These Cuban shortbread cookies are called torticas de Morón in Spanish, named for the city of Morón in the center of the island. This is where the cookies were first made. These delightful shortbread cookies get their dark color from brown sugar. They also get quite the flavor boost from lime zest and lime juice.

All these flavors together in a rich, buttery base make for some truly spectacular cookies.

You’ll need to roll the soft dough into a log and then refrigerate it before slicing into rounds. The reason to do it this way is that the dough might not keep its shape in the oven if it doesn’t go in cold.

The high butter content ensures that these cookies will melt or spread pretty easily, but the brown sugar intensifies this effect.

Once these are cut lay them out on a parchment-lined baking sheet. This will help you to remove them once they’re out of the oven.

Then brush a bit of milk on top and sprinkle with some white sugar. You could also use egg white if you prefer, but I find the milk creates a lighter and more uniform top to the cookies. When combined with the sugar it’s almost like you’re pre-glazing the cookies and so you don’t need to ice them afterwards.

Once these have baked allow them to cool in the pan for a bit before carefully moving them to a wire cooling rack. These cookies are very delicate before they’ve fully cooled.

Unlike Scottish shortbred which can be crispier, these are softer and more crumbly in texture which means they melt in your mouth in a most delightful way.

This recipe only makes about 12-14 cookies at a time so double up if you want to feed a lot of people. But, for smaller events and family night this recipe is great because we don’t have 45 cookies to get rid of!

For a new way to enjoy a classic these Cuban shortbread cookies are incredible. And, let’s face it- most of us would take any excuse at all to try some shortbread!