Murray Sugar Free Shortbread

With about 130 calories and 5 grams of fat per serving, Murray Sugar Free Shortbread is somewhat healthier than other shortbread on the market, but it also is shorter on the flavor.

Pros:

• Plenty of cookies in a package
• Big crunch in each bite
• No artificial aftertaste

Cons:

• Lacking butter flavor
• Not that much healthier than other shortbread on the market
• May create a laxative effect in people with sensitive stomachs

Description:

• Splenda sweetened shortbread cookies
• About 130 calories, 5 grams of fat, 21 grams of carbs, and 4 grams of sugar alcohol per serving (8 pieces)
• About $1.99 per 6 ounce package

Shortbread is a traditional Scottish biscuit made of three primary ingredients: butter, flour, and sugar. There is no fuss or muss with additional ingredients like chocolate chips or raisins as shortbread should have a rich buttery flavor complemented by a big crunch and crumbly texture. Some of the most notable brands for shortbread are Nabisco's Lorna Doone cookies, the Girl Scouts' Trefoils, and Walkers Shortbread. While all three brands are significantly different, they each capture the biscuit-like nature of shortbread and deliver on the buttery goodness. Today, I am looking at the Murray Sugar Free Shortbread to see if it can complete with the aforementioned products in their shared qualities.

When I first opened the Murray Sugar Free Shortbread package, I immediately noticed that there seemed to be a multitude of cookies inside. One issue I have with many sugar free products is that compared to their sugared counterparts, often the sugar free products come in a much smaller package or number. However, this is not the case with the Murray Shortbread as 40 little cookies come in each pack.

Moving on to the cookies themselves, each thin, flower-shaped cookie had a dark gold color. They were not as yellow as I expected and had light brown touches toward the edges. They did not look unappealing, but they also did not look as enticing as the delightful cookies buttery cookies on the cover.

As I grabbed a cookie and took a bite, the cookie gave off a solid buttery aroma, but I noticed that the buttery flavor did not kick in until I was almost done with the cookie. I thought this was strange and thought maybe I was not paying attention; however, I kept trying more and determined that the rich buttery flavor normally accustomed to shortbread just was not with this product. There is certainly some butter flavor, but there just is not enough per cookie.

While the flavor was somewhat lacking, I found that the texture and consistency of the Murray Sugar Free Shortbread was good. Each cookie was crunchy and had a dry crumbly texture once bitten into. Not necessarily as flaky or crumbly as rich shortbread like Walkers, but the cookies still had a pleasant texture.

Overall, I think Murray Sugar Free Shortbread is an average product. One gets a lot of cookies for the price, but the shortbread certainly would not be a product I would crave or desire given how subtle the buttery flavor is per cookie. There is nothing off-putting about the product such as an unpleasant aftertaste, but there just is not enough there supporting the product to make me want to buy them again.