Our chocolate-covered Chocolate Shortbreads have a biscuit-like texture making them awesome for dipping into hot chocolate after playing in the snow!
My children have been hoping for a snowstorm since November. Unfortunately, Long Island just doesn’t get the types of snowstorms that we used to get when I was a kid.
I promise I won’t go into Global Warming in this post, but…when I was a kid, the “snow seasons” used to be so snowy that our father used to build us igloos on the front lawn. Scouts Honor! As he shoveled out the driveway, he would pile the mounds of snow onto the front lawn, and then dig a tunnel through it for us to sit in.
Nowadays, we’re lucky to get one good snowstorm each year. For some people, that might be one snowstorm too many, but for our kids, it’s just not enough.
So every time they hear the weatherman even whisper “snow”, they get all sorts of riled up. The snow pants come out of the closet, the boots go by the front door, and the hats and mittens are placed on the radiator to get nice and toasty – just in case.
A few weeks ago, it did snow, and by snow, I mean we got 1-2 inches. But if you were watching them, you would have thought that a blizzard blew through town.
I had baked this modified version of Ina’s shortbread recipe that day, and even though I really needed to snap some pretty pictures for this blog post, I just couldn’t keep them inside. It would have been cruel. So, we bundled up and I dragged my shortbreads outside. I snapped a few iffy pictures, and then I realized that I could care less about the shortbreads. I really wanted to take pictures of the kids instead, and off I went.
So, as for the shortbreads – they were tasty. My kids had a blast rolling out the dough with me, dipping them in melted chocolate, and covering them in sprinkles.
But this post really isn’t about the shortbreads anymore…it’s about paying attention to the here-and-now. The shortbreads would have be there the following day, but the snow – well, it might not have been. So, I opted for the here-and-now choice: playing in the snow – and, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon than freezing my butt off with my kids!
CHOCOLATE SHORTBREADS
Ingredients:
- 3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup cocoa
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup milk, use as needed to moisten dough
- 8 ounces very good semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I also used white chocolate.)
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Step 2: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. Add in egg.
Step 3: In a medium bowl, sift together the cocoa, flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. (If dough is too dry, add milk as needed to moisten the dough a bit.)
Step 4: Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Step 5: Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a 3 by 1-inch finger-shaped cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Step 6: When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring often, until it’s completely smooth. (Don’t have a double boiler? Don’t worry! Fill a saucepan with a smidge of water and rest another bowl inside of it. Just make sure that the bowl with the choocolate doesn’t touch the simmering water underneath. Chocolate seizes if it touches water!)
Step 7: Drizzle, coat, or dip your cookies into the chocolate and decorate with sprinkles if your children insist upon it like mine do!
Hoping for a big one,
Denine
Leave a Reply