After I started making these I remembered why I hate cut out cookies. I can never get the shapes to be perfect! Besides that small part they are fun to make. Different fillings and different shapes the possibilities are pretty much endless.
I did strawberry jam centers with cookie icing (the bottled kind from Wilton) drizzled on top and melted chocolate mixed with peanut butter drizzled with peanut butter on top.
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This is about as neat as I can decorate
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This is the second recipe I made from Fiona's Bake & Decorate book and I'm really glad I picked this one. The salty chocolate and peanut butter filling I made are melt in your mouth delicious.
Shortbread
from Fiona Cairns Bake & Decorate with permission from Quadrille
Ingredients
500g salted butter
200g golden caster sugar (I could only find golden granulated sugar)
500g plain flour, plus more for dusting
250g cornflour
1/2 tsp vanilla (plus seeds of one pod)
1. Preheat the oven to 170 C. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, mix together the butter, vanilla and sugar until combined.
I tried to pulse the sugar to make it a bit finer but it didn't really work
2. Sift together the flour and cornflour and add to the butter mixture in batches mixing in between until bound together.
3. Flour your hands and knead until smooth.Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes minimum.
4. On a lightly floured surface or between 2 layers of clingfilm roll the dough 3-4mm thick.
5. Using a large cookie cutter cut as many shapes as possible out of the dough. Re rolling the scraps if necessary. Place the cutouts on 2 baking sheets a few inches a part. Place on parchment paper if using a non stick pan.
6. Cut out a smaller shape in half of the cut outs if you want shortbread sandwiches with "windows". Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack.
7. Drizzle the cookie icing (or royal icing) over the shortbreads with windows. Once dry spread the filing onto the other shortbreads and sandwich together. I was too impatient and drizzled the icing over at the end. This is why I'm a terrible decorator. I want to eat what I've baked straight away!
Someone who shall remain nameless kept chucking the whole cookies in the melted chocolate before I could finish sandwiching them.
Filling Options
Nutella
Jam
Peanut Butter
Lemon Curd
I used Strawberry jam on half and a few squares of chocolate melted and then 2 scoops of peanut butter and a pinch of salt stirred in for the other half.
