Shortbread over time
331 of the 433 recipes carry a publication date, from 1999 to 2026. Below: how many pages each year, whether the typical pan changed between the oldest and newest, and the oldest and newest pages themselves.
A date here is the one the page gives for itself: when it was published, or last updated. Sites often refresh an old recipe and its date together, so read these as when the pages went up, not when the recipes were created.
Recipes per year
Dated pages by the year they give. The first bar gathers the 2 pages from before 2007. Shading marks the periods compared below.
How the typical pan changed
Between shortbread pages dated before 2016 and those dated 2023 or later, the median butter rose from 78% to 87% of the flour weight. Sugar, starch and salt show no clear change.
| Per 100 g flour | Before 201680 recipes | 2016 to 201977 recipes | 2020 to 202278 recipes | 2023 and later96 recipes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ButterHigher | 78% | 78% | 85% | 87% |
| SugarNo clear change | 40% | 40% | 40% | 39% |
| StarchNo clear change | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| SaltNo clear change | 0.1% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.4% |
Each cell is the median baker's percentage in that period: grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour. Higher and lower compare the newest period with the oldest, only where the change is clear (see how below). Periods are cut at year boundaries so each holds about the same number of recipes.
Oldest and newest pages
Oldest dates
Jan 20, 1999
Shortbread · oetker.deJan 1, 2000
Shortbread fingers · cuisineaz.comApr 1, 2008
Ginger Shortbread Cookies · bettycrocker.comNov 20, 2008
Shortbread aux raisins secs · ptitchef.comFeb 15, 2009
Shortbread · bettybossi.ch
Newest dates
Sep 21, 2026
Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies · beyondfrosting.comSep 17, 2026
Shortbread Bites · oetker.deAug 9, 2026
Pecan Shortbread Cookies · beyondfrosting.comMay 26, 2026
Kesar Pista Shortbread Cookies Recipe · whiskaffair.comApr 15, 2026
Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies Recipe · shugarysweets.com
How the dates are read
Each date is the publication date in the recipe page's own structured data. 66 of the 433 recipes have none, or one without a year (such as “December 3”), and are left out.
36 more carry a date their site gave to many pages at once, which marks a site move or redesign rather than a publication: 2018-01-01 on tasteofhome.com (222 pages across Recipe Lab, 11 of them here), 2006-10-23 on marmiton.org (74 pages across Recipe Lab, 5 of them here) and 2025-08-24 on cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr (7 pages across Recipe Lab, 5 of them here), and 10 more like it. They are left out too.
A change counts as clear when the newest period's median differs from the oldest period's by at least a tenth and a rank test puts the gap at 2.5 standard errors or more. For the share of recipes using an ingredient, the bar is 3 standard errors and 8 percentage points. Every ingredient is tested, so a lower bar would flag chance differences on most pages.
2026 is still in progress, so its bar is short for a reason that has nothing to do with baking.