Valentine's Sandwich Cookies

Caitlin Riley
Jan 29, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Apr 3, 2023

How about some love for your gut this V day?

Do you love sweets on Valentine's Day, but don't want a bunch of food that will absolutely destroy your gut? How about these easy shortbread sandwich cookie? They are filled with a homemade (but easy) strawberry jam and optionally coated with dark chocolate and some festive sprinkles.

These cookies are sweet, fun, and delicious. They are easy to make and the sweetness of the shortbread pairs perfectly with the hit from jam and the bitter flavor of the dark chocolate. Plus, let's be real: they are adorable! They would be great to share after a cute Valentine's dinner or at a Galentine's Day party!

Sometimes Valentine's can be filled with a lot of sweets, not all of which are nice to your gut. These use dark chocolate, which is lower in lactose than milk chocolate. The jam uses only strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice, which are all quite low fodmap.

These sandwich cookies do use all purpose flour in the shortbread dough, but remember: it's low not no fodmap. I have reached the personalization phase of the low FODMAP diet, and find that I can tolerate the fructans in wheat/bread products so these do not bother my gut. However, while the monash app does not list a low fodmap serving size for flour, there is only 1 cup on the whole shortbread mix, and thus, if you have just one-two of these cookies, I would postulate that it should not affect you much unless you know that the fructans in such products are one of your biggest triggers. Of course, if you are Gluten-free, this recipe is not for your. However, you can replace my shortbread recipe with a gluten free one that you find!

Baking these involved so many fun and easy skills, so enjoy the process while the winter weather swirls around! Happy Baking!

Jam:

I used the recipe from the Kitchn for a Single Jar of Fruit Jam. It was super easy and delicious!

You could also use a jar of Strawberry jam from the store, but you should check to ensure low fodmap ingredients.

Shortbread:

Ingredients:

Yield: 12 Sandwich cookies cut into small hearts, squares etc.

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 25 mins

Cooling time: 10 mins

3/4 cup of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour

Directions:

Line your baking dish with parchment paper.
Soften butter to almost melted (just starting to see some liquid pooling) and mix with sugar until soft and creamy.
Add almond extract and salt and mix thoroughly until combined.
Mix in flour in batches till dough has formed. Dough should be fairly thick.
Chill in refrigerator for 20 mins. Pre-heat the oven to 325° F during this time.
Remove dough and flatten to the bottom of your baking dish, ensuring that there are not any gaps. The dough should be about 3/8 in thick or right between 1/4 and 1/2 in thick. (The ones in my pictures/videos are a bit thicker than you should aim for!!)
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges just begin to get a golden color.
Let cookies cool in pan for 20 minutes.
Then you can cut into desired shapes using a knife or cookie cutter.

Assembling your cookies:

Ingredients:

Cut out shortbread cookies
Jar of jam
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips (brand of your choice)
1 and 1/2 tsp of coconut oil
Red sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

Have your cut out cookies ready with the tops of the cookies facing down (aka touching the plate or dish).
Spread desired amount of strawberry jam onto every other cookie and place second cookie on the top to sandwich.
Place these in the refrigerator to set a bit while you melt the chocolate and for an additional few minutes.
Pour chocolate chips into microwave safe dish and add coconut oil.
Microwave for 30 seconds and then stir. Put it back in the microwave for another 20 seconds. Stir. It should be fully melted, but if you need you can do one-two more 5 second intervals.
Remove cookies from refrigerator.
Dip half of the sandwiched cookie in chocolate and shake sprinkles over chocolate-coated side.
Set on tray or dish and let the chocolate set for at least ten minutes. If you would like to, you can place them in the refrigerator for a couple of minutes to ensure that they are set after that, but they should set without it as well.
Enjoy your v-day treat!