By Erin Brighton, www.campbrighton.com
My sister gave me a cookbook for Christmas called Homegrown – Cooking From New England Roots. I want to make every recipe in this book, but I started with dessert. Because, of course.
We have a lot of cookie recipes we love – like our Copycat Joanna Gaines’ Chocolate Chip Cookies, these soft M&M cookies, and even these ice cream sandwiches with Tate’s cookies.
But, in spite of all of our cookie cooking, we have never made shortbread! The recipe for shortbread chocolate cookie sandwiches sounded almost too easy so I went for it.
Friends, so easy!! So delicious!
I even made these gluten-free and you can’t even tell.
The main thing to know about making shortbread is you are going to need a lot of butter.
This recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter. So buttery!
Ingredients for Shortbread Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups GF all-purpose flour (King Arthur)
Ingredients for the Chocolate Ganache:
3/4 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate (70% cacao)
1/2 cup heavy cream
Sea salt
Directions for the shortbread cookies:
1. In a stand mixer, mix together butter, sugar, and sea salt on high until light and creamy – about 3 – 4 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to low and add egg yolk and vanilla.
3. Add flour and mix until combined. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least two hours.
Tips and Tricks For Making Shortbread Cookies:
The dough does need to chill for about 2 hours so it’s cold enough to roll out and then cut into perfect circles – I used a juice glass to cut out the circles. I rolled out half the dough at a time. The original directions say 1/2 inch thickness, but maybe even thinner is fine. My first batch was 1/2 inch thick and I think it was a little too thick. I made about 28-29 cookies with this recipe.
These cookies only take ten minutes to bake. Let cool and set aside. I tightly covered my cookies with plastic wrap and filled them with ganache the next day.
Directions for the ganache:
To make the ganache, warm 1/2 cup of heavy cream over medium low heat until bubbles form around the edge. Remove from heat and gently pour over 3/4 cup of semi sweet or dark (70%) chocolate. Try to use good chocolate for the ganache. Stir well until all the chocolate is completely melted. Add a pinch of sea salt. Set aside to cool.
Using a piping bag or just a butter knife,layer ganache on one side of your cookie and then layer another cookie on top to make a sandwich. I started to put the ganache on while it was cool, but still shiny. It worked fine! Just don’t put the ganache on while it’s still warm or it won’t stay on your cookie.
That’s it! Enjoy!
