Shortbread Easter egg cookies, a delicious idea to make butter thumbprint cookies shaped like little Easter eggs that children will love. These cookies are very tasty, very easy to prepare, excellent filled with jam, cream or Nutella, and they keep for a long time, remaining crisp and melt-in-the-mouth like freshly made. It will be a fun way to create in the kitchen with children and spend some carefree, happy hours letting them play with dough; you’ll see how well they’ll do, since it’s just using cutters and a rolling pin—safe tools kids enjoy. I leave below the recipe also the link to purchase the egg-shaped cutter so you won’t have trouble finding it, and of course they can be made all year round, not just at Easter, because they’re delicious in the egg shape but also in other shapes. I’ll indeed make them again for my husband, not only for the kids, because he also loves this kind of filled butter cookies. They are truly irresistible and will be perfect to accompany coffee after a meal.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking time: 12 Minutes
- Portions: about 30 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter, All seasons
Ingredients for shortbread Easter egg cookies with jam
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 7 oz butter (cold, diced)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs (about 2 oz / 50 g each with shell)
- to taste vanilla
- to taste lemon zest
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 jar apricot jam
- to taste powdered sugar (for dusting)
Tools to prepare shortbread Easter egg cookies
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Work surface
- 1 Rolling pin
- 1 Cookie cutter
- 2 Baking sheets
- 2 Parchment paper
- 1 Small bowl
- 1 Teaspoon
- 1 Plastic wrap
Preparation steps for shortbread Easter egg cookies
Let’s start preparing the shortcrust. In a bowl, put the sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and the cold butter (straight from the fridge) cut into cubes. Work by hand to combine the sugar with the butter.
Add the flour and baking powder and work until you obtain a sandy mixture. At this point add the eggs and work until you get a smooth dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Take the dough back, work on a floured surface, dust the dough with flour as well and roll it out thinly, about 1/16–1/8 inch (approximately 2–3 mm) maximum thickness. With an egg-shaped cookie cutter cut out the cookie bases, about 30, then cut about 30 more for the tops (you can use the trimmings), and pierce the tops with a piping bag tip. Work in a cool environment so the dough doesn’t warm up too much.
Transfer the cut cookies to the baking sheet lined with parchment paper, moving them carefully so as not to deform them, and place them slightly apart from each other.
Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack at 356°F (preheated conventional oven) for about 12 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool.
When cold, fill the bases with apricot jam or your favorite cream. If the jam is too firm, warm it with a little water; if too runny, warm it and let it reduce a bit.
Dust all the top cookies with powdered sugar and place them on top of the filled cookies. Now our shortbread Easter egg cookies are ready to enjoy. Store them in a sealed container in the pantry.
Quantities may vary depending on how thinly you roll the dough; I recommend rolling it very thinly for the best result.
