These Christmas Shortbread Cookies are so easy to make and they are delicious because they are full of dried fruit and almonds, which everyone will love.

I actually made these Christmas cookies to use up some of the leftover ingredients I had when I made this year’s Christmas Cake.
Instead of dried fruit you can use “glyka tou koutaliou“, which are our Greek fruit preserves. However, in order to use them, as they are preserved in syrup, you should wash them first and let them dry before using them.
I created these cookies based on an older Shortbread Cookie recipe.
Ingredients needed to make these shortbread cookies:
- Unsalted Butter
- Icing Sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Vanillin Sugar
- Salt
- Ground Ginger
- Blanched Almonds
- Various Dried Fruit

Let’s make these easy Shortbread Cookies
- Blanch and roast the almonds. You can roast them in the oven but I chose to roast them in the air fryer.
- Sift the icing sugar in the bowl of your mixer.
- Cut the butter (should be at room temperature) into smaller pieces.
- Beat them together, initially at low speed and when the sugar has been mixed with the butter increase the speed to the highest.
- Beat for at least ten minutes, until white and fluffy.
- Half way through, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add the salt and Vanillin Sugar.
- Meantime, finely chop the dried fruit and the almonds. (I used dried papaya, citrus and apricots. Of course, you can add any dried fruit you prefer, but at least choose three different colours).
- Put them in a bowl, together with the finely chopped almonds, the ground ginger and part of the flour.
- Mix them well, so that the fruit will not stick together.
- Turn off the mixer and add the dried fruit and almonds.
- Mix with a spatula, adding the remaining flour.
- The dough should not stick to the hand.
- Divide the dough in two equal parts.
- Cut a piece of cling film around 30 – 35 cm and form it into a log around 5 cm in diametre.
- Wrap it in the cling film and try to give it a round shape.
- Put them on a flat surface and refrigerate them for at least half an hour. You can leave them in the fridge for as long as you like.
- Unwrap them and cut the dough with a sharp knife around 1 cm slices.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper and put them about 3 cm apart.
- Bake in a preheated fan forced oven to 160oC for 15 minutes.
- Store in an airtight container.

Easy Christmas Shortbread Cookies
These Christmas Shortbread Cookies are so easy to make and they are delicious because they are full of dried fruit and almonds, which everyone will love.
Ingredients
- 90 gr. blanched and roasted almonds
- 150 gr. icing sugar
- 150 gr. unsalted butter
- 20 gr, vanilla sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 gr. ground ginger
- 355 gr. all-purpose flour
- 70 gr. dried apricots
- 50 gr. dried green citrus
- 60 gr. dried papaya
Instructions
- Blanch and roast the almonds. You can roast them in the oven but I chose to roast them in the air fryer.
- Sift the icing sugar in the bowl of your mixer.
- Cut the butter into smaller pieces.
- Beat them together, initially at low speed and when the sugar has been mixed with the butter increase the speed to the highest.
- Beat for at least ten minutes, until white and fluffy.
- Half way through, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add the salt and Vanillin Sugar.
- Meantime, finely chop the dried fruit and the almonds.
- Put them in a bowl, together with the finely chopped almonds, the ground ginger and part of the flour.
- Mix them well, so that the fruit will not stick together.
- Turn off the mixer and add the dried fruit and almonds.
- Mix with a spatula, adding the remaining flour.
- The dough should not stick to the hand.
- Divide the dough in two equal parts.
- Cut a piece of cling film around 30 - 35 cm and form it into a log around 5 cm in diametre.
- Wrap it in the cling film and try to give it a round shape.
- Put them on a flat surface and refrigerate them for at least half an hour.
- ou can leave them in the fridge for as long as you like.
- Unwrap them and cut the dough with a sharp knife around 1 cm slices.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper and put them about 3 cm apart.
- Bake in a preheated fan forced oven to 160oC for 15 minutes.
- Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition Information
Yield 40 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 94Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 8mgSodium 27mgCarbohydrates 13gFiber 1gSugar 5gProtein 2g
"These values are automatically calculated and offered for guidance only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed."
Christmas Desserts
Looking for inspiration for this Christmas?
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Traditional Greek Baklavas
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Eggless Nanaimo Salepi (Sahlab) Bars
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Christmas Chocolate Carob Yule Log (Bûche de Noël)
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Chocolate Kourabiedes
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Aromatic Greek Kourabiedes
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Melt in your mouth Kourabiedes
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Black Lava Orange Gateau, A gourmet dessert made out of leftovers
This Black Lava Orange Gateau, is easy to make and was made out of leftover Christmas Cookies. Everyboday gets fed up of eating the same cookies for many days, so I decided to use my leftovers and make a new dessert which we enjoyed after the holidays!

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!
