A few years ago I bought a humble little sandwich cookie at the cafe in the building where I used to
work, and its almondy-raspberry-crumbly-shortbreadiness has been in my head ever since. I meant to finally re-create this cookie and post it in time for Valentine’s Day (hence the hearts), but, well, it’s the end of March now, so you can see how that went. But these are definitely better late than never, and like most good cookies, are much more than the seemingly simple sum of their parts: two almond shortbread cookies perfumed with lemon zest, sandwiched with tart yet sweet raspberry jam, drizzled with creamy white chocolate.

The almond shortbread cookie part comes from an America’s Test Kitchen cookbook called “The Perfect Cookie”, and they are not lying: the cookies are crisp, just the right amount of sweet, and, well, perfect. Once combined with the raspberry jam and given a day or two in an airtight container for the flavours and textures to meld and mellow, their crispness gives way to a wonderfully sandy crumbliness and the jam thickens and becomes slightly chewy. Just delicious!

I have lamented in the past about sandwich cookies being finicky, but these ones made me reconsider my position because GOSH they were good. I made them a bit larger than I normally would (which in turn made them slightly less finicky, ha), and a single cookie was exactly the right size to enjoy with a cup of tea or as an after dinner treat. Or, let’s be honest here – as an after breakfast treat, too!

Raspberry Almond Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

Almond shortbread recipe adapted from The Perfect Cookie by America’s Test Kitchen, via Simple by Cindy. I got 18 cookies out of this batch, but the yield will depend on the size of your cookie cutter. Click here for a printable PDF of the recipe.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together until well-blended:

8 oz (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

3.5 oz (1/2 cup) granulated white sugar

Beat in:

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

pinch salt

In a medium bowl, whisk together:

10 oz (2 cups) all purpose flour

5 oz (1 1/2 cups) ground almonds

Add to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until well combined.

Gather the dough together into a disk and place between 2 sheets of parchment paper on your work surface. Roll out the dough between the parchment paper to about 1/4 inch thick. Slide the rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and place in the fridge to chill until completely firm, about 15-20 minutes.

Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and peel off the top piece of parchment paper. Replace it lightly, then flip the dough over, peel off the top piece of parchment paper (which was the bottom piece before you flipped it), and set it aside. This serves to loosen the dough from the parchment paper so you can move it easily to the cookie sheet once you have cut out the shapes.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a 2 or 2 1/4 inch round cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can from the chilled dough. While the dough is still cold, transfer them to the prepared baking sheet and arrange them about 2 inches apart. Keep the cut-out cookies in the fridge while you re-roll the scraps of dough between the parchment paper, chill, and cut out more cookies. (You can re-roll the dough as many times as necessary to use all of it, because you are not adding more flour each time you roll it out.)

Once you have all your round cookies cut, use a small heart-shaped cutter to cut a heart in the middle of half of them. (You can re-roll the hearts to make more full cookies, or just bake them off as mini cookies.)

Chill all the cookies while you preheat the oven to 350˚F (325˚F convection) with the racks in the top and bottom thirds. Bakes the cookies for about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until set in the middle and lightly brown around the edges. Cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Gather up all your heart cut-out cookies and spread them out on a sheet of waxed paper. Melt about 6 oz (1 cup) white chocolate (you can temper it if you’re feeling fancy) and place it in a piping bag. Cut a small hole in the tip of the bag and drizzle the cookies with the chocolate. Allow to set, then break off the overhanging chocolate from the edges of the cookies.

To finish, spread each whole cookie with about 1 tsp raspberry jam (you’ll need approx. 1/2 cup total). Top with a chocolate-drizzled cut-out cookie and press lightly to stick together.

Place in an airtight container (layer between wax paper) and allow to mellow for at least 24 hours before enjoying – this will improve the texture and taste. These cookies keep extremely well, for at least a week (if they last that long!).