I love a complicated cookie. It makes my baking heart swoon. This one is doozy. Orange Shortbread with a decadent chocolate ganache filling. From a pure baking standpoint, this cookie is so much fun to make! You’re rolling out dough, chilling for a while, using fluted cookie cutters, making a ganache. The result is Magic. Joy. Happiness.
For my birthday last year, my brother got me a copy of Rebecca Firth’s The Cookie Book.* Somehow I didn’t know about Rebecca or her blog, Displaced Housewife, which is weird because I make it my business to know all of the cookie makers. The cookbook itself is beautiful and there is a whole chapter just on chocolate chip cookies! (I am a huge fan of those Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies)
I generally take all of the left over baking from this blog to my office. I’ve developed a bit of a reputation as the cookie lady. A couple of my coworkers are my unofficial cheerleaders-- they will make suggestions on things to try next and give actual constructive feedback on bakes. My favorite “cheerleader” is keeping an unofficial ranking of the best bakes and one day she mentioned that she didn’t think I would ever top the “Dr. Seuss Cookie”.
Well of course, being the competitive person that I am, I spent time flipping through cookbooks trying to find the next one to beat it. {Listen this is literally the equivalent to beating a level on a video game to me. We all have our things.} After several attempts, I didn't think I wasn’t going to beat that cookie. This, my dear readers, is the cookie that almost dethroned the all-time #1 cookie seed. An official head to head analysis is on the calendar to decide for sure.
The orange zest in this cookie is the most brilliant thing to ever happen to shortbread, in the history of all shortbread! Before this cookie, I thought of shortbread as the "diet cookie". If you've ever done Weight Watchers you know that you can eat a couple (or few!) shortbread cookies and not burn the whole diet to the ground. By adding the orange zest, you change the game. This shortbread itself melts right in the your mouth and the chocolate ganache. Lord. It’s an entire experience. You won’t want to share these, unless of course you double the recipe 🙂
About the Recipe:
- This is not a drop cookie. You are going to need to do a bit of planning. If you have a ton of freezer space the cookies will chill for one hour. If you’re chilling in the refrigerator, the cookies will chill for a total of two hours.
- THE BUTTER AND EGGS HAVE TO BE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE!!!!
- The dough itself is very sticky. Sticky, icky. By rolling the dough on the parchment paper you save yourself the heartache of trying to move the dough that is rolled quite thin.
- The original recipe used a rectangle cookie cutter, which I didn’t have-- the goal should be a cookie cutter that is approximately 2x2 inches. The size of the cutter matters when it comes to bake time. If your cookies are slightly larger, increase the baking time by a minute or two.
- Finally, the ganache. Spread the ganache on the cookies as fast as you can before the ganache sets. Pro Tip: If the ganache sets, you can microwave the bowl (non-metal) for 5-7 seconds and whisk it again.
* I am not in any way affiliated with Rebecca Firth. She once shared a picture of one of my blog posts on her Insta story and we might have traded heart shaped emoticons, but I don’t recall which ones. Anyway, I can’t believe her cookbook is only $12 on Amazon. I think you should buy it because the cookies are awesome, not because I will get paid for the referral. Congratulations if you read this whole disclosure. The people on my marketing team at work hate when I add disclaimers to their stuff, but disclaimers make my lawyer heart happy.
PrintOrange Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 25 sandwich cookies 1x
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 16 tablespoons 2 sticks unsalted butter cut into 16 pieces, room temperature
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ orange zest
- 1 large egg (room temp)
- 1 large egg yolk (room temp)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour
For the Ganache
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Instructions
- Make sure the butter and eggs are room temperature. In a pinch you can microwave the butter for 5-15 seconds until it’s soft, but not melted. To bring eggs to room temperature-- place both eggs in a medium bowl and cover with slightly warm(not too warm!) water and let sit for 5-10 minutes until there is no chill.
- Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, powdered sugar and orange zest on medium for 4 minutes. Turn the mixer on low and pour in the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and salt. Mix for several minutes. The mixture will look gross but it’s fine! Finally mix in the flour and stir on the lowest setting until the dough forms.
- Lay piece of parchment paper on your work surface and dust it generously with flour. Scoop the dough on the parchment, sprinkle with more flour and then roll it to ¼ inch thickness. The dough will be very sticky, so flour the rolling pin as necessary. Transfer the parchment paper with the dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Use a 2 inch cookie cutter and cut as many cookies as efficiently as you can. Roll the scraps and cut any left over. Chill the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the refrigerator for 30 more minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 8-10 minutes (bake time will vary based on the cookie cutter size) Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to the cooling rack.
- To make the ganache. Set a medium glass bowl over a medium saucepan of simmering (not boiling!) water. Add the chocolate chips to the bowl, stirring continuously. Once the chocolate begins to melt, add in the heavy cream. Whisk furiously until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir occasionally to stay fluid. Let the chocolate cool -- but not harden.
- Once the cookies and the ganache are cooled, quickly spread a generous amount on half of the cookies and top with another cookie.
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