These Vegan Peanut Butter and Blackcurrant Sandwich Cookies are the perfect combination of sweet and nutty. Get the recipe below.
Peanut butter and jelly
Peanut butter and jelly is a classic American flavour combination which I've taken and adapted for this Vegan Peanut Butter and Blackcurrant Sandwich Cookies recipe.
The cookies are made up of two vanilla shortbread biscuits that are then sandwiched together with peanut butter buttercream and blackcurrant jam.
The "jelly" in peanut butter and jelly is actually usually grape flavoured but given we don't have grape jam in the UK I chose another jam that I think pairs well with the salty and nutty peanut butter.
The jam is the perfect, hidden centre which is both surprising and delicious!
How to make Vegan Peanut Butter and Blackcurrant Sandwich Cookies
Vanilla shortbread
One of the key components of this recipe is the vanilla shortbread biscuit.
The shortbread dough is simple: made up of just caster sugar, vegan butter, plain flour and vanilla paste. These 4 ingredients come together to form a dough that can easily be rolled out and cut into circles.
You'll need a 5 cm, round cookie cutter to make the cookies. If you don't have a cookie cutter you could roll the dough into a log and then cut the log into slices. Either way, you don't want your biscuits to be more than 5-6 mm thick.
An important step in making the shortbread biscuits is chilling the dough. This is to stop the biscuits spreading in the oven. Just 30 minutes in the fridge is long enough to prevent this.
Once the dough is chilled all that's left to do is bake. Full instructions on temperate and time can be found in the recipe card below.
Peanut butter buttercream
There are just 4 ingredients in the buttercream: peanut butter, vegan butter, icing sugar and plant milk.
You don't want to use a peanut butter that is too oily as this will not mix well with the vegan butter and so you won't get as creamy a buttercream. It may even split.
I find that the more "fancy" the peanut butter the more likely it is to have oil sitting on top of it. You may wish to opt for a cheaper brand to avoid this.
Making the buttercream is as simple as putting all of the ingredients in a bowl and beating until it is smooth and creamy. It make take some time to move past the grainy stage and into the silky smooth stage but persevere!
It's then ready to pipe.
Blackcurrant jam
Do you know how to make your own jam? Perhaps you grow your own blackcurrants. If so, you should definitely make your own blackcurrant jam for use in this recipe.
Me, I just use store bought. The choice is yours.
The recipe
Vegan Peanut Butter and Blackcurrant Sandwich Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 5 cm round cookie cutter
- 1 large baking sheet
Ingredients
For the vanilla shortbread biscuits
- 125 g caster sugar
- 200 g vegan butter this should be block butter not spreadable butter
- 300 g plain flour
- 0.5 teaspoon vanilla paste
For the filling
- 150 g icing sugar
- 50 g vegan butter
- 50 g peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon plant milk add 1 more tablespoon max if needed to make it smooth and creamy
- 12 teaspoon blackcurrant jam
Instructions
To make the vanilla shortbread biscuits
- In a large bowl beat together the vegan butter and caster sugar until pale and creamy.
- Add in the vanilla paste and beat until well combined.
- Next add in the plain flour and mix until it comes together into a dough. This can take some time. Persevere, it will come together!
- Turn the dough out on to a floured surface. Knead just once or twice if necessary to bring it together - no more or this could make a tough biscuit.
- Roll out the dough until its 5-6 mm thick.
- Cut out 24 round biscuits. You may need to bring the dough back together and re-roll to get enough cookies.
- Place the biscuits on to a baking try lined with baking paper and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, pre-heat the oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.
- Once the biscuits have been chilled, bake for 10 - 12 minutes until golden brown. Don't worry if they still feel a bit soft. They will firm up once they cool down.
- Allow to cool completely before filling.
To fill
- Place the icing sugar, peanut butter, vegan butter and plant milk into a large bowl.
- Beat until smooth and creamy.
- Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag.
- Pipe a ring of buttercream around the edge of the base of 12 of the cookies.
- Fill the hole that's left with a teaspoon of blackcurrant jam.
- Take the remaining biscuits and sandwich these on top of the biscuits with the buttercream and jam.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
Variations
There are lots of different ways you could tweak this recipe for example switching up the nut butter or choosing a different flavour jam. Two of my favourite combinations are:
- almond butter and strawberry jam,
- chocolate hazelnut butter with black cherry jam.
Storage instructions
So long as you keep your sandwich cookies in an air tight container they will last up to 5 days.
More cookie recipes
For more biscuit and cookie recipes check out the biscuit and cookie recipe archive.
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