Sweet Hawaij Sandwich Biscuits w/ Coffee Curd
I have a love for shortbread. I love traditional Scottish Shortbread as well as all the typical variations. I also love experimenting with various flavor profiles as well and when I discovered Sweet Hawaij, I knew I wanted to pair it with shortbread. I initially just added it to a traditional recipe but I wanted to take it a step further and thought about how the spice blend is typically used, with coffee. I had also at the time been making a recipe that required lemon curd and a light bulb went off. I scoured the internet for something I was sure would have been written about many times over, coffee curd. To my huge surprise, I found a solitary recipe that was similar to what I was envisioning and two that were chocolate-based with coffee. It was a great opportunity to go in blindly and use typical curd-making skills to see if it would work….. and it did.
Usually, when I create a recipe it is simply out of necessity and I mindlessly grab ingredients that I have on hand and throw them together. Rarely do I have a very clear picture in my head of a recipe that I wish to create, yet this time I could almost taste what I was imagining. This then provided for an anxiety-ridden experience as I had my biggest critic, myself, to impress with getting it right, There are countless recipes online, many of which are fairly similar except for small tweaks here and there and this is probably not much different, but I haven’t taken the time to look!
One thing that I always have to remind myself is that my tastes may not be everyone else’s so I was delighted that the rest of the household enjoyed them. Well, that is not exactly true. My 9-year-old doesn’t eat anything I make, something that took me a while to accept, but he is like his “mommy” and has plenty of food aversions. This brings me to how these biscuits’ texture should be. They should be reminiscent of shortbread but hold together and have a crisp “snap”. Because they are decadent with the luscious coffee curd, they should be made on the smaller side. I used a Linzer cookie-cutter system. It’s a scalloped cutter but it also has the mini center cutout as part of it, taking the guesswork out of centering the design. However, you can use whichever cutter you wish. Even having a center cut out isn’t necessary, but it is a cute touch!
So these sandwich biscuits make take some planning and time but it is well worth it in the end as you brew a perfect cup of coffee to drink while biting into this tasty treat.
Recipe Card
Note: If there was one kitchen gadget that I would recommend, it would be a kitchen scale. It takes the guesswork out of baking creating better success with recipe outcomes. All of my recipes are written in weights. If you do not have a scale and need to convert a recipe or ingredient to volume, you can use the buttons below and copy /paste the recipe into the handy recipe conversion tool or the single ingredient conversion.
Sweet Hawaij Shortbread Biscuit with Coffee Curd
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350℉
- Cream butter and icing sugar together with a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or a hand mixer for 3 minutes*
- Add the egg and continue to mix until combined**
- Add the coffee extract, if using, and the sweet hawaij spice blendand mix until combined.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer and sprinkle the cornstarch over the egg mixture and then add 1/3rd of the flour. Hand mix gently until the flour is just barely mixed in.
- Add the next third and mix to combine in the same fashion.
- Add the last third and mix gently until just combined.
- Pat the dough into a flat disk and wrap it in cling film. chill for 20-30 minutes to let the butter firm up again.
- Remove from refrigerator and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness.
- Use a 6cm/2.5 inch round or scalloped edge round cutter to cut 36 pieces. *
- Take 18 of the rounds and cut a shape from the center of each.
- Arrange the cutout pieces on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 13-15 minutes until the dough is just set.
- Remove and cool on a baking rack.
- When completely cool, put the coffee curd into a pastry bag and arrange the solid bottoms next to each other for ease.
- Pipe a 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of curd into the center of each bottom and place tops (with the cutout in them) neatly onto each, gently pressing down so the curd spreads out on the biscuit.
- Let the biscuits set up with the coffee curd and serve.
- Stand mixer with the paddle attachment or Hand Mixer
- Parchment paper or Silpat
- 1/2 Sheet Pan
- Cling Wrap
- Mini Linzer cookie cutter with the center shape OR
- 6cm round fluted cookie cutters and mini shape cutters that will fit in the center of the round cookie cutter.
* Notes (if you see an * please check here):
- *Only cream for 3 minutes as the goal is to get some air whipped into the butter but not too much
- ** If the egg and butter mixture splits, add a tablespoon of your flour to mend it. Splitting can be avoided by using an egg at room temperature.
- Using a rolling pin with thickness guides is a helpful tool or using pastry guides for even dough rolling.
- I use a mini Linzer cookie cutter for these biscuits or you can use a 2 or 2.5-inch cookie cutter and a mini shape cutter for the cut out in the center or you can even use the top of a drinking glass!