Tender, buttery shortbread infused with Earl Grey tea and drizzled with a pretty-in-pink blood orange glaze. It’s an easy and oh so elegant cookie recipe that’s delicious on its own or served with tea.

The tea flavor is surprising, unexpected and utterly enchanting, subtle and perfectly balanced alongside the buttery cookie. The citrus glaze proves to be the perfect finish: highlighting the fragrant flavor of bergamot in addition to adding a pop of color to an otherwise bland-looking cookie bar (not that I always judge a cookie by its appearance, but, let’s face it, if I can make it prettier I will).

This recipe uses the same shortbread cookie base as my Chocolate Chip Shortbread and Cranberry Almond Shortbread Bars, which shows you just how versatile this shortbread recipe is. It’s quickly turning into one of my favorite cookie recipes, both for its flavor and flexibility but also for the fact that it’s just so darn easy.

To infuse the cookie with tea flavor, simply cut open a tea bag and add the contents to the shortbread dough (seriously, it’s that easy). You can also use loose leaf tea, though since it tends to be coarser I recommend grinding it with a mortar and pestle until it’s the consistency of ground black pepper.

Substitutions: black tea works here too, as does regular orange juice if blood oranges aren’t available to you (add a drop or two of pink food coloring and no one will know the difference). You can also make the glaze with milk or any other liquid instead of citrus juice, if you wanted to focus the flavors on just the tea, but I have to say the hint of citrus here is quite lovely.

While this isn’t technically a true shortbread (which doesn’t use eggs), rather it falls somewhere in between a shortbread and a sugar cookie, resulting in a soft and buttery texture that is downright addicting.

The dough is on the sticky side, so if you’re having trouble pressing it into the pan I recommend dusting your hands lightly with flour or even using a piece of plastic wrap to help spread the dough into an even layer. It’ll puff a bit when baking, but settle down again as it cools.

Can we talk again about just how versatile this shortbread is? This is the third variation I’ve posted here (I have to watch myself or this blog will become nothing but different flavors of shortbread), but truthfully, the possibilities are endless.

Make it your own

Mix up the flavors! This basic shortbread recipe serves as an excellent foundation for any number of additions, including extracts, spices or mix-ins (like chocolate chips or nuts).

Use whatever pan you’ve got! The recipe calls for an 8-inch square pan. You could also use a 9-inch round cake or tart pan, then cut into thin pizza-like wedges.

Cut loose. I cut my chocolate chip shortbread into sticks, perfect for dunking. These I opted for the elegant triangle (cut into 4×4 squares, then cut each square in half diagonally). You could also go for straight up squares as well, or even break out the cookie cutters if you really wanted to get fancy.