Buttery, crisp, and just a little unexpected – these rosemary shortbread cookies with honey and dried pineapple will make you pause after the first bite. They bake up with perfectly golden and snappy edges, while the centers stay tender, delicately crumbly, and melt-in-your-mouth. A hint of sweet floral honey weaves through the dough, candied pineapple adds chewy bursts of tropical brightness, and finely chopped fresh rosemary brings a gentle woodsy note that keeps everything beautifully balanced.
I don’t make a lot of sweets with herbs, there are only a few on the blog, specifically my rosemary madeleines, rosemary peach compote and basil peach shortcake. But when I do, I always tell myself I ought to do it more often because they’re always so surprisingly delicious! Fresh rosemary adds such lovely complexity and dimensionality to these cookies, and they’re still super easy to make, no more difficult than a classic shortbread recipe.
Key ingredients and helpful notes
You’ll need 9 ingredients to make this rosemary shortbread cookie recipe. As always, for the full list of ingredients with quantities and step-by-step instructions, skip straight to the recipe card.
- Fresh rosemary is the key ingredient here to impart a unique herby woodsy flavor to these cookies. You don’t need much, just 1 teaspoon of finely chopped rosemary for a batch of 24 cookies. If you add more, it may lean too herbal.
- Honey gives these shortbread a slight chew along with a sweet floral note that balances out the woodsiness of rosemary. It also enhances browning so keep an eye on your oven temperature, if it runs a bit high, shorten the bake time so it doesn’t brown too much.
- And dried pineapple, the same one I used in these pineapple shortbread cookies, sprinkled throughout the dough, also gives them a bit of chew and surprising flavor. These are pineapple chunks or diced dried pineapple I got in bulk at Sprouts. They are sweetened so they look like translucent gems, not the wrinkly dried up kind.
- Just a little bit of cornstarch gives shortbread cookies a subtle melt-in-your-mouth texture. You can skip it if you don’t have any without needing to make adjustments to the other ingredients.
Troubleshooting tips
Butter temperature: room temperature butter is typical for any recipes calling for softened butter. But for shortbread, I do like to let it soften a bit further than that. Extra soft butter is easier to beat and to incorporate flour. However, if your butter is too soft, you can end up with a very soft dough which can be a little bit difficult to shape and roll into a log.
Crumbly dough: I don’t anticipate you’ll run into this issue with this particular recipe because it also contains honey which adds a little bit of liquid and thin out the dough. Some readers run into this problem when working with shortbread doughs that have more drying ingredients like my matcha shortbread and chocolate espresso shortbread. But if you do encounter crumbly dough, add a splash or two of water and continue mixing, it should come together, similar to the way you would make pie dough.
Chill the dough: freshly made shortbread dough can be quite soft, chilling is necessary to allow the dough to harden up which makes it easier to cut. Also, cold dough will not spread as much in the oven.
Hungry for more?
Rosemary Shortbread Cookie Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 oz (227 g) unsalted butter, softened
- ⅔ cup (135 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon (42 g) honey
- 1 teaspoon (5 g) pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 ¼ cup (300 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon (18 g) cornstarch
- ¼ cup (46 g) chopped dried sweetened pineapple
- Extra granulated sugar for topping
Instructions
- Cream wet ingredients together – Add softened butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, salt and rosemary to a stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is thoroughly incorporated and creamy.8 oz unsalted butter, ⅔ cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
- Add dry ingredients – Sift flour and cornstarch into another mixing bowl, and whisk to distribute evenly. Add the mixture into the stand mixer bowl with the creamed butter. Toss in dried pineapple and stir to combine, then increase the mixer speed and beat until no trace of flour remains and the dough is formed.2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoon cornstarch, ¼ cup chopped dried sweetened pineapple
- Form the logs – Place 2 long pieces of plastic wrap flat on the countertop. Divide cookie dough into 2 equal portions. Roll each portion on top of the plastic wrap into a log about 6” in length. Wrap it up and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before baking.
- Slice the cookies – Use a sharp knife to slice each cookie dough log into 12 cookies about ½” thick. Rewrap in the same plastic and place them in the freezer for about 15 minutes, while the oven preheats.
- Preheat the oven – Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
- Bake – Place 12 cookies on a large lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle granulated sugar on top and bake 1 batch at a time for about 20 minutes, until the edges on the cookies are golden brown.Extra granulated sugar for topping
- Cool – Remove the baking sheet from the oven, but allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet to finish baking from the residual heat for 5-10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Storing baked cookies: store your rosemary shortbread cookies in an airtight container at room temp for up to a week.
- Storing cookie dough: Unbaked shortbread dough can be kept refrigerated for 3-4 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. It is best to slice the log first before freezing.
- Baking frozen dough: no need to thaw frozen cookie dough, you can bake directly from the freezer.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Perfect texture, perfect flavour! I will be using the base ingredients and trying different flavour combinations with dried fruit and spices. Thankyou, I love this recipe!
Thank you so much, Chessy!