Valentine's Jam Filled Shortbread Cookies

My mom always made these cookies for Christmas and I thought I'd try them with a Valentine's twist. I cut out Xs and Os and filled them with strawberry jam.

'XOXO's Valentine's Day Cookies

Makes 24 sandwich cookies

Shortbread cookies:

4 cups of flour
½ tsp salt
2 cups unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
Zest of one large lemon
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup strawberry jam (for filling)
Powdered sugar, for dusting

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer for about one minute. Add sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Stir in flour and lemon zest until combined. Chill dough for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350˚F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4” thick. Using a cookie cutter, cut out circles from the dough. Using a smaller cookie cutter, cut smaller holes from the center of ¼ of the cookies and ‘X’s from the other ¼ of the cookies. Do not cut holes in the remaining ½ of the cookies, since those will be the bottoms of the cookie sandwiches. The cookie dough will start to become soft the more it’s handled, so you can always put the dough back in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm it back up.

Roll out chilled dough on a lightly floured surface.



Cut out dough with cookie cutter.

Bake cookies for 10 minutes, until lightly brown. Cool cookies on a wire rack.


Cool cookies on a wire rack before storing unassembled cookies in an airtight container.

Once cookies are cooled, move all cookie tops to a separate surface and dust with powdered sugar. Spread bottom cookies with jam. Place the cut out cookie tops on the jammed bottom cookie, making a sandwich.

Note: It’s best to assemble cookies the same day of serving to keep them crisp. Store unassembled cookies in an air tight container until ready to use.