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vanilla bean shortbread sandwich cookies with strawberry lemonade curd
I’m in a funny time in my life right now. For example, on Wednesday, I ran out of vanilla extract, but I really didn’t have any money to replace it. But I did happen to have about five vanilla beans in my cupboards. So I used those. It was like using a real Windsor chair for firewood.
I used them in coffee cake, a chocolate chip skillet cookie, and these shortbread. They’re very chic, of course, because they use a whole vanilla bean, but you can just substitute a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, and they will still make you very happy. If you’ve never bought vanilla beans, or have decided they’re ridiculously expensive, don’t lose hope before checking out Beanilla. They have the best prices around, and have a huge selection, which I’m sure they can tell you all about. I personally don’t know the difference between the flavors of the Madagascar, Mexican, Tahitian, or Tongan beans, but I’m pretty sure they do.
And in case you didn’t know already, most of my lemon curd wisdom comes from Ina Garten
. I love just about everything she makes.
vanilla bean sandwich cookies
2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter at room temperature
2/3 cup (125g) sugar
seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (save the pod to stick in vanilla sugar or a tall bottle of vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups (300g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (70g) strawberry lemonade curd (recipe follows)
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add in vanilla bean scrapings. Incorporate in salt and flour, and mix until just incorporated.
2. Place dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat oven 375 degrees (190 Celsius). Roll out dough and cut into circles (or whatever else you want, of course), refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes, and then and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly firm.
strawberry lemonade curd
zest of 3 lemons
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup (190g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
juice of 3 lemons (about 1/3 cup, or 80 mL)
Pulp from 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, thawed, and pressed through a sieve (about 1/4 cup, or 60g)
pinch of salt
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together zest, butter, and sugar. Incorporate eggs one at a time and mix until smooth. Add in lemon juice, strawberry pulp, and salt. Mixture will curdle.
2. Pour mixture into a large saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes. Lemon curd will come together and thicken. When it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, remove from heat. Strain into a glass bowl and allow to cool. Refrigerate or freeze until you need it.
19 Responses to “vanilla bean shortbread sandwich cookies with strawberry lemonade curd”
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I would love to have your address. I have a little care package that I would love to send to you…
strawberry-lemonade curd is something i would eat by the bowlful. just love that.
Wow, these sound really, really delicious. By the way, I just read your sidebar on your main page for the first time (how did I miss it before?!) and you are a girl after my own heart. I too love classics, french pastries, and British accents. Especially British accents. Let’s be bffs. : )
Those are beautiful cookies! What a great combination!
These look amazing! I wish you were close enough for me to be your taste tester. By the way, I came away from PPWC with two buckets of key limes, so I will be making your lime bars sometime this week.
Perfect cookies for summer.
Oh my lord! You are like me- I find another way… Great post Jaime! I think I want one of these sandwich cookies right now!
These just sing of summer! Yum! Way to be resourceful! Love ya!
I saw this recipe on TasteSpotting and decided to try it for a friend who loves lemoncurd. These are absolutely delicious! I will definitely re-make them and add them to my favorite recipe folder. Thanks so much for sharing.
@Jewel–I am so glad you tried them!
Thanks everybody!
That second picture is gorgeous! I love the curd filling squishing out from between the two cookies.
Could you help with my shortbread? Pretty please?
http://stovetopdancing.blogspot.com/2010/05/shortbread-longday-bigmess.html
Jaimie, this was probably the most complicated of your recipes that I have tried, but it was definitely the most fulfilling to create. It was like a work of art…besides being incredibly fun and tasty. They are such a beautiful cookies, and they were a big hit. As the taste-tester worded it, “it is much more gourmet than the others”. I substituted the vanilla extract for the bean (1 bean was over $7 ahhhh), but I was very happy with the delicate taste the cookie provided. Thank you for yet another great recipe. Yours is very quickly becoming my favorite website for dessert recipes…now to try your dinner recipes
Laura–sadly, the most rewarding of my recipes tend to be the most complicated. But I have figured out one thing: my most complicated/rewarding recipes tend to have some sort of lemon/lime curd in them! Next time you find lemons or limes on sale, buy a bunch, and then make a big batch of the curd and freeze it, then you can just throw the recipes like this together a lot quicker. I must confess, that’s how I do it. Otherwise, I would never make recipes like this.
In fact, the strawberry lemonade curd in the picture, is actually leftover from some cupcakes I made for my friend about a month earlier.
I think I’m at the point where I’m stalking your blog…But WOW that strawberry lemon curd. This is a must on my list. I love lemon anything + strawberries is heaven!
[...] cookies in the picture are the little shortbread sandwich cookies I made last year, with the strawberry lemonade [...]
I just came across this recipe and decided to try it. I made the dough and it is now chilling, but it just seems so dry! Is it supposed to be very dry? Hopefully they will come out right!
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