FULL DISCLOSURE: This post will contain a lot of Jurassic Park references.
Over the weekend, I experienced the crazy happy madness that is a bridal shower – specifically, my bridal shower! It was established by mmmm pretty much everyone prior to the party that a great gift idea would be baking and kitchen gadgets. They were very correct. Among many great gifts (and in between dangerous pink drinks and the best crab cakes I’ve ever had in my life), I got my very own Wez in the Kitchen apron…
..and this beautiful, magical, breathtaking beauty of a NEW ARTISAN STAND MIXER!!!
Needless to say, I was very excited. My delightful rockstar mom scoured a vintage shope to get me some gorgeous cake stands and serving platters, along with the coolest old school flour sack towels I’ve ever seen. But enough about presents…for now.
I decided as soon as I saw the new mixer that I wanted to break it in with a true feat of strength. I decided on a shortbread because the dough has no liquid and therefore gives the mixer a beating (har har). I also wanted shortbread because it can be rolled and cut…and I also got dinosaur fossil cookie cutters because I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVER THANK YOU GUYS! The cookies also got some royal icing, but I think I will save the royal icing for an icing-centric post in the future.
Welcome…to Jurassic Park.
Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cookie cutter of your choosing – quantity of cookies will change based on how big your cutters are!
You folks dig up…dig up dinosaurs? DIRECTIONS:
- In a medium sized bowl, sift the flour, cocoa and salt together and set aside.
You will remember to wash your hands before you eat anything??? - In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl while using a hand mixer), cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Gradually add the flour/cocoa mixture and mix until combined.
It will be very thick and you may think you’ve overworked it. You will be wrong. - Between two pieces of plastic wrap, form the dough into a disc with clean hands and roll it into a 1/4-inch thick sheet as evenly as possible. Chill for 20-30 minutes.
- Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Cut out the cookies using the cookie cutter of your choice and arrange them on the baking sheet.
- Pop the cookies back into the fridge for 5-10 minutes to firm them up one final time
Spared no expense! - Bake the cookies for 12 -15 minutes depending on thickness, or until crisp. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for two minutes, then transfer to a wire
cooling rack to finish cooling.
Bingo! Dino DNA! - After the cookies have cooled fully (if you feel so inclined), frost with either royal icing or buttercream depending on the type of cutter you used.
That doesn’t look very scary! More like a six-foot turkey.
And there you have it, folks. Delicious, delicious chocolate shortbread that lends itself well to decoration, dipping, or anything else you want to do with it! They hold their shape really well, and despite the amount of dry ingredients in the recipe they are surprisingly moist for shortbread.
The War On Fondant 