Raspberry Shortbread Hearts

The raspberry shortbread hearts look cute. They surely belong to a bag of holidays goodies — for giving, cookie exchanges or the kitchen table. I had a little trouble with the orange and star anise shortbread recipe a while back. It’s time to delve into the shortbread cookies, but with a different spin. As a starting point, Ina Garten’s heart-shape cookies may be what I’m looking for.

What makes shortbread cookies short, or crumbly, is the high percentage of fat in the batter. Ina Garten’s recipe calls for 3 sticks of butter, way past the limit of my butter allowance. So I venture to reduce the recipe by one third, using 2 sticks of butter instead. The flour amount is likewise reduced by a third, by weight (not by volume). According to the classical shortbread cookies ratios of: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat and 3 parts flour, there are room to trim the amount of sugar. I did exactly that.

Curiously, the recipe reads: If the dough doesn’t come together, add a tablespoon or two of warm water. I don’t know what to think of it. But one thing I know — one to two egg yolks help the cookies to hold their shape better. So, why not? On top of that, they are also tastier.

This is a tender, but fragile cookies to work with. The steps involve cutting two cookies of the same shape. Cut out a hole in the middle of the one placed on top, in order to review the layer of raspberry jam below. Then stack the two cookies and combine into one. To make a long story short, time, attention, nimble hands and patience are, in part, the essential recipe requirements. I’m glad I did not make the full recipe amount, not today!

For an ultimate shortbread cookie, try the pistachio pinwheel cookies.

Print Recipe

Raspberry Shortbread Hearts

Serves: 10 cookies

Ingredients

• 227g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (reduced from 3 sticks)
• 80g /2/3 cup granulated sugar (I reduced the amount of sugar)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large egg yolks (rather than adding warm water)
• 272g /2 cups all-purpose flour (this is 2/3 of original recipe)
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup good raspberry preserves
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar on medium speed until they are just combined (don’t whip the butter!). Stir in the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then slowly add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Add the egg yolks. (Ina says: If the dough doesn’t come together, add a tablespoon or two of warm water. I add egg yolks instead.) Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

3

Roll the dough ¼-inch thick, cut out hearts with a large heart-shaped cutter, and place them on sheet pans lined with parchment paper. With a smaller heart-shaped cutter, make a heart-shaped cut-out in the middle of only half of the cookies. Refrigerate the cookies for 15 minutes.

4

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the top of each solid cookie. Lightly dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners’ sugar and then press the bottom (the flat side) of the cut-out cookies on the raspberry filling, pressing the two cookies together. The raspberry preserves will be in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar will be on top. Serve at room temperature.

Notes

Adapted from https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/raspberry-shortbread-hearts, reduced to 2/3 of the original recipe and other changes.