cut out all your shapes, place the baking trays in the fridge to cool for at least 30 minutes. This step is VERY important to stop them spreading in the oven.
When the dough has chilled heat the oven to 180C / Fan 160C / Gas Mark 4. Bake the shortbread for 15 minutes until the cookies go slightly golden.
Remove the trays from the oven and place on a cooling rack for at least 15-20 minutes BEFORE removing the shortbread from the trays.
Storing and Freezing: These gluten free shortbread cookies will keep for up to a week in an airtight container, or can be frozen for up to 6 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some FAQs about this easy choc chip shortbread recipe. If you can’t find the answer to your question here or in the post above, please comment and I’ll try answer!
If the recipe includes xanthan gum, then yes, it needs to be in there! But you can omit this if your gluten free flour blend already contains it.
This is especially important when it comes to gluten free biscuit recipes as I find they tend to crumble into a dusty mess without it.
Xanthan gum is found in most free from aisles in UK supermarkets and helps to replicate some of the texture of gluten.
This shortbread recipe doesn’t contain any egg, so it’s actually really easy to make it vegan with a couple of simple swaps. Just use a harder vegan margarine instead of butter (like Stork baking block) and vegan choc chips, and you’ll have gluten free and vegan chocolate chip shortbread cookies.
More Gluten Free Biscuits and Cookies
If you love the look of these gluten free chocolate chip shortbread cookies, make sure you try some of these favourites next:
- Gluten Free Shortbread
- Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten Free Jammy Dodgers
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies
- Gluten Free Viennese Whirls
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Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Shortbread Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 g caster sugar
- 200 g unsalted butter, (softened)
- 350 g plain gluten free flour, (I use FREEE by Dove's Farm)
- 0.25 tsp xanthan gum, (Omit if your flour blend contains this)
- 125 g jumbo milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line two large baking trays with baking paper and set to one side. Add the sugar and softened butter to a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon (or electric mixer) until combined.
- Stir the gluten free flour and xanthan gum together then add to the butter and sugar mix. Pour in the jumbo chocolate chips. Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture until it starts to clump together. Once the mixture starts to form more of a dough, use your hands to bring it together into a ball.
- Roll the mixture to around 1.5cm thick (you may find it easier to roll between two sheets of clingfilm – see notes if your dough is very sticky) and cut out round shapes using a 3.5-inch cutter. Lay the shapes on the lined baking trays, allowing around 3-4cm between them. Keep re-rolling the dough until you have cut out all of your shapes.
- Once you have cut out all your shapes, place the baking trays in the fridge to cool for at least 30 minutes. This step is VERY important to stop the shortbread biscuits spreading in the oven.
- When the dough has been chilling for 30 minutes, heat the oven to 180C / Fan 160C / Gas Mark 4. Pop the trays in the oven, straight from the fridge, and bake for 15 minutes until the shortbread starts to go lightly golden – you don't want them to go too dark as they are quite a pale bake.
- Remove the trays from the oven and place on a cooling rack for at least 15-20 minutes BEFORE removing the shortbread from the trays. They need to firm up before you try to move them, otherwise they will break.
Notes
- Top Tip: If the dough is very sticky (for example you’re making these on a warm day) then pop the ball of dough in the fridge for around 20 minutes to chill and firm up a little before rolling.
- Smaller Cutter? I used a 3.5-inch cookie cutter but if you use a smaller one (or a different shape) you may need to adjust the cooking times. Keep an eye on the shortbreads in the oven and remove them when they start to go lightly golden.
- Storage: These shortbread cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, or can be frozen.
- Cup Measurements: Hit ‘US Customary’ if you want cup measurements instead of metric, though I always recommend using scales for my recipes.
- Step-by-Step Photos: Check out the blog post above for step-by-step photos of this method if you find it easier to follow a visual guide.
- Like this Recipe? It would mean SO much to me if you could leave a 5* rating and a little comment if you make this Chocolate Chip Shortbread recipe and love it. It really helps support my website! Thank you xx
Nutrition
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Can this be doubled or tripled to make a larger amount of cookies?