Shortbread is a traditional Scottish biscuit made with a high ratio of butter to flour and sugar, giving it a distinctive rich, crumbly texture. It is high in saturated fat from butter (~20–25g/100g) and free sugars, and provides modest amounts of calcium and iron. Energy content is around 480–500 kcal/100g, making it one of the most calorie-dense biscuits. It contains no eggs and is leavened only by the butter fat.
A classic shortbread ratio is 3:2:1 — three parts flour to two parts butter to one part caster sugar. Work the dough as little as possible once combined to keep the texture crumbly rather than tough, and bake at a low temperature (160–170°C) until just pale gold.
Where Shortbread Stands Out
Macronutrients per 100g
Vitamins & Minerals
* % Daily Value is the proportion of an adult
EU Nutrient Reference Value (NRV) supplied by 100g of this food.
NRVs are the labelling standard — the same basis as the “%RI” figures printed on
food packaging — so these percentages are directly comparable with a shop label.
They are a single adult figure and do not vary by age or sex, which is why they
sometimes differ from UK dietary reference values: the NRV for vitamin C is 80mg
where the UK RNI is 40mg. When Nutriofia assesses your own intake in the
reports and trackers, it uses the age- and sex-specific UK values instead.
Fibre is shown without a percentage. Our fibre values use the UK
Englyst NSP method, while the published 30g daily goal is an AOAC figure — the two
are measured differently and a single percentage would mislead.
How we source and normalise our data →