Happy Friday! It’s officially 10 days until The Sugar Hit cookbook hits the shelves here in Australia! So I’m going to go and have a fizzy drank or two in order to celebrate. (You can still pre-order it! Amazon – Book Depository – Booktopia – Dymocks – Barnes and Noble)
But not before I leave you with a quick sweet something for the weekend. These crisp, jammy shortbread cookies will do you right.
The base is easy as winking, just a brown sugar shortbread mix. Butter, sugar, and egg get all whipped up with a little lemon zest and vanilla for fun, and then flour gets folded through.
I then just pat that sucker out into a big rectangle on a baking sheet, and throw it in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up.
Using a circle cutter I mark out as many cookies as I can get, and then make an indent with the back of the spoon in the middle of each and fill it with the jam you love – plum is particularly great here, but cherry or raspberry would be good too.
Then I throw them in a hot oven for 35-40 minutes, or until they’re a nice dark golden brown . The cookies will still feel soft when they come out of the oven, and that’s when you want to stamp them out with your cutter. Then just leave them to cool and become perfectly crispy.
If you wanted to a little herb action never goes astray in a shortbread, I think some rosemary in these would be killer. But they’re pretty perfect and delicious the way they are.
Have a great weekend, and don’t forget that it’s not too late to pre-order your copy of The Sugar Hit! (Gahd, my sales patter is so awful, but seriously, please buy my book, I’ll name my first born after you).
xx Sarah.
- 2 sticks, minus 2 tbsp (200g) butter, softened
- ½ cup (100g) brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 cups (300g) plain flour
- big pinch of salt
- ½ cup jam of your choice
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Beat the butter and sugars together until light and creamy, then beat in the egg, vanilla and lemon again until light and creamy.
- Gently mix through the flour and salt until completely combined - do not overmix.
- Pat the dough out into an even rectangle on the lined baking sheet - it should be about ½ inch thick - then place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Using a 3 inch circle cutter, mark out as many cookies as you can from the rectangle of dough, and use the back of a tbsp to make indents in each circle. Fill the indents with jam, and then bake the cookie for 35-40 minutes, or until dark golden brown.
- When the cookies have just come out of the oven, use the same circle cutter to cut out each cookie completely, and then leave to cool on the tray.
- When cool, break up the surrounding extra cookie to release the shortbreads (keep it to nibble on or make biscuit bases with) and then eat!
shortbread!! my only problem is all those scraps- i know i’d end up devouring them way too quickly while assembling the rest of the cookies (;
HI Sarah! I stumbled across your blog a couple of months ago when I was trapped in the car – my baby decided to finally go to sleep and then proceeded to sleep for 2 hours! 1.5 hours of that was spent pouring over your blog. So I just wanted to let you know that I love your blog, and I will be buying your book when it comes out. Good luck!
Alicia, your comment totally made my day. I’m so glad you found me, and that I could help with keeping your baby sleeping (I’m not 100% sure, but I hear that’s important!). A huge internet hug for you! Thank you! xx Sarah.
I’m sitting in an AirBNB rental, devoid of any food whatsoever, so naturally I’m catching up on all my food blog faves from this week and STARVING! These shortbreads may have just put me over the edge though – the texture looks amazing! Off to find a bakery…;) XO
shortbread is already so delicious, and then you had to go and put jam on top? Not fair.