Sweet and spicy

Just as I'm about to leave San Diego, I discover a lounge that was literally made for me! It's sad, but I've been making up for lost time and making as many trips to Starlite Lounge as my end-of-school schedule will allow. The atmosphere is beautiful and classy without being pretentious, and both the food and drink menus are very reasonably priced but high quality, inventive and absolutely delicious. Once I tasted the Velvet Diablo cocktail on my first trip, I knew that no other cocktail would ever measure up. It blends spicy and fizzy ginger beer, sweet creme de cassis, zesty lime and the punch of tequila - in other words, perfection. 

I had never really thought of using ginger in combination with a sweet and tart berry flavor, and when I was thinking of what to bake for my last weeks in San Diego, I knew that I had to somehow incorporate the Velvet Diablo. The result is below - buttery shortbread with a little zing of ginger sandwiching the creamy tartness and sweetness of fresh blackberry. Great for impending summer weather and even better for my last memory of baking in San Diego. 

NOTE: The buttercream needs to be refrigerated in order to stay relatively solid, so make sure the cookies are completely cooled before piping the filling and put them in the refrigerator after assembling. Don't leave them out for more than 10-15 minutes before eating :)

Velvet Diablo Shortbread Sandwiches

Adapted from Evil Shenanigans

Yields about 2 dozen sandwich cookies

Ginger shortbread cookies
1 1/3 C all-purpose flour

1/3 C cornstarch

1/2 tsp baking powder

10 Tbsp butter, room temperature

2/3 C powdered sugar

1-2 tsp ground ginger (depending on how spicy you'd like the cookies)

Blackberry buttercream

5 Tbsp butter, room temperature

2 Tbsp finely diced fresh blackberries (pull out the chunks of stem)

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare baking sheets with parchment. Combine all ingredients for cookies in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, and mix on low speed until the ingredients just come together. Increase speed to medium-high for about 30 seconds, until the dough starts to clump around the paddle. If you can't get it to incorporate after a couple of minutes, add water (maybe 1-2 tsp) to bind the dough better. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut with a cookie cutter (I use a shot glass!) and place cookies onto baking sheets about 1/4 inch apart. Continue re-rolling and cutting until all dough is used. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cookies are slightly puffed and just golden on the bottom edge. Cool completely on pans.

For buttercream, cream butter and blackberries then add powdered sugar. Blend until smooth. Add extra powdered sugar until the filling has the consistency of cake frosting.

Once the cookies are cool, pipe a dollop of filling onto the undersides of half of the cookies, then sandwich. Refrigerate until serving!