Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches

Easy vegan buttery shortbread with a strawberry swirl buttercream filling sandwiched together. These are fun and easy to make and great for gifts and for dipping in tea!

Shortbread is quiet a nostalgic recipe for a lot of us and it’s something familiar. While there a million different biscuits and cookies out there, something a simple shortbread is all you fancy with a cup of tea or coffee… or to turn into shortbread sandwiches. Inspired by the lovely fresh summery strawberries, I wanted to jazz up the tradition shortbread with a little pink goodness.

Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches

These Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches are:

  • Easy to make
  • Naturally vegan
  • Quick to make and roll-out
  • A small batch recipe (which you can easily multiple to make more)
  • Buttery and sweet
  • Crisp and crunchy
  • Golden and delicious
  • Sandwiched together with the easiest and most delicious strawberry swirl buttercream

These Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches really are simple to make but impressive to serve to guests, it’s all about the swirl buttercream. I’ve made similar version a few times now and they always amaze me how beautiful they are. Here’s how to make the swirl buttercream:

  • Step one: make one buttercream mix with vegan butter, icing sugar and plant-based milk.
  • Step two: divide the buttercream in half, keeping one half plain.
  • Step three: to the second half of buttercream, add some strawberry powder and pink food gel and beat again until smooth.
  • Step four: add the white plain buttercream to one piping bag and the pink strawberry buttercream to a second piping bag.
  • Step five: snip the ends off both piping bags.
  • Step six: have a third piping bag ready with a star-shaped nozzle. Place both white and pink piping bags inside the third bag.
  • Step seven: gently squeeze the piping bags so that they evenly come out the nozzle and pipe away.

It’s really quite simple, and I posted a how-to video on my social media, too, showing this process which you can see here.

Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches

Once the buttercream is ready, you can pipe onto half of the shortbread cookies and then sandwich them together. But first, what goes into the shortbread part of these Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches?

  • Vegan butter: a block of vegan butter is better than margarine spread here as it contains less water and is more buttery in taste. There are a few good brands in the UK which I love to use.
  • White sugar: I like caster sugar as the texture is finer and makes for the best shortbread. These aren’t overly sweet, just the right amount.
  • Vanilla essence: this adds to the lovely sweetness.
  • Plain flour: once the butter and sugar are beaten together with the vanilla, beat in the flour until a sticky dough forms. You can also use a GF blend with some xantham gum, but I have not yet tested this.

It is best to let the dough chill in the fridge before rolling it out and cutting out your desired shapes. Any cutters you have will work wonders here. I went for a fluted edge circle cutter that is about 5-cm in diameter and then I also made some smaller cookies with the scraps. Carry on rolling out the scraps until you’ve used all the dough. They don’t take long to bake until golden and then allow the shortbread to cool before moving them around.

Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches

If you would rather eat these plain, you can add a sprinkle of sugar on top and eat them as they are. Or, now is the time to sandwich them together with the best strawberry swirl buttercream as above.

If you are making these Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches, I suggest saving a few to make my latest Banana Bread creation (coming later this week) which is similarly inspired by our love for shortbread and summery strawberries.

While this recipe makes 14 shortbread sandwiches, you can multiple the recipe as necessary to make more shortbread – they don’t last long as they are so tasty! But they will last for 2-3 days in the fridge, although the buttercream will mean they turn less crisp as they sit.

If you are looking for more cookies and biscuits to make, how about my:

Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches (GF-Option)

  • Servings: 14 cookie sandwiches
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Easy vegan buttery shortbread with a strawberry swirl buttercream filling sandwiched together. These are fun and easy to make and great for gifts and for dipping in tea.

Ingredients

    For the shortbread:
  • 100g vegan butter
  • 60g white caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 150g plain flour, plus extra to dust (or GF flour + 1 tsp xantham gum)
  • For the filling:
  • 50g vegan butter, room temperature
  • 150g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp plant-based milk
  • 1 tsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
  • A few drops of pink food gel/colouring
  • 20g strawberry jam

Directions

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar until soft. Now stir in the vanilla essence. Sift in the plain flour and bring to a sticky ball of dough.
  2. Wrap the dough and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  3. Preheat the oven to 140Fan/160*C and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
  4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2cm thickness and cut out the cookies, using any shape or size (aim for an even number). Re-roll any scraps of dough to use it all up. I made 28 shortbread cookies and about 10 mini cookies.
  5. Transfer to the baking sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
  6. Allow to cool on wire racks before moving the cookies.
  7. Make the buttercream by beating the butter until soft. Now, gradually add in the icing sugar and plant-based milk and beat until really fluffy. Remove half the frosting and place in a piping bag. To the second half of frosting, add the strawberry powder and a few drops of pink food colouring/gel and beat until incorporated. Add the strawberry frosting to a second piping bag.
  8. Snip off the ends of both bags and place in a third piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle attached. Pipe a ring around half of the shortbread cookies. Fill the middle with some strawberry jam and sandwich together with a second shortbread. Repeat to make all the shortbread sandwiches.
  9. Store the cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days although best eaten fresh as the buttercream will soften the shortbread.
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches
Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches

I hope you will love these Vegan Strawberry Shortbread Sandwiches so please let me know what you think in the comments below. If you do make the shortbread, I would love to see them so please tag me in your bakes – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on TwitterFacebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With strawberry shortbread love x

  1. Hey my friend Amy. Such a wonderful recipe for Uk 🇬🇧 summer and I definitely love strawberries 🍓 one of my faves flavours. I adore 🥰 shortbread and with my favourite flavours of strawberries 🍓 I am drooling right now hehehe. Splendid photography as always and saved to my WordPress saved collection.
    What type of piping bags/nozzles do you recommend as I don’t have any icing equipment atm or to know which piping bags to get from the shops? Lol 😂 I am such a newbie cook 👩🏻‍🍳 the recipe seems to be tad complicated- where is your video on how to make?
    I can’t wait to catch up on your creative impact podcasts, plus read your e newsletters, rest of your socials/ blog and the creative impact magazines.
    Best Wishes Sophs 🐶😁

    Can’t wait for London food lifestyle food events to resume – come and see your wonderful cooking demos soon

    • The recipe video is linked and it takes you to the IG Reels for the frosting – if that’s too complicated you can just do one colour/flavour of frosting and pipe! You can get all piping equipment on amazon – enjoy!

  2. Love your nails 💅🏻 matching to the strawberry 🍓 colours and icing is so on point as well!

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