Scotch cookies

So, apparently, Scotch cookies are a Prince Edward Island thing.  When you Google "scotch cookies", the first three links that come up are from PEI.  Some Islanders also know them as scotch cakes.

I will let you in on a secret.  They aren't really just a PEI thing... the rest of the world knows and loves these cookies as shortbread.

Regardless, they are a tradition in my family's home over the holidays.  We recently whipped up a batch.

The recipe has been handed down and has morphed over the years, depending on how tight money was at the time.  The current recipe is similar to the hand-written one above, with a few changes:

Scotch Cookies


1 cup butter
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 cups flour
pinch of salt
icing to decorate, if desired


Cream butter, yolks, and vanilla together in a bowl.  Add icing sugar and combine.  Add flour and salt and mix.  Form dough into ball.  Roll out thin - about 7 mm or desired thickness.  Cut with cookie cutter.   Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit until bottom edges of cookies are golden brown (about 15 minutes).  Once cooled, decorate with icing.  Cookies freeze well if layered between sheets of wax paper.  Depending on your cookie cutter, you might get about three dozen cookies out of this recipe.

My mom's mom's baking spoon has been handed down to us and that's the one our scotch cookies are made with every Christmas.



Continuing on with tradition, this cookie cutter has also been around for an eon.  It is made from an old pizza sauce can, back when the cans were super tiny!  I don't know what would come in a can that size now.

Again, here is the finished product.  Melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookies!