Jasmine Shortbread Sandwiches with Grapefruit Curd

These were seriously fabulous. The jasmine tea flavor is definitely there, but delicate. The grapefruit curd? You'll want it on everything! Only a teaspoon goes in the shortbread sandwich because if you put on more, it will ooze out when you bite into it. On some, I just took one cookie and spread the curd on it and ate it open faced. But for company, you'll like the tea sandwich look of these cookies.
I'll be making these again; you guessed it.....for my Garden Club group.

Jasmine Shortbread Sandwiches with Grapefruit Curd
From Martha Stewart Living, March 2012 issue

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

Coarse salt

2 tablespoons finely ground organic jasmine tea

Fine sanding sugar

1/3 cup Grapefruit Curd (recipe follows)

Method:

In an electric mixer, beat together the butter and confectioners sugar until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the tea. Beat on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix. Form the dough into two disks, wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate an hour or up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 325. Roll out a disk between two sheets of parchment paper until it is 1/8 inch thick. Put in the freezer for 10 minutes.

With a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, cut out squares. Then, with a knife, cut the squares in half.  Gently press one side in sanding sugar and bake sugar side up on parchment paper for 16 to 18 minutes or until pale gold. Cool on a rack.

Place 1 generous teaspoon of the grapefruit curd on the unsugared side and sandwich the cookie with the other half.

Grapefruit Curd

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh Ruby Red Grapefruit juice (this is about 2 grapefruit) plus 3 tablespoons of grapefruit zest

3 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

Coarse salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Method:

Bring grapefruit juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer until juice is reduced by half. Let cool.

Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, zest and a pinch of salt in a double boiler over simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, about 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter, piece by piece. Pour mixture through a fine sieve, set over ice water and stir until cool or refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours and up to 2 days. This makes two cups of curd, way more than you will need for the cookies, so you can reduce the recipe accordingly.

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