These easy strawberry shortbread sandwich cookies look a lot like Linzer cookies, but they are nut free and egg free. They are vanilla scented with a buttery melt-in-your-mouth texture and you only need 6 simple ingredients to make them.
I seem to have a thing for strawberry cookies, these strawberry sandwich cookies with cream cheese being a sure sign of that. This recipe is similar, but much simpler. It’s an easy recipe for 5-ingredient vanilla shortbread cookies with strawberry jam, which is also the easiest filling you can use in cookies.
I like the slightly tart, yet sweet combination of strawberry jam and buttery vanilla cookies. Like vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce or strawberry cream pie. It’s a popular combination for a reason, familiar yet still exciting.
Because I like to make cute cookies, just like these Italian peaches or my red mushroom cookies, I also added pink strawberry powder on top. Shortbread cookies don’t really need a dusting of sugar, they’re plenty sweet. But I like how they look with a sprinkle of pink and that’s a good enough excuse to do something extra.
I make pink strawberry sugar with a mix of powdered sugar and freeze dried strawberries. A few blitzes in a blender is all it takes to make pink powder. Because strawberries are freeze dried, they still have their potent aroma and flavor. It’s the perfect pairing for the powdered sugar and it tastes amazing atop rich shortbread.
A note on baking
While these strawberry shortbread cookies are easy to make, they are a bit time consuming. What I mean is that you have to wait for the dough to harden in the refrigerator. And once you roll out the cookies, you have to wait some more.
Shortbread cookie dough is very soft when you make it. You need softened butter so it’s easy to mix, but it’s not the best to roll out. Also, soft buttery dough spreads too much in the oven, so once your cookies are cut out, you need the butter to get cold again.
Cold temperature of the refrigerator stiffens the dough and that will give you perfectly shaped baked cookies. And honestly there’s something very calming and satisfying in taking the time to actually bake something and do it right.
Once they hit the oven, the cookies are baked quickly, in just 8-10 minutes. And they cool relatively quickly too, so once you have them all ready, the assembly takes no time at all. The reward is the most tender and flavorful strawberry jam shortbread cookies.
More berry recipes to explore
- Raspberry cheesecake doughnuts (The softest brioche doughnuts with an incredible raspberry cream cheese filling.)
- Freeze dried strawberry cookies (Amazing lemon sandwich cookies made with freeze dried strawberries and cream cheese.)
- Blueberry pie cookies (These are like pie but cut in bars with a buttery shortbread crust and a jam-like filling.)
- Blueberry mascarpone tart (A favorite for dinner parties, this is incredibly flavorful with a fluffy mascarpone filling and jammy blueberries on top.)
- Whipped mascarpone strawberry cups (A simple no bake dessert using fresh strawberries, store-bough cake and whipped mascarpone.)
Recipe
Strawberry shortbread sandwich cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt I am using fine sea salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup freeze dried strawberries
- 1/2 cup strawberry jam
Instructions
- Place butter and sugar in a large bowl or bowl of your stand mixer. Mix on low speed for about 3 minutes, until the butter is soft and fluffy.
- Mix in vanilla and salt, then add half of the flour. Mix on low speed until incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the rest of the flour and keep mixing until the batter is smooth.
- Divide dough in 2 equal pieces and wrap each piece in cling film (or parchment paper), patting it into a 1-inch (2.5 cm) thick disk. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to 5 days ahead.
- Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Take once disc of dough from the refrigerator and allow it to warm up for about 15 minutes. Then roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper so it’s about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick.
- Using a round cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as possible. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving some space between all the cookies, and chill them in the refrigerator while you roll out the other half of the dough.
- Take the other disc of dough and roll it out as you did the first. Cut out as many circles as possible, ideally the same number as before. Then cut out a heart (or circle) from the interior of circles, creating sort of a donut shape that will become the top of the cookie.Place these cookies on another lined baking sheet, along with the smaller cut out hearts, and place it in the refrigerator to chill. At the same time, take out your first batch of chilled cookies.
- Bake the first batch of cookies in the center of the oven for 8-10 minutes (depending on size) until they’re golden brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven and allow to set on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a plate.
- Bake the second batch of cookies for 8-10 minutes and allow these to set on the baking sheet as well. Continue with the rest of the dough in the same manner until you’ve baked all the cookies.
- Knead together any scraps of dough that you have leftover and combine them into a disc. Chill it again if needed, then roll out more cookies.
- To make pink sugar, combine powdered sugar and freeze dried strawberries in a blender. Blend on high speed until you get a pink dust. Using a fine mesh sieve, dust the cut-out cookies.
- To make sandwich cookies, spread about a teaspoon of strawberry jam onto larger circles. Place dusted cookies on top of the jam. Keep cookies in a covered container at room temperature and eat within 2-3 days.