Ted Lasso Shortbread! and! Raspberry Shortbread!

And the easiest brunch you can make.

My good friend Jen wrote me in a bit of a lather a few days ago. She’d searched and searched for my recipe for Ted Lasso shortbread and couldn’t find it anywhere. I searched too. It was a shortbread recipe good enough to make Ted Lasso proud. And it was nowhere to be found on this Substack.

(Would you do me the favor of clicking the heart-shaped “like” button. The more the merrier. Like cookies.)

You have Jen G. (and Ted L.) to thank for the revival of this recipe, found in a folder of old blog recipes (ah, blogs, those innocent, innocent days). I couldn’t help leave well enough alone, and upon rediscovering the recipe, I made a delightfully pink version that tastes of raspberries. Both the plain and raspberry versions are below.

“Ted Lasso,” season four will be back on August 5, 2026. In the meantime you can stock up on shortbread. While shortbread are nice warm, the blessing of shortbread is they get better with age. Here’s to all of us being like shortbread.

A few notes:

• Use the best butter you can. When I test butter in a recipe, my go-to is shortbread because the butter is the star of the show. I was lucky to receive a shipment of Challenge butter, which is churned twice daily with cream from family farms in California. You can find Challenge butter all across the U.S., so you don’t have to be special like I was and have it sent.

• My recipe calls for both granulated sugar and confectioner’s sugar. Granulated sugar adds lightness and confectioner’s sugar is there for added tenderness.

• The raspberry version uses freeze-dried raspberries and the result is an intensely flavored biscuit with a hint of tang. I love them. Of course you can use any freeze-dried fruit you like because you have free will. Strawberry would be fab. But you knew that. Any citrus zest added along with the granulated sugar would also be fabulous.

• To prepare the freeze-dried raspberries for the recipe, first pulverize them in a blender or food processor, then strain the seeds out of the mixture.

Plain And Simple Or Raspberry Shortbread

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printable recipe.

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Plain and Simple or Raspberry Shortbread

What You’ll Need:

an 8- or 9-inch (20- or 23-cm) square or round baking pan

8 ounces (2 sticks/226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1/4 cup (28 grams) confectioner’s sugar

2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt or Maldon sea salt.

(If making raspberry shortbread, you’ll need 1.1 ounces of freeze-dried raspberries, pulverized and sifted to remove the seeds. this is easier than it sounds)

Sugar for sprinkling on the top before baking.

What You’ll Do:

1. Heat the oven to 325°F/163°C. Line your baking pan of choice with a piece of parchment paper so it hangs over the edge to create “handles” to make lifting the biscuits out of the pan easier.

2. With a stand- or hand-mixer, cream the butter on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the granulated sugar. (If making the raspberry version, add the raspberry powder now with the granulated sugar.) Beat for about 3 minutes at medium-high speed, stopping once or twice to scrape down the bowl, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the confectioner’s sugar, flour and salt and mix until the dough is uniform and has formed small crumbs.

3. Pour the crumbs into prepared baking pan, and gently, like a wee kitten, press the dough evenly into the pan. Using a sharp knife, or pizza cutter, score the dough into even pieces, cutting down merely 1/8-inch. This makes the shortbread easier to cut after baking. Prick each shortbread biscuit with the tines of the fork. Sprinkle sugar across the top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until pale golden and just firm to the touch. Remember, timing is a fickle thing and depends on your oven/the color of your baking pan/biorhythms, etc.

4. Let cool for about 20 minutes, then, while still warm, cut the shortbread at the scored lines.

A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Brunchtime Dish

If you’re looking to celebrate yourself, or any maternal figures in your life on Mother’s Day, the above shortbread, along with this easiest brunch dish in the world —a recipe I published yesterday on The Contrarian—would make a pretty nifty last-minute meal.

A Make-Your-Own-Adventure Brunch Casserole

Over the past two weeks, I’ve read both Clutch and Yesteryear, two of the currently most popular fiction books. Anyone else out there read them? Thoughts? Please share below. And let me know how you’re doing, too.

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Looking to refresh your look this spring? Why not try this one-size-fits-all, but oh-so-attractive cookbook? Makes a great Mother’s Day gift

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