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Chocolate Shortbread & Raspberry Napoleons

Bake with Anna Olson • Food • Newsletter • Recipes

Makes about 18 cookies Makes 6 completed desserts

Ingredients

  • Chocolate Shortbread:
    • ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
    • ¼ cup granulated sugar
    • ¼ cup icing sugar, sifted
    • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
    • 2 Tbsp cocoa powder (regular or Dutch process is OK)
    • ¼ tsp salt
  • Dessert Assembly:
    • 2/3 cup whipping cream
    • 2 Tbsp sugar
    • 2 tsp instant skim milk powder (optional)
    • ½ tsp vanilla extract
    • 1 ½-2 cups fresh raspberries
    • icing sugar, for dusting

Method

  1. For the shortbread, beat the butter with the granulated and icing sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. It’s an important step to beat the butter and sugar well together when making shortbread – this ensures the shortbread will hold together and when you take a bite it will ‘snap’ and then melt away.
  2. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Add this to the butter mixture and stir until evenly blended. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about an hour.
  3. Preheat the oven to 325 °F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
  4. Unwrap the dough and knead a little just to soften, making it easier to roll. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface until it is just over 1/8-inch thick. Cut out cookies using a 2 ½ -inch fluted cutter and place carefully on the baking tray, re-rolling the dough if needed. Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes until they lift easily when lifted with a spatula. Cool the cookies on the tray before removing.
  5. To assemble the desserts, whip the cream until it holds a soft peak, then whisk in the sugar, skim milk powder (optional, if you wish to whip the cream ahead of time – it will keep the cream stable for a full day) and vanilla. Spoon the cream into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
  6. To build the desserts, place a cookie on a plate and pipe a bit of cream in the centre. Arrange 3 to 4 raspberries around the cream (the cream will hold them in place) and top with a second cookie. Pipe cream onto the centre of this cookie and arrange 3 to 4 more raspberries around. Top with a final cookie and dust with icing sugar.

    Repeat with the remaining cookies.

    The desserts can be assembled up to 4 hours in advance of serving and stored chilled.

    The cookies themselves will keep up to a week in an airtight container.