Use roughly 3 g thick jam per cookie and keep it away from the seam.
Yolk-bound shortbread folds around a small apricot center, creating crisp corners and a soft jam seam.
The recipe card lists measured ingredients, numbered steps, storage guidance, and a nutrition estimate when available. Total time includes the listed preparation, rest, baking, and cooling periods for this recipe.
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Apricot Foldover Christmas Shortbread Recipe
Follow the tray sizes, portions and baking intervals in the instructions below.
Total time includes hands-on preparation, required chilling or resting, whole-batch cooking, cooling and finishing.
Kitchen tools you’ll need
- mixing bowl
- mixer
- kitchen scale
- two 13 x 18-inch half sheets
- parchment
- rolling pin
- ruler
- small spoon
- wide spatula
- cooling rack
Ingredients
US measures are approximate. Gram weights help keep portions consistent; spice weights vary with density.
Instructions
Mix the dough
- Mix the dough: Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add yolk, then flour and salt. Press into a cohesive dough.
Shape and manage temperature
- Shape and manage temperature: Divide dough excluding jam into 24 portions, about 15 g. Flatten each between parchment into a 2 1/2-inch square, about 1/8 inch thick. Put about 3 g jam off center, fold corner to corner into a triangle and pinch edges gently, leaving a tiny center vent. Chill 35 minutes.
Bake the whole batch
- Bake the whole batch: Heat oven to 325°F (165°C) conventional or 300°F (150°C) fan. Arrange cookies on two parchment-lined 13 x 18-inch half sheets, 12 cookies per tray, with at least 1 inch between edges. Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack, keeping the waiting tray refrigerated for 18–22 minutes, rotating front to back once, until the edges and bases are lightly golden and the centers look dry. Whole-batch cookie baking is 2 trays x up to 22 minutes = 44 minutes.
Cool and finish
- Cool and finish: Rest 10 minutes on trays, then cool 30 minutes on a rack until the jam centers are fully cool.
Timing and scaling
- Timing and scaling: Active preparation is 40 minutes; required chill/rest is 35 minutes; whole-batch oven baking is 44 minutes; cooling/setting is 40 minutes. Cooling allowance runs from the final tray; earlier trays may cool during later baking and that overlap is not counted again. Start with butter at the stated consistency; ingredient warm-up and frozen-dough thawing are extra. Oven preheating can overlap shaping or chilling. Scale every ingredient weight but keep piece dimensions, oven temperature and per-tray bake range unchanged; extra trays increase whole-batch time.
Chef’s Science & Pro Tips
Ingredient science
The dough yolk gives the thin shortbread enough cohesion to fold around a filling.
Technique & texture
Use roughly 3 g thick jam per cookie and keep it away from the seam.
Finishing & serving
Leave a tiny vent so steam escapes without forcing open all the pinched edges.
Storage and make-ahead
| Method | How long | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Room temperature | 2 days | Up to 2 days. Keep filled cookies airtight in a cool room; jam softens the crumb, so fill near serving for crisper results. |
| Refrigeration | 5 days | Up to 5 days. Plain baked halves need no refrigerator. Filled jam cookies may be refrigerated airtight for longer keeping; bring covered to room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. |
| Raw freezing | 1 month | Up to 1 month. Freeze unfilled dough airtight; thaw covered overnight in the refrigerator before shaping and chilling. For foldovers, add fresh jam only after thawing the dough. |
| Baked freezing | 2 months | Up to 2 months unfilled. Freeze unfilled baked cookies airtight, separated by parchment; for foldovers, freeze baked filled cookies for up to 1 month. Thaw sealed at room temperature for 1–2 hours; assemble sandwiches with fresh jam. |
| Restoring | 2 hours | 1–2 hours thawing. Thaw sealed, then fill sandwich halves and dust windowed tops as directed. Do not oven-reheat jam-filled cookies or sugar-dusted tops. |
Notes
- Scale ingredients, including US measures, without changing cookie size or oven temperature. Extra trays increase whole-batch time.
Nutrition
Approximate values per portion from the listed ingredient weights divided into 24 equal portions. Includes required fillings and finishes. Brands, unused coatings and actual portion size affect the estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do my foldovers split?
Cold stiff dough cracks when bent; shape freshly mixed dough before the 35-minute tray chill.
Can I fill each with a teaspoon of jam?
That is too much for these small squares; use about 3 g from the specified 80 g total.
Are these puff pastry turnovers?
No; they use a butter-rich yolk shortbread dough with no lamination or leavener.
Browse more cookie ideas in the Christmas Shortbread Cookies collection.
