These hazelnut shortbread sandwich cookies are delicious shortcrust pastries filled with the most irresistible hazelnut chocolate cream. The recipe to make them at home is truly simple: it’s just a matter of preparing shortcrust pastry, cutting it into your favorite shapes, and creating crumbly cookies. Half of the cookies should have a small hole in the center, which allows the filling to peek through. I had fun using a heart shape for the center cutout, but you can simply use a round cutter.
The shortcrust pastry recipe is my gluten-free recipe that includes almond flour and rice flour only. For the filling, you can use this hazelnut cream or your favorite jam, but I’m sure they’d also be delicious with white chocolate spread or pistachio cream. You can also flavor the dough with lemon, orange or vanilla — I chose to keep it plain.
In addition, you can enrich the shortcrust dough with ingredients that suit your chosen filling, such as chopped almonds, hazelnut, pistachio, cocoa, or chocolate chips. Once baked, the shortcrust discs are filled and sandwiched together. Finally, you can dust them with powdered sugar or cocoa powder if you’ve opted for a chocolate shortcrust. I chose not to dust them: they’re beautiful just the way they are!
Hazelnut shortbread sandwich cookies
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Ingredients
- Shortcrust pastry:
1 stick + 1 tbsp butter (120 g)
1 cup brown sugar (200 g)
1 medium egg
1 cup + ¼ almond flour (120 g)
1 cup + 2 tbsp rice flour
¾ cup cornstarch (90g)
¼ tsp salt
- Hazelnut cream:
¼ cup hazelnut paste (100 % hazelnut)
¼ cup dark chocolate
How to
- In a large bowl, whip the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until the batter is smooth and well combined.
- Fold in all the flours and salt. Work the dough with your hands until it comes together into a smooth, uniform ball.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Once chilled, preheat your oven to 340°F (170°C).
Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about ¼ inch (5 mm) thickness.
Cut out the cookies in your preferred shapes, they’re typically round or scalloped. With this amount of dough, you’ll get about 30 cookies, each around 1.5 inches (4 cm) in diameter.
Remember to cut a small hole (about 0.4 inch / 1 cm wide) in the center of half the cookies: these will be the tops. - Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a static oven at 356°F (180°C) for 10–15 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges. Let them cool completely. - While the cookies are cooling, melt the chocolate — either in the microwave or in a heatproof bowl over simmering water.
Once melted, stir in the hazelnut butter until smooth. Let the cream cool slightly until it thickens a bit. - Spread a spoonful of the filling in the center of the flat side of a whole cookie, then gently sandwich it with a cookie that has a cut-out center. Press gently to spread the filling and make it pop out of the hole. If you like, dust the tops with powdered sugar before serving.
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If you loved these hazelnut shortbread sandwich cookies, check out my other favorite cookies on the blog:
