Cocoa and warm chai spices are wrapped up in buttery shortbread, then sandwiched together with brown butter, orange, and cream cheese icing. Can you think of anything better?? I couldn’t– this is pretty much all of my favorite flavors combined! Enjoy these shortbread sandwich cookies on an autumn day with a hot cup of tea, gift to your magical witchy friends, or serve at a Halloween gathering.
Shortbread Sandwich Cookie Recipe Notes:
Roll Out!
When it comes to rolling out the dough, you may or may not need to chill it first. My kitchen is very very cold this time of year, so I had no problem at all going straight from mixing to rolling with zero stickiness or limpness. If your kitchen is warmer than mine then it must be nice to be able to feel your toes, and also, you may need to chill the dough 15-20 minutes before rolling and cutting.
Cutting Edge
Because these cookies are all cut out using a single round biscuit cutter, a lot of re-rolling of the dough is required. I’m not a baking expert, but I didn’t personally notice any compromising of the cookies’ texture from re-rolling!
When you cut the dough, you can move the cutter to the outer edge of the dough so you get a partial circle for cutting out crescents. For half moons, simply cut a full circle, cut in half with a knife, and bake both halves.
Half-Baked
Remember, as the Great British Bake Off has taught us time and again, it is more difficult to tell if dark colored dough has been cooked properly. Larger cookies will need to cook longer than smaller ones, so group all of the same sizes together for baking, and try not to over-bake. You can always remove the cookies, let them cool, and if they are too soft, return them to the oven.
Butterly Love
When it comes to browning butter, I prefer to do it over low heat. Like caramel, you’re much less likely to run into trouble if you just go low and slow. And, it’s best not to stray too far from the pan.
Keep Scrolling For The Chocolate-Chai Shortbread + Browned Butter Orange Icing Recipes!
Chocolate-Chai Moon Phase Shortbread Sandwich Cookies Recipe
Chocolate-Chai Shortbread Sandwich Cookies with Brown Butter + Orange Icing
Ingredients
For The Cookies:
- 18 tbsp cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground allspice
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- parchment paper
- 3 inch diameter round biscuit cutter
For The Icing:
- 10 tbsp butter
- 4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tsp fine orange zest from 2 small oranges
- 2.5 cups confectioners sugar
Instructions
Make The Cookie Dough:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, cocoa powder, and spices, and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, vanilla, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy and slightly lighter in color, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then continue running the mixer on low speed.
- As the mixer runs on low, begin adding the whisked together dry ingredients a little at a time until just combined.
Roll, Cut, + Chill The Dough:
- Turn out the dough onto a clean surface and divide in half. (At this point, if your kitchen is warm you may need to chill the dough for 15 minutes or so. My kitchen is cold so I didn’t need to! Use your best judgement-- if the dough can be rolled out and cut cleanly without sticking to everything, then you are good to go without refrigeration.) Form each half into a disk, and wrap one disk in plastic cling wrap.
- Transfer the other half of the dough to a large piece of parchment paper. Place a second piece of parchment on top of the dough, and roll the dough out between the two pieces of parchment to slightly less than ¼” thickness. Remove the top layer of parchment and use the biscuit cutter to cut out as many circles as you can. Then, remove the excess dough and set aside to be rolled out again. Use the biscuit cutter to cut some of the circles into crescents (setting the remaining bit of the circle aside to be rolled out again), and cut some circles in half with a knife for a half moon shape. Try to cut even numbers of the shapes you want to sandwich together with the icing later, plus, cut extra full moons and single halves and crescents for sandwich cookies with an exposed icing look. Place finished cut outs on parchment lined baking sheets, then re-roll and cut the excess dough and the second half of the dough until all of the dough has been used. Place the finished cut outs on their baking sheets in the refrigerator to chill for 2 hours.
Bake The Cookies:
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Remove the baking sheets from the refrigerator and cut two more pieces of parchment paper. Divide and arrange the cookie shapes so that all of the same shapes are grouped together, one on each piece of parchment. For example, I did all the full moons together, all the half moons together, all the crescents together, and all the super skinny crescents together. This will ensure that all of the cookies bake evenly, since each shape will need to bake a different amount of time. Bake super skinny crescents about 15 minutes, crescents about 20 minutes, half moons about 25 minutes, and full moons about 30 minutes. Bake on the upper and center racks of the oven, swapping racks and rotating once during cooking. Because of the dark color of this cookie, it can be difficult to tell when the cookies are done baking. When in doubt, remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool. If the texture of the cooled cookie is slightly firm and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, it is done. You can always pop in the cookies to bake longer if needed!
Make The Icing:
- In a small pan, melt the butter over very low heat. Allow to cook at low heat until the milk solids in the butter turn golden, and the butter emits a toasty, nutty fragrance, about 5-8 minutes. (It’s best to stay near while browning butter-- burnt butter is really terrible!) When the butter has browned, pour into a heat proof bowl and refrigerate or freeze until opaque/no longer liquid, but still soft-- about 30 minutes in the fridge or 15 minutes in the freezer.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, combine the browned butter, cream cheese, salt, and orange zest, and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add a little confectioners sugar at a time until completely incorporated. Use right away, or refrigerate until ready to use. If refrigerating, allow the icing to soften to room temperature before spreading on cookies.
Assemble The Sandwich Cookies:
- When you are ready to sandwich your cookies, spread the icing on one cookie at a time using a butter knife or spreading knife. Go for a layer of icing that’s between an ⅛” and ¼” high on the cookie. Sandwich the cookie’s mate on top, and smooth the icing around the edges with your finger. For exposed icing cookies, use the tip of the knife to softly form a swoop in the center for an aesthetic look, and garnish with more orange zest if you like.
- Serve right away, or refrigerate (due to the cream cheese in the icing) in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Hungry for more cookies? Check these out!
