Faintly sweet shortbreads encasing a burst of caramelized milky filling. These cookie sandwiches are filled with aroma of spices in each bite. I used chai spices reminiscent of aromas in my tea masala. The dough is flavored with freshly pounded cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, fennel and dried ginger and the shortbread are simply irresistible!
I tried my hands at shortbread cookies this season after a gap of many years. Learning to bake a perfect shortbread has been a journey, I had little clue about the nuances of a perfect cookie when I started baking over half a decade back.
Once a dear friend who also happens to be a pastry chef told me that shortbread is one of the hardest things to master because the dough uses very few ingredients. And it certainly is. Flour butter and sugar is all you need, what can go wrong, right? It took me many attempts to get where I want to be with my shortbread journey.
One of the finest cookie this one is- buttery, crumbly and melt in the mouth. These cookies are very addictive and really not that hard to make. Just keep a few things in mind.
- Use softened butter. Best is if you set it out overnight on the counter or in a slighty warm place to soften. If you cannot, put the stick in a bowl and microwave at 50 percent power for 5-8 seconds until its soft to touch but not melting.
- Rest the dough. Overnight is best. But you can store the dough for 2 days easily or freeze for a month. For a cookie like this. resting makes the dough so so flavorful because the spices get time to mingle.
- Take the cookies out of the oven just when they are soft. They will continue to bake for a few minutes after. If you let them brown too much, they will become crispy and hard.
Chai Shortbread Sandwiches With Dulce De Leche Filing
These festive spiced chai shortbread sandwiches taste of sweet masala chai in a cookie form.
Servings: 20 -22 sandwiches
Calories: 72kcal
Equipment
- 2-3 large mixing bowls
- Whisk
- Rolling Pin & Pastry board or a large board to roll cookies the (you can use kitchen counter as well)
- Spatula
- Two large cookie sheets
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 2 cup all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground fennel seeds
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter unsalted
- 8 tablespoon brown sugar
- ¾ cup dulce de leche for filling
Instructions
- In a large bowl, sift the flour. To the sifted flour add all the ground spices and salt. Using a whisk, mix the spices thoroughly with the flour. Set aside.
- In the stand mixer bowl (or you can use another large bowl and a hand mixer), add the butter and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy for 2-3 minutes.
- Start adding flour in parts and mix on low speed. Just when you see that all the flour has binded with the butter, stop mixing and dump the dough on a floured surface. The dough will be little crumbly but dont worry.
- Gently bring it all together into a soft ball. Divide the ball into two and shape each half into rounds. Flatten the rounds and place each in a ziplock bag(or wrap in a cling film). Refrigerate overnight or for upto 2 days.
- Take out the refrigerated cookie dough and place on the counter 30 minutes before you are ready to make cookies. Line two large cookies sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350F.
- Place another large sheet of parchment on your work surface and dust the sheet with flour liberally. Flour your rolling pin as well since this dough tends to stick and you want to be able to pick up the cookies after cutting them.
- Using the rolling pin, roll the dough into ¼ inch thickness. Using a 3 inch round or fluted round cookie cutter, cut into cookies. For half the cookies which will go to top of sandwich, you can use 1 inch fluted star or round cookies cutter to cut the center out.
- Dust spatula with little flour and use it to transfer the cookies to the baking sheet. Make sure that you count and have even number of bottoms and top cookies.
- Gather the scraps and repeat the process until all the dough is exhausted.
- Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes until they start to turn light brown on the sides/bottom. Pull the sheets out of the oven and let the cookies cool down for 5-7 minutes on the sheet itself before transferring to a cookie rack.
- Let the cookies cool down completely before you fill them. Place 1 tablespoon of Dulce de leche on the bottom cookies and sandwhich with the top cookies.
- Store the cookie in a single layer (else they stick to each other). Enjoy!
Notes
- You can mix and use freshly purchased ground spices in this recipe. or store bough chai masala. If you want to make your own, simply add 2 cloves ,2 green cardamom, ½ inch piece of cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon fennel seeds to your spice grinder and pulse to a fine powder. Mix in the ground dried ginger and your chai spice is ready for baking.
- Use softened butter. Best is if you set it out overnight on the counter or in a slighty warm place to soften. If you cannot, put the stick in a bowl and microwave at 50 percent power for 5-8 seconds until its soft to touch but not melting.
- Rest the dough. Overnight is best. But you can store the dough for up to 2 days or freeze for a month. For a cookie like this. resting makes the dough so so flavorful because the spices get time to mingle.
- Take the cookies out of the oven just when they are soft. They will continue to bake for a few minutes after. If you let them brown too much, they will become crispy and hard.
Nutrition
Calories: 72kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 72mg | Potassium: 38mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 20IU | Vitamin C: 0.02mg | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 1mg
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