Shortbread Cookies with a Jam Heart, very sweet cookies made of simple shortbread with a small jam insert. The ingredients are the classics of a tart but presented in a very romantic way that will amuse your children and brighten many moments of your life. To create the small heart in the middle of the cookie, you don’t need big tools; my daughter used a round decorating tool called a ball tool, but a round handle of a cutlery or any other tool including your pinky fingertip can be used to carve the cookie.
We decided to try making these cookies after seeing them online and wanted to see if it was really easy to make them, and it is very easy.
You could have fun with your children creating the small indentation in the cookie to fill with a bit of jam or any other cream you prefer.
These cookies are suitable for many occasions from a romantic snack to a sweet dessert, you can prepare them for Valentine’s Day but also to adorn your tables during upcoming holidays. The little hearts being handmade will be all similar but all different, which makes them even more charming. For the shortbread, I used my classic recipe for tart shortbread, to fill them we chose berry jam because the red color seemed more suitable for the little heart created.
The shortbread is prepared in less than 10 minutes, does not require resting time, and the cookie baking is quick, ranging from 12 to 15 minutes depending on the power of your oven.
Let me remind you of other shortbread versions that could serve as a base for these cookies
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 16
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 153.19 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 21.46 (g) of which sugars 9.24 (g)
- Proteins 2.23 (g)
- Fat 6.91 (g) of which saturated 4.36 (g)of which unsaturated 2.46 (g)
- Fibers 0.42 (g)
- Sodium 7.76 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 38 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
The main ingredients of these cookies are those that make up the shortbread
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup butter (soft)
- 1 egg
- 7 tbsp sugar
- to taste lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/3 cup berry jam (preferably red)
Tools
To prepare these tender cookies you will need a round cookie cutter and a small tool with a round tip
- 1 Cookie Cutters
- 1 Ball tool
Preparation
The preparation is simple but very manual, you could prepare the shortbread completely by hand, but I always recommend using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment if you have one. With the stand mixer, the preparation will be very quick, and you certainly won’t risk overheating the shortbread with the warmth of your hands.
If you decide to knead the shortbread by hand, start with a fountain of flour and gradually add all the ingredients to the center, knead as quickly as you can with the palms of your hands to obtain a compact shortbread dough.
If you use the stand mixer, put all the shortbread ingredients into the mixer’s bowl and set it to medium-low speed with the paddle attachment, let it run until the shortbread dough forms. At first, it will be all crumbly, but let it spin and it will come together.
Take your shortbread without needing to let it rest in the fridge and roll it out on a floured work surface, bring it to a thickness of about half an inch.
For those not yet skilled in rolling out shortbread, I recommend rolling it out on a floured sheet of parchment paper, it will be easier.
With the round cookie cutter, cut as many cookies as possible close to each other to waste less dough, you can knead the scraps again and roll them out for more cookies.
Place your round cookies on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, slightly spaced apart. Now it’s time to carve your cookies. Create a small heart as you see in the picture, do not press too hard on the cookies, or you risk cracking them a little.
Fill the hearts with jam using a teaspoon, and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 12 minutes.
Check that they are golden before removing them from the oven, but do not exceed 15 minutes of cooking time as they will become too dry when cooling.
NOTES
To prevent the cookies from cracking a bit during carving, you could keep the circle of the cookie cutter around the cookie, but the beauty of handmade cookies is that they can be slightly irregular.
These romantic cookies keep well sealed in classic cookie jars with lids and remain as fresh as just baked for a week.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use hazelnut cream to fill them?
You can use any cream you prefer, we used a red-tinged jam to make them more romantic.
Can I substitute the butter?
Of course, you can substitute butter with margarine, but I don’t recommend using oil as it changes the consistency of the shortbread.
