If there’s one thing we do well in Scotland, it’s shortbread.

A good shortbread recipe should be buttery, crumbly, and just melt-in-your-mouth simple. No fuss, no drama, just quality ingredients doing their thing.

Recently, though, I kept seeing people going mad for the M&S chocolate shortbread… and fair enough, it is good. The problem is that you can never actually find it when you want it. Every time I go in, it’s either sold out.

So I decided to make my own double chocolate version at home. Why settle for just milk chocolate when you can have white as well, right?

Safe to say… I’m not going back.

This shortbread recipe is richer, more chocolatey, and dangerously easy to eat straight off the tray, so let me show you how I did it.

Why My Double Chocolate Button Shortbread Is The Perfect Recipe

Like I said, the M&S chocolate shortbread is good, but I always felt like it was missing that true shortbread crumble. It leans a little firm and polished, like it’s been ironed flat when it should feel more like it’s falling apart in your hands.

This shortbread recipe fixes that completely. It’s soft, buttery, and melts in your mouth like it disappears before you’ve even finished the bite.

Us Scots are a bit particular about shortbread, and for good reason, it’s one of those bakes where there’s nowhere to hide. No fancy techniques, no distractions. Just a handful of ingredients and judging how well you treat them.

If it’s wrong, you taste it immediately.

A big part of that signature texture comes from cornflour.

Think of it like turning down the “strength” dial on plain flour.

It softens everything so the crumb becomes delicate and almost sandy. That’s what gives proper shortbread that melt-away finish instead of a crunchy bite.

Then there’s the butter… arguably the whole personality of the bake.

It needs to be cool but soft enough to cream. Too warm and it goes greasy, too cold and it won’t incorporate properly. Getting that balance right, and it behaves like velvet, rich, smooth, and carries everything else with it.

Now that you know what makes this work, let’s get into the ingredients for my shortbread recipe…

Ingredients For The Perfect Shortbread

This is one of those recipes where every ingredient actually has a job to do. Nothing is just “there for the sake of it.” Shortbread is simple, so each element quietly carries its weight.

Butter

This is the soul of the recipe. Butter is what gives shortbread that rich, melt-in-your-mouth finish. When it bakes, it carries all the flavour like a warm blanket wrapping everything together.

Plain flour

This is your structure. Think of it as the frame of the biscuit. Its job is to hold everything in place without making it heavy or dense.

Cornflour

This is the texture magic. Cornflour softens the crumb, so instead of being firm or chewy, it breaks apart like delicate sand that melts as soon as it hits your tongue.

Sugar

Obviously, it sweetens things, but it also adds texture. Sugar helps create that slight crisp edge while keeping the centre tender and balanced.

Pinch of salt

This is the quiet enhancer. It sharpens the chocolate and butter so the flavour doesn’t fall flat. It’s like turning a dim light up just enough to make everything suddenly feel richer and warmer.

White chocolate buttons

These add creamy sweetness and little pockets of softness throughout the biscuit, almost like bursts of vanilla-like richness.

Milk chocolate buttons

This is the classic chocolate hit. They melt into little pools that contrast beautifully with the buttery base.

Now that you’ve got everything you need, let’s look at a few simple ways to swap things around or add your own twist if you fancy experimenting

If You Need To Swap Or Spice Things Up!

This recipe is pretty forgiving, which is part of the reason I like it so much. Once you’ve got the base right, you can start playing around without breaking what makes it work.

One of the easiest swaps is the chocolate.

I’ve used buttons here because they melt into neat little pockets, but you can absolutely use chunks instead.

Buttons tend to hold their shape a bit more, so you get these slightly firmer, almost chewy-crunchy bursts of chocolate throughout the biscuit.

Chunks, on the other hand, melt more freely and give you those softer, more uneven pools of chocolate that feel a bit more indulgent and rustic. Neither is better, it’s just a different vibe depending on what you’re after.

If you want to change things up further, a few simple tweaks work really well:

A pinch of sea salt sprinkled on top before baking gives you that sweet-salty contrast that makes the chocolate feel even richer.

A little orange zest mixed into the dough adds a subtle brightness that cuts through the butter beautifully, like chocolate orange but more grown-up.
You could also swap the milk chocolate for dark chocolate if you want something a bit deeper and less sweet, or even mix in white chocolate chunks for extra contrast and sweetness.
A tiny handful of crushed biscuits or caramel pieces folded through the dough can push it closer to a bakery-style “loaded” shortbread.

Once you’ve played around with this shortbread recipe and made it your own, the next thing is knowing how to serve it at its best and keep it fresh

Serving And Storing Your Double Chocolate Shortbread

This is the kind of bake that doesn’t need dressing up.

Picture a coffee in hand while rain hammers the window outside, and for a moment, everything slows down, just you, your coffee, and a piece of shortbread. That soft, buttery moment that somehow makes the world feel a bit more manageable.

For storing, keep it in an airtight container at room temperature. It’ll stay good for about a week, but like most shortbread, it actually gets better after a day or two. The butter settles, the chocolate softens, and everything just feels a bit more rounded and “together”, like it’s found its rhythm.

Freezing works really well too.

You can freeze the baked shortbread once it’s completely cool, layered with baking paper so the pieces don’t stick together, and it’ll keep for up to two months.

Or freeze the dough if you want that fresh-baked moment later. If you freeze it in shape, you can just bake it straight from frozen and give it a couple of extra minutes in the oven.

When it comes to thawing, just let it sit at room temperature, and it will come back to that soft, buttery texture naturally. If you want that slightly warm, just-baked feel again, a few seconds in the microwave brings it right back to life like it’s fresh from the oven.

That’s what makes this shortbread recipe worth coming back to again and again.