Strawberry Jam Sandwich Shortbread

The preparation step by step

1. Weighing and preparing

   Weigh 220 g of flour, 60 g of ground almonds, 80 g of icing sugar and 1 g of salt separately. Cut 140 g of unsalted butter into small dice. The butter should be cool but soft enough to leave a dent when pressed with a finger. Prepare a small bowl for the egg and two sheets of baking paper.

2. Prepare the egg

   Break a medium egg in the small bowl. Remove any shell fragment, then beat it with a fork and weigh 50 g. Keep any excess for another preparation. This measured liquid brings the dry ingredients together.

3. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients

   Combine the weighed dry ingredients and diced butter in the bowl. Rub in briefly with your fingertips until you have fine crumbs and no large pieces of butter. Avoid working the mixture in your palms for too long, as this would warm it.

4. Gathering without kneading

   Add 50 g of beaten egg and 5 g of vanilla extract. Mix with a spatula, then press the crumbs together by hand. Stop as soon as the dough comes together evenly; it does not need to become stretchy like brioche dough.

5. Refrigerate the dough

   Flatten the dough into two 2 cm thick discs, cover them and place them in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Leave one half in the refrigerator while you work the other; a thick ball would cool less regularly.

6. Regularly

   Preheat the oven to 170 °C, conventional oven setting (no fan). Roll the first half between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 4 mm. Turn the paper between passes of the rolling pin. If the dough cracks sharply, wait 3 to 5 minutes before continuing.

7. Cut the biscuits

   Cut 40 discs of 5 cm and hollows out the center of 20 of them with a small star of 2 cm. Lift the pieces with a palette knife and place on a cold lined baking tray, leaving 2 cm between them. Press the offcuts together, roll out once more and keep the smallest pieces for a separate batch.

8. Cook one plate at a time

   Bake on the middle shelf for 10 to 12 minutes. Start checking after 8 minutes: the edges should be lightly golden and the centres paler. The cookies are still slightly soft when they come out of the oven; waiting for them to be hard in the oven would dry them out.

9. Cool without breaking

   Rest the tray on a heatproof surface for 5 minutes, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack. Bake the second tray meanwhile. Wait at least 20 minutes after the last batch before storing or decorating the biscuits.

10. Powder them on

    When the cookies are cold, place the 20 perforated discs on a sheet. Saup them with the 20 g of icing sugar using a small strainer. Keep the bases full without extra sugar for the jam to adhere.

11. Strawberry garnish

    Mix the jam to soften it. Spread about 7 g on each base, without going to the edge. Lay a perforated top by pressing very lightly on the perimeter; the jam must be visible in the star but do not overflow.

12. Wait Before You Arrange

    Leave the cookies assembled for 30 minutes in a cool room. Store them in a layer or separate them from baking paper. The jam gradually softens the dough: these shortbread are softer the next day.