Shortbread Sandwich Cookies – Chocolate filling is sandwiched between two buttery shortbread cookies before the cookies are dipped in sweet white chocolate and festively decorated! EASY enough for novice bakers and PERFECT for holiday entertaining, gifting, and cookie exchanges!
Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
Classic shortbread cookies just got elevated to sandwich cookie status. And who doesn’t love a sandwich cookie!
In between the buttery, crispy, delicate shortbread cookies is a thin layer of melted semi-sweet chocolate.
While you could certainly stop there with chocolate-filled shortbread sandwich cookies, I took things a step further. After all ’tis the season to be a bit decadent and extra.
So I coated the chocolate sandwich cookies in melted white chocolate. White chocolate adds the perfect sweet touch to the shortbread cookies because on their own, they’re not overly sweet so the white chocolate is a great balance.
Then, I colored some additional white chocolate red and green and decorated the cookies even more. And tossed on some sprinkles for good measure.
Every single element of these Christmas cookies make them perfect for holiday cookie exchanges, for your holiday dessert table and holiday parties, or gifting to those special people in your life.
These decorated shortbread sandwich cookies are easy enough to make even for novice bakers because I walk you through all the steps, providing my tips and tricks along the way, to set you up for the best dipped shortbread sandwich cookies.
Ingredients For Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
For these coated and filled shortbread sandwich cookies, you’ll need some basic fridge and pantry ingredients including the following items:
Shortbread Cookies
- Unsalted butter
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
Filling
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Unsalted butter
White Chocolate Coating
- White chocolate melting wafers
- OR
- White chocolate bar or white chocolate chips + coconut oil
Decorating, optional
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How To Make Easy Shortbread Cookies
Both skilled and new bakers alike will enjoy this approachable recipe for shortbread cookie dough, chocolate filling, and melted white chocolate for coating. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Using a stand mixer or large mixing bowl and hand mixer, beat the butter until it’s creamy.
Step 2: Add the confectioners’ sugar.
Step 3: Add the eggs and vanilla.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients a little at a time while slowly beating.
Step 5: Flatten dough into a thin disc, wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Step 6: Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick.
Step 7: Using a 3-inch fluted biscuit cutter or your favorite cookie cutter, cut out the dough.
Step 8: Bake on Silpat or parchment lined baking sheets until lightly golden brown and cool completely.
How To Make Chocolate Filled Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
It’s fast and easy after your buttery shortbread cookies have cooled completely.
Step 1: Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave and stir until smooth.
Step 2: Spread a thin chocolate on top of the underside of one cookie and sandwich it together with another cookie.
Step 3: Repeat with all remaining cookies and let them set up.
Making White Chocolate for Cookie Dipping
I want to point out that dipping your shortbread cookies with chocolate filling is optional, although I highly recommend it for a couple reasons: appearance AND taste!
The white chocolate really sweetens up your the overall flavor profile of the shortbread cookies.
Step 1: After the chocolate filling has set up, melt the white chocolate until it’s smooth.
Step 2: Dip each cookie in the white chocolate and set aside to harden.
Decorating White Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
If you want to stop after you’ve got the sandwich shortbread cookies dipped in white chocolate, feel free!
If you want to take it a step further, you can do the following decorating hacks which are optional.
Step 1: Optionally, color a bit of white chocolate with red food color, and/or green food color, add it to a small ziptop baggie, snip the corner, and drizzle on as desired.
Step 2: Optionally, decorate the cookies with sprinkles and allow the melted chocolate to set up before serving and enjoying!
Feel free to have fun and get creative! Like I mentioned, I used green and red gel food coloring with my melted white chocolate and the help of some plastic sandwich baggies.
- I filled up two sandwich bags – one with green chocolate and the other with red.
- Then, I snipped the tiniest corner off of each bag and drizzled.
- I had a little white chocolate left over, so I drizzled that on as well.
- Christmas themed holiday sprinkles were my finishing touches!
Do I Have To Refrigerate Shortbread Cookie Dough?
Yes you do need to refrigerate the shortbread cookie dough.
It’s a very buttery dough and without chilling it, trying to roll it out will be challenging to say the least because it’ll be very soft and mushy.
Apart from that, your cookies would spread like crazy and lose the intended shape if you baked them off with warm dough.
I recommend chilling the dough in a large, semi-flattened ball that you wrap well in plastic wrap. One hour is all that’s needed, although you can chill it for as long as 24 hours.
If you do chill for an extended period of time, the dough will need 10 to 15 minutes at room temp before you roll it out since it’ll be too stiff and hard directly from the fridge.
Tip: If you only chilled it for an hour though, get to rolling it out, cutting out the cookies, and then baking them off as quickly as possible.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes! This recipe can easily be doubled.
You will have to bake the cookies in batches, but it’s easy enough to do.
Why Did My Shortbread Sandwich Cookies Not Stick Together?
If you dunked your little shortbread sandwich into the white chocolate only to have it fall apart, it’s because the chocolate in the middle wasn’t set yet.
Before adding the semi-sweet chocolate filling to the cookies, make sure first that the cookies have totally cooled to room temperature.
If they’re still warm, the chocolate will stay warm, and they’ll take what seems like forever to set!
Then, after you sandwich two cookies together with the melted chocolate, give the sandwiches time to set and become sturdy.
Only after the chocolate has totally and set are the sandwich shortbread cookies safe to dunk into the melted white chocolate.
Serving Suggestions For Dipped Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
These Christmas sandwich cookies are perfect for all of your holiday parties, entertaining, and hosting needs.
You can gift them to friends and neighbors, leave them out for Santa on Christmas Eve, or be the star of your cookie exchange.
How To Store Shortbread Sandwich Cookies with Chocolate Filling
In an airtight container at room temperature, these tasty and festive holiday cookies will stay fresh for up to 5 days.
They’ll keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Note that any time you take chocolate out of the freezer and let it thaw, beads of condensation will appear. This is normal, but the cookies will have a slightly different appearance so for that reason I don’t like to freeze and then later gift the cookies. But for my own family, it’s just fine!
Tips For The Best Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
All-Purpose Flour: Here’s a little tip that’ll help you with all of your baking recipes! Scoop your flour into your measuring cup instead of dipping the cup straight into the flour. When you dip the cup directly into the bag or container of flour, you’re tightly packing it in there. Packed flour means there’s too much flour!
Butter: The butter needs to be softened for this recipe, so remember to let it sit on your countertop for about an hour prior to using it. You can sometimes cheat successfully by putting it in the microwave for about 10 seconds, but it’s really best to just let it soften at room temperature over time.
Rolling Out the Dough: If you do find that the dough is too moist when you go to roll out the dough, you can always add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is to just the right consistency.
It should be smooth but soft and not tacky like chocolate chip cookie dough. If it is, you may need a touch more flour.
Also make sure to generously flour your countertop or work surface when you’re going to roll it out so the dough doesn’t stick.
Re-Rolling the Dough: I reuse my scraps once by re-rolling once. I mound up all my scraps, roll the dough out, cut out however many more cookies I can make, and that’s it. Anything leftover I don’t bother re-rolling since the dough is pretty well worked and warm at that point which doesn’t make for awesome cookies.
Baking Times: I used a fluted biscuit cutter that’s approximately 2 inches in diameter and made about 42 cookies, or 21 sandwiches. You can use any shape of cutter you want from round to tree or star shapes.
Baking times will vary dramatically based on the exact size of cutter you use. Bake until your cookies are just set and lightly golden brown around the edges because they’ll continue to firm up and darken a bit as they cool.
Optional Decorating Steps: Remember that if all you want to do is make shortbread sandwich cookies, that’s just fine! Dipping them in white chocolate is optional (but highly recommended).
It’s mindlessly easy to sprinkle on your favorite holiday sprinkles so I recommend doing so without a doubt.
The final steps of the dyed white chocolate used for the red and green stripes and drizzles are purely optional.
Have Fun with Food Coloring: But if you do decide to dye some white chocolate, it’s not just the drizzle that you can show a little creativity with! Feel free to dye the entire batch of white chocolate festive colors if that’s what you feel like doing.
I like to use gel food coloring rather than the more old-fashioned food coloring I grew up with because you use much less gel so you water down the white chocolate less.
Apart from that, the color is more intense which I love.
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Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Filling
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (milk chocolate chips may be substituted
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
White Chocolate Coating
- two 10-ounce bags white chocolate melting wafers
- OR
- 2 ½ cups white chocolate bar or white chocolate chips + 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Decorating, optional
- Food coloring, red and green, or as desired
- Holiday sprinkles, or as desired
Instructions
- Cookies - To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a large mixing bowl and handheld electric mixer, add the butter and beat on high speed until light, fluffy, and creamy. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the confectioners' sugar, and beat on low speed to begin so sugar doesn't fly, increasing to high speed, and beat to incorporate.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and beat on high speed until smooth. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and salt little by little, beating on low speed as you add it, until the dry ingredients are just incorporated, don't overmix.
- Turn out the dough into a flattened mound, wrap it well in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
- Rolling Out - After the dough has chilled and you plan to roll it out, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Generously flour your clean kitchen countertop or work surface, and roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thick. Tips - If you've chilled the dough overnight or for a longer duration, allow the dough to sit at room temp for about 10 to 15 minutes before you attempt to roll it out since it'll be very hard and stiff. However, if you've only chilled 1 hour or a bit more, get going right away with rolling it out and don't wait.
- Using a 2-inch fluted biscuit cutter (or your favorite circular cutter or other shaped cookie cutter such as trees or stars) cut out the cookies as close together as possible.
- Place the cut cookies on Silpat or parchment lined baking sheets, evenly spaced and with some room to spread a bit while baking.
- Mound up the unused dough scraps into a ball, roll out the dough once more, cut out as many cookies as you can, and place those on baking sheets as well.
- Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the cookies are very lighlly golden browned around the edges, taking care not to overbake because the cookies will continue to firm up and darken a bit as they cool. Tips - Baking times will vary dramatically based on oven and climate variance, and the exact sizes/shapes you make your cookies, so watch your cookies and not the clock when determining doneness and bake as long as necessary given your set of variables. Finally, I find that baking one sheet of cookies at a time, in the center oven rack, and rotating the baking sheet midway through gives the most optimal results.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until they're firm enough to transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Don't start the next step until they're fully cooled.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Filling - To a large microwave-safe bowl, add the chocolate chips, butter, and heat on high power to melt for 30 seconds. Stop to check and stir. Heat in 15-second bursts, stopping to check and stir after each burst, until the chocolate can be stirred smooth.
- Assembly - Using a butter knife, spread a thin layer of melted chocolate on the underside of one cookie, pair it with another cookie, sandwiching the two undersides together like a sandwich.
- Repeat with all remanning cookies. Allow the chocolate to fully set up before moving on to the next step.
- White Chocolate Coating (optional but recommended for both appearance and flavor) - Melt the white chocolate melting wafers* (See Notes) according to package directions.
- Using a fork, place one sandwich cookie on it, dip into the white chocolate quickly but enough to fully coat the cookie, and allow the excess chocolate to drip off through the tines of the fork back into the bowl. Set dipped cookies on a wire rack to fully set up and repeat with all remaining cookies.
- Decorating (optional) - If you'd like to add holiday sprinkles or whatever kind you'd like, add them before the white chocolate sets so they adhere. I strongly recommend you do this for a festive look.
- If you'd like to make colored drizzles of red and green as shown in the photos, do so by placing extra melted white chocolate in two small bowls, add green gel food color to one, and red gel food color to the other (regular food color is fine but gel is nicer in that it doesn't water down the chocolate and the color is richer), transfer to two small ziptop bags, seal, snip the tiniest tip off the corners of each, and drizzle as desired. Repeat as desired.
- Storage - Allow cookies to fully set before serving. Cookies will keep airtight at room temp for 5 to 7 days (fresher is always better) or in the freezer for up to 3 months, noting that any time cookies thaw, condensation will form. It's totally normal but the appearance may not be quite as pristine as had they never been frozen although the taste will be fine.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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