These incredibly soft almondy cookies are litttle bites of strawberries and cream heaven. Two buttery biscuits are loaded with strawberries and sandwiched together with a silky smooth strawberries and cream filling. Although they look rather fancy, these sandwich cookies are quick and simple to make. Take a look at the coeliac-friendly recipe below!

These cookies are one of my favourite recipes on the blog. After a lot of trial and error, experimenting with different flours and quantities, I finally managed to create a gluten-free dough for almond cookies that hold their shape 100%! A no-spread dough is imperative in order to preserve any intricate shapes and to prevent them from spreading into one misshapen cookie.

How easy are these biscuits to make?

The dough is simple and quick to make in one bowl, with readily available ingredients. After chilling for 30 minutes, the dough can be cut out and the biscuits can be placed straight into the oven to bake, for only 8 minutes! Let them cool, fill them with your favourite jam, buttercream, chocolate spread or caramel and they’ll be ready to pop in your mouth in no time! Simple!

What special equipment do I need for these biscuits?

• Round flutted cookie cutter – The one I used is around 6cm in diameter
• Stand mixer with the dough handle attached (optional)
• Baking paper
• Piping bag and open-star nozzle (Wilton 1M)

What ingredients do I need?

Butter – Unsalted butter adds the wonderful buttery taste to these biscuits. Cold butter is fine for the dough but you might want to take it out of the fridge a few minutes prior to baking so that is it not too hard to work in the mixer when creaming with the sugar as a softer butter does work into the mixture better. For the buttercream filling, the butter does need to be softened to room temperature beforehand in order to be able to whip the butter up to a creamy consistency

Caster sugar – White refined caster sugar or fine caster sugar is preferred to add the sweetness and structure to the biscuits

Eggs – Medium free range eggs at room temperature or cold can be used. Eggs add structure to the biscuits, helping to keep them together

Gluten free flour* – A gluten free flour blend such as Doves Farm Plain Flour with added Xanthan gum or Schär- Mix C is perfect for this recipe, otherwise a standard flour blend will work fine. The most important factor is that the flour blend does not contain baking soda or baking powder. This will make the biscuits rise and spread too much!

Vanilla paste – Vanilla essence, extract or vanilla paste can be used as long as it is gluten-free. I tend to go for a clear extract in order to avoid adding a yellow tinge to the biscuits

Ground almonds – Blanched ground almonds look better and leave the biscuits looking nice and pale but unblanched will work just as good. Almonds are essential in giving these biscuits the light almondy notes which pair perfectly with the fruity flavours in the jam

Xanthan gum – Xanthan gum is essential for most gluten-free recipes and there are no exceptions here. Xanthan Gum is a gluten replacement for gluten-free bakes, replacing the lost eleasticity and helping to hold everything togething and give it a bit more stretch. Without Xanthan Gum, gluten-free bakes risk being too dry, crumbly and falling apart at the slightest touch

Salt – A pinch of salt is always needed in order to offset the sweetness of the sugar

Icing sugar – Standard icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar is dusted lightly ove the biscuits to give them the final touches

Strawberries – Freeze-dried strawberries work best for this recipe in order to avoid adding any excess moisture to the mixture. The strawberries are either grounded in a processor or crumbled roughly into the mixture to give them that intense strawberries flavour

Double cream – Double cream is added to the buttercream filling to make it extra creamy and silky smooth

Tips and Tricks

Chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes to an hour before rolling out is imperative if you want to avoid a biscuit that spreads and comes out of the oven all misshapen. I like to chill my dough between batches, gathering up the cut-offs and wrapping it in clingfilm again before placing in the fridge. Do this whenever you think your dough might be getting too warm to work with.

Rolling the dough out between two sheets of baking paper will make it easier to cut the cookies after chilling and prevent having to use a floured surface to avoid the dough sticking which will make the dough drier.

I like my cookies to be around 5mm in thickness but if you’d prefer slightly thinner cookies, just remember that they will bake more quickly and the baking time will need to be reduced accordingly.