Shortbread Sandwiches with Blueberry Buttercream

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite Scottish Shortbread recipes. I’ve made Blueberry Buttercream to go with them with some hand picked Southern blueberries that I was given. It’s basically the same recipe that I used here, I just substituted blueberries for raspberries. There is one thing you have to do when using blueberries instead of raspberries and that is to mush them as they are cooking. They don’t break down as easily as the raspberries. I used my potato masher to do this. Such a pretty color don’t you think?! I like using a tart buttercream with such a buttery cookie.

I love my little vintage bluebirds! I got them on Ebay! That’s where I get most of my vintage tablecloths as well. The bluebirds get the little hearts that I cut from the cookies! Makes a perfect size for them!!

I love this shortbread recipe because it has that little “snap” when you take a bite! The snap comes from the rice flour, which I love! These take very little time to whip up (especially if you don’t do any fancy cutting out like I did). Traditionally, after the dough comes together, you pat it into a circle and cut out triangles. This dough is so versatile that you can easily roll it out and cut out shapes, or roll into a log and slice, or do the traditional triangles. This cookie is so good, it just melts in your mouth!

Here’s the recipe:

Pink Piccadilly Shortbread

1 cup flour (AP)
1/4 cup rice flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill White Rice Flour)
1 stick salted butter (left at room temperature for about 20 minutes)
1/4 cup Extra Fine Granulated Sugar (I use Dixie Crystals brand)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the dry ingredients. Into the bowl of a mixer with paddle attachment, add butter and 
sugar and mix until combined. Add flour mixture and mix until it all comes together and becomes a soft pliable dough.

For the traditional triangles, form the shortbread into a round or press it into a greased round cake pan or mold; prick the dough with a fork in a decorative pattern to let it expand while cooking,  and bake the round for 45 minutes to an hour, or until lightly golden (if you want to slice after it comes out of the oven). The way I do it is to slice the round into triangles before baking and separate them on the cookie sheet. Slice the round first in half, then slice each half into halves. Now slice each quarter in half. Make sense? In essence, you will have 8 large triangles.

Now, when I want to have smaller triangles, I divide the dough into 2 pieces and make 2 smaller rounds, and go from there. You have to adjust your cooking time according to the size of your cookies. Smaller cookies obviously, will take less time. The cookies I baked today took about 18 minutes to bake. 

This recipe made 30 cookies, using my small fluted rectangular cookie cutter. (15 sandwich cookies). After I cut out the 30 cookies, I used a tiny heart shaped cutter and cut a heart out of the middle of half the cookies. After they baked and cooled, I sandwiched them with some of the buttercream. 

Everyone’s oven acts differently, so just keep an eye on your cookies, and when they begin to color, they are probably done. I remember the electric oven I used to have always ran 25 degrees too hot, so I had to adjust everything I baked accordingly.

There are so many ways to make these cookies pretty. I sprinkled white sanding sugar on mine before baking, but it is hard to see. You could cut out pretty shapes, then use sprinkles or sparkling sugars. You can also double or triple this recipe with no problem! Another nice thing about this dough is that it doesn’t need to rest in the refrigerator, but can be baked immediately! I love that!! So, next time you need to whip up something sweet in a moment’s notice, remember these! I know you’ll love them!!