Traditional Scottish Shortbread fingers – dairy-free recipe

By lucylox on January 25, 2025

Some things are quintessentially Scottish and shortbread (along with whiskey, bagpipes, tartan and haggis) is one of those things. Today it's Burns Night and whilst we're not Scottish, we're celebrating with friends and so some traditional Scottish shortbread is needed to round off the evening! We'll also be having MacSween's vegetarian haggis, have you ever tried it? It's super delicious and packed full of veg, pulses, oats, seeds and spices. I was so sceptical the first time i was offered if, because obviously traditional haggis is a vegetarian's nightmare, but i'm now a big fan of veggie haggis!

Scottish shortbread is a majestic biscuit - crisp yet crumbly, full of buttery flavour and topped with a sprinkle of sugar. This is real honest, traditional baking and you can see why these kind of recipes and bakes last the test of time. But it does really rely on the butter to make it what it is, so is it possible to make a real traditional style shortbread with no dairy? I have other, more refined shortbread style recipes on my website but i really wanted a rustic, traditional style, like your Scottish great aunt might make when you came to visit.

Since this is a diary-free recipe i wanted to make sure the buttery richness wasn't missed, so i've used a dairy-free butter you'd find in a wrapper as it has a higher fat content, which gives more richness to the recipe. The use of custard powder as well as vanilla extract gives a deep vanilla flavour, making these rather delectable little sweet morsels.

This is another small batch recipe - i'm really into making smaller quantities at the moment, and i think it might make recipes suitable for more people. Not everyone wants overflowing cake stands and biscuits tins! This recipe makes enough for a 2lb loaf tin (that's the size of a standard loaf tin) and makes about 16 shortbread fingers; i reckon that's keep a small family or a couple happy for a fair few days! However, if you want to make a bigger batch for say a 24cm square brownie tin, then just double the recipe.

Make sure you cut the shortbread into fingers whilst it's still warm, it will crumble a little but if you wait until it cools it will crumble even more. But honestly, don't worry about a few crumbles, it just shows you've got a wonderfully short texture which makes these some really fabulous shortbread biscuits.

I've added a handful of chocolate chips but that's entirely optional - i really like them as an addition but this intensely vanilla shortbread is just as delicious without.

Traditional Scottish Shortbread

dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan

2 lb loaf tin

110 g plain flour
30 g cornflour
30 g custard powder
1/2 tsp salt
60 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
110 g dairy-free butter (melted)
20 g chocolate chips (optional)
1-2 tbsp caster sugar (for sprinkling)

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Line the loaf tin with baking paper
In a large bowl combine the flour, cornflour and salt. Whisk to lighten and combine.
Stir in the sugar
Pour in the melted butter and mix together to form a soft dough.
Stir in the chocolate chips, if using.
press into the lined tin and prick all over with a fork
Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly golden
Remove from the oven and immediately cut into fingers with a round ended knife
Sprinkle with the additional sugar and leave to cool
Once cool break into fingers and enjoy. These biscuits will keep for about 1 week in a seed container.