Gluten-Free Savory Shortbread Crackers

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These rich, buttery, savory gluten free shortbread crackers are perfect served as a nibble during cocktail hour, or alongside a cheese plate for dessert. Feel free to experiment with different combination of herbs, cheeses and nuts to make them truly your own.

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Gluten Free Savory Shortbread Crackers

Recipe card updated 4/15/24.

The choice between sweet or salty, for me, is an easy one. I choose salt every time. Call me crazy, but I’d rather have more dinner for dessert, than dessert. So when I first tasted savory shortbread crackers, made from a Barefoot Contessa recipe before I had gone gluten-free, I was instantly deeply, madly, passionately in love. They have the texture of a buttery, shortbread cookie, with the taste of a cracker. They are the perfect nibble with a cocktail, but I think they are even better as part of a cheese plate served for dessert.

I’d been mourning their loss since my celiac diagnoses, and throughout the past couple of years I half-heartedly tried to recreate them, each time making cookies worthy of the New York Times Magazine’s “Meh List.” But today, I decided to make a savory Tapenade Tomato Tart for book club. And guess what? The leftover tart dough, a pâte brisée made with a touch of goat butter, made the most amazing, gluten-free savory shortbread crackers I had ever tasted. Like ever. Incidentally, I don’t think the tart will be half bad either.

Gluten Free Savory Shortbread Crackers
Gluten Free Savory Shortbread Crackers


I chose to make these gluten-free savory shortbread crackers with rosemary, Parmesan cheese and sea salt, however they would be smashing with blue cheese & walnuts as well. If you like pine nuts (I absolutely do not), then try swapping them for the almonds in the recipe featured below.

Love gluten free appetizers? Try these recipes!

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Gluten Free Savory Shortbread Crackers

Gluten-Free Savory Shortbread Crackers

Alison Needham
These rich, buttery cookies are perfect served as a nibble during cocktail hour, or alongside a cheese plate for dessert. Feel free to experiment with different combination of herbs, cheeses and nuts to make them truly your own.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 14 minutes
Total Time 24 minutes
Course Appetizer
Cuisine American
Servings 30 crackers
Calories 60 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

Instructions
 

  • Whiz the dry ingredients, plus the rosemary and cheese together in a food processor fitted with a steel-blade attachment. Add the goat butter, and regular butter and pulse until the mixture becomes sandy. Carefully drizzle the egg into the mixture while pulsing just until the dough turns on itself. Remove dough from processor, shape into a log, wrap with plastic and freeze for 30 minutes, or until firm.
  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cut the log into ¼ inch slices and set on the prepared sheet, about ½ inch apart. Press a couple of slivered almonds into each cookie and lightly sprinkle the tops with sea salt. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are lightly golden brown.
  • Let cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

What if you cannot find, or don’t like goat butter? No problem – just swap it out for regular butter.

Nutrition

Serving: 5crackersCalories: 60kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 1gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.3gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 14mgSodium: 24mgPotassium: 19mgFiber: 0.3gSugar: 0.2gVitamin A: 108IUVitamin C: 0.002mgCalcium: 14mgIron: 0.2mg
Keyword Gluten Free Crackers, savory shortbread, shortbread crackers
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13 Comments

  1. I absolutely love shortbread. I didn’t think that I would come across a recipe for shortbread that would follow a gluten free diet – thanks for the great recipe.

  2. Why do you need so many different flours and what is the xanthan gum for?
    Could you use qinoua and/ or almond flour.
    Thank you.
    Cindy

    1. Hi Cindy, so many different flours are required to give the shortbread a light, crisp texture. Each flour has a unique property that contributes to the overall taste and texture of the cookie. The xanthan gum binds it all together. Without it, the cookies would crumble apart because it lacks gluten, which typically binds baked goods together. You can try replacing the millet or sorghum flours with quinoa or almond flour. However, I can’t guarantee the results. Please let me know if you do and how it turns out. Good luck. 🙂

  3. Hi..so i guess with the reply you gave to cindy…i cannot substitute all the flours with gluten free bread flour? it’s hard to find them all in my country.

  4. Kathy Morgan says:

    I couldn’t get the sorghum or millet flour, but the wonderful man at the health food store suggested I replace them with buckwheat. Excellent! I’ve made them twice now for my brother-in-law who loves them.

    1. Hey Kathy! So glad the buckwheat was a good substitute! I’ll have to try them that way myself. 🙂

  5. Hi Alison,

    I’m definitely a lover of everything salty and savory, but can I ask you also for non gluten-free version of this recipe? Did someone tried to make it non gluten-free maybe? 40 ears ago I was treated with alternative cure for celiac disease and since then I’m really celiac free- every years tests by doctors confirms that absolutely. But I’ll surely try also this gluten-free version for the readers of my blog with recipes over the sea- in Slovakia and point them to your site.

    Thank you very much for sharing this recipe and maybe for NON gluten-free alternative.

    Zuzana

  6. I recently found out that I have high levels of arsenic in my bloodstream from all the rice I eat. It was pretty scary news. So I am now eliminating all rice flours in my diet. What do you think I can substitute for the small amount of sweet rice flour in this recipe? And I am now going to be looking at all my gluten free baking recipes to either toss them or change them. Thank you.

    1. Hi Alene – that is scary news! Since it calls for such a small amount of the sweet rice flour, I think that substituting with either additional sorghum or millet would work fine. Good luck!

  7. I found out I was coeliac 2 years ago and have been searching ever since for a gluten free recipe for my favourite savoury fix – parmesan sables. Everything I tried crumbled without gluten to bind it together. Then I stumbled across this recipe. “Crackers” confused me (I’m English), but I gave the recipe a go and they came out perfectly: a buttery shortbread texture but held together brilliantly. It was an effort to find all the ingredients, but very worth it. I’ve since experimented adding a little cayenne and mustard powder for kick – so good. Being GF can be tricky, especially when trying to recreate recipes containing gluten you’ve loved in the past, but this recipe is a winner. Thank you.

  8. Becky Johnson says:

    Would it be possible to use a “standard GF flour, like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 or King Arthur Measure-for-Measure? They contain most of your ingredients. Both contain Xantham.

    1. I haven’t tried it – but it would probably work. I think a very light and starchy blend would be best, like Cup4Cup, but it might work with Bob’s and King Arthurs too. Let us know if you try it and how they turn out!

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