Baked goods: Lemon poppy seed shortbread sandwich cookies

Standard

Complicated name for very basic, delicate cookies.

I made some sandwich cookies like this before, and they were well-liked all around (they even survived mailing). I could not find my normal recipe so tried out a new one, which was more shortbread-like and not really designed to be manipulated the same way my regular dough is. (That is to say that these were not really that well-suited to becoming sandwich cookies; I did it anyway, and it turned out fine, but I think my other recipe is better.)

Lemon-Poppy Seed Shortbread
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy, about two minutes. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla and beat well.

Combine the flour, poppy seeds, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Let chill for at least 3 hours (up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 300°F. Roll the dough between two sheets of wax paper to a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Chill the dough for an additional 30 minutes before cutting. Cut the shortbread into shapes with a round cookie cutter (or whatever shape you prefer; I used round because it was easiest to make the sandwiches), and place 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Do not reroll scraps, if using cookie cutter. Bake about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Once cool, you can use lemon frosting to make sandwiches.

Lemon frosting
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons of lemon zest

Mix all ingredients together until desired consistency is achieved. Use to frost underside of shortbread cookie sandwiches and stick the cookies together.

4 thoughts on “Baked goods: Lemon poppy seed shortbread sandwich cookies

Leave a Reply