Almond Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

More often than not, I love jam cookies. If it's a bow tie cookie or a linzer cookie, I love the combination of a shortbread style cookie with sweet jam. This recipe proved to be yet another tasty jam treat. I was a little skeptical making these since the dough was drier and more crumbly than I am used to, but bear with it and you will probably love these cookies too. Ideally, you'd make these with a square or round cookie cutter. But oddly enough I could not find a simple shape anywhere, so I opted for stars. Feel free to use whatever jam you like in these cookies. I love raspberry jam, but stick with your personal preference.

Recipe from Fine Cooking

For the cookies:
8 ounces (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut in to 1/2" pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces (2-1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
3-3/4 ounces (3/4 cup) finely ground almonds

For decorating:
Raspberry, plum, sour cherry or strawberry jam
confectioners sugar

Line 2 baking sheets with a silicone mat or parchment paper (or grease a cookie sheet if these are not available). In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar and salt. Using the paddle attachment, mix on love until the butter and sugar combined, but not yet perfectly smooth, about 1 or 2 minutes. Keeping your speed at low, add the flour and almonds to the bowl, scraping the bowl frequently, until the dough just comes together. Be careful not to over mix.

Lightly flours your work surface and roll the dough out to about 1/8" or 1/4" thickness. The skinnier the cookies the better the sandwich will stick together since they puff up slightly when baking. Make sure your cookies are a uniform thickness.

Cut out as many cookies as us can using your cookie cutter of choice, preferably square or round to maximize the dough already rolled out. Press the remaining scraps to dough together and roll out, cutting out more shapes. Using a small circular or square cookie cutter (I improvised and used the cap of an empty vanilla extract bottle), cut out the center of half of the cookies to make the sandwich tops. Arrange the cookies on your baking sheets.Chill for 20 minutes in your fridge.

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 300F/150C. Bake your cookies until golden brown, which can take between 25 minutes to 45 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheets after 15 minutes of baking. If your cookies bake quicker than 30 minutes, reduce your oven temperature to 275F for the remaining batches. If it took you over 1 hour to bake the cookies, increase the heat to 325F for the remaining batches.

Allow your cookies to cool completely before assembling. Dust all to tops of your cookies with confectioners sugar. On the base of your cookies, dab a small amount of jam in the center and spreads it out to just before the edges. Place the tops over the jam covered bottom cookies. The jam will remain soft for 1 or 2 days, but will firm up after this. Once done, these cookies are very sturdy and can keep for a couple of weeks. Pin It Now!