Shortbread Cookies - Raspberry and Almond

 

So, yes, I am on a bit of a shortbread cookie kick right now.  I'm like this with most things in life...can't get enough of something and then move on to the next obsession!  Meals, TV shows, songs, outfits, and now shortbread cookies.

This time, I wanted to add different extracts to my favorite shortbread recipe; the one I used for the Cherry Hearts Dipped in Chocolate.  I love it as a buttery shortbread, but I also think it's a good base for adding different flavors to change things up.  The Peanut Butter with Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies and Dutch Chocolate Shortbread with Peanut Butter Chips Cookies recipes are quite different from this one.  Those, as I wrote, are melt-in-your-mouth soft, crumbly cookies.  This recipe has an initial "crunch" at first bite with a soft chewy center.  I really love that combination.

I was making these cookies as a "Thank You", which was a great opportunity to use my new cutter set from Williams-Sonoma.  There are three basic shapes and removable sayings and letters to spell out whatever you wish.  This was my first time using them:

As I was going through lots of shortbread cookie recipes trying to find what I wanted to use, I read many user comments and one thing really stuck out to me.  People seem to confuse shortbread cookies with cut-out cookie recipes.  There seems to be an expectation that using a cookie cutter with shortbread will produce the same result as sugar cookies.  This is not at all true.  I was not sure what to expect using these cutters, especially with the words imprinted, I was completely experimenting.  Shortbread cookies are very crumbly and do not hold their shape as precisely when baking as cut-outs.  They are a dryer tasting cookie, delicious in their own way, but different.  Knowing this ahead of time will help manage expectations of what you are trying to achieve.

Shortbread Cookies

Adapted slightly from Ina Garten

3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon raspberry extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

A few drops red food coloring (to desired hue)

6 to 7 ounces very good semisweet chocolate, finely chopped


(To make the almond version, substitute 1 teaspoon almond extract for the raspberry extract and omit the food coloring)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together butter and one cup of sugar until they are just combined.  Add the vanilla, raspberry extract and food coloring..  In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt and add them to the butter/sugar mixture.  Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.  Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a disk.  Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2 inch thick and cut with chosen cutter.  Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar.  

Bake 20-25 minutes or until edges begin to brown slightly.  DO NOT OVERBAKE!!!  Allow to cool to room temperature.

When the cookies are cooled, place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Put 3 ounces of chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds.  Stir with a wooden spoon.  Continue to head and stir in 30 second intervals until the chocolate is just melted.  Add the remaining chocolate and allow to sit at room temperature , stirring often, until it is completely smooth.  Stir vigorously until the chocolate is cooled and smooth and slightly cooled.  Stirring makes it glossier.


Drizzle each cookie half way with enough chocolate to coat it.

First, though these may not be the pretties cookies, they taste GOOD!  I love this recipe!!  You may note what I was talking about with the shape holding up while baking.  The letters are askew and uneven.  Fortunately, this does not affect the taste!  For this cookie experiment, the flavor was a success, the cut-outs not so much.  Next time, I will use a simple cutter with no lettering.

This will conclude my foray into shortbread cookies!  I have several orders to fill in the next few days that need my attention.  There will be cakepops, brownies, bailey's cupcakes, green velvet cupcakes, and Minnie Mouse cupcakes.  Yay!

Dutch Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips

Yeah, this is a good cookie!  After making the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies I was thinking the only thing that could taste better would be Chocolate Shortbread with Peanut Butter Chips!  I don't know why, but a chocolate cookie base gets me every time.  It's a weakness.  :)

I searched everywhere for a chocolate shortbread recipe that would fit what I had in mind.  I found myself in the same reference place as with the Peanut Butter Shortbread - The View From Great Island.  She's some kind of a shortbread genius!  These cookies absolutely melt in your mouth and I am a huge fan of rolling the dough into a log to slice and bake the cookies.  Super smart!

Dutch Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips
adapted very slightly from The View From Great Island

1 stick butter (I used salted), room temperature
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa
peanut butter chips
milk chocolate chips, if desired

• In medium bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and cocoa.
• In large bowl, beat together butter and vanilla until fluffy.
• Add dry ingredients to butter and combine together with electric mixer.
• Dough will be extremely crumbly.  After ingredients are combined, use a wooden spoon to mix crumbs into a dough.
• Add peanut butter chips, whatever your desired amount is.  I like a lot.
• Since this cookie dough is not overly sweet, add a small amount of milk chocolate chips, if desired, just to give it a little more sugary chocolate taste.
• Turn dough onto waxed paper and shape into log.
• Wrap waxed paper around log of dough and twist ends like a piece of candy.

• Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
• Remove waxed paper and slice dough into discs.  Place on cookie sheet.

• Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.
• Cookies will be extremely soft when finished baking. DO NOT overbake!  
• Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 15 minutes before removing.  When they are cooled they will be solid.
• Eat and enjoy!

I really love these cookies!  They have a perfect balance of chocolate and peanut butter.  I think the addition of milk chocolate chips adds the right amount of sweetness to elevate the chocolate taste, which makes the peanut butter shine!  As I mentioned in my last shortbread post - these cookies are so easy and so quickly put together they make a nice day-of dessert with minimal fuss.  If you like shortbread cookies, peanut butter, and chocolate....this is a winner!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

 

If you like shortbread cookies you are going to want to try this recipe ASAP.  One of the things I love about shortbread is the ease and quickness of making them from beginning to end.  Very few ingredients are required with no complicated maneuvers.  You can add different flavorings to them for some variety, as I did with my Cherry Shortbread Hearts.  I've also experimented with raspberry and almond extract, which I'll be posting about soon.  When these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies showed up on Pinterest, I knew immediately I would love them and had to mix up a batch just to be sure.  I was not wrong!  Give them a try yourself:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

recipe by The view from the Great Island

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  
• In a standing or electric mixer cream together butter and peanut butter.
• Beat in the vanilla.
• Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in separate bowl.
• Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and beat just until combined.
• Stir in chocolate chips.
• Turn the dough out onto waxed paper, and shape like a log.

• Roll the wax paper completely around the dough, maintaining log shape.
• Twist the ends like a piece of candy.

• Refrigerate for several hours.
• Cut into 1/3 thick slices and bake for 12-14 minutes.

• Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before placing them on wire rack to cool completely.
• EAT!

Okay, so embarrassing at it is to admit, once again, I did not read the entire recipe thoroughly and used semi-sweet chips rather than milk chocolate.  Believe me when I tell you, this does not work.  This cookie needs the sweetness of milk chocolate to really bring out the flavor of the peanut butter.  What I ended up doing was pressing some milk chocolate chips onto the cookies before baking (once I recognized my mistake).  Perfection.  In fact, I loved the semi-sweetness combined with the milk chocolate for a more layered chocolate/peanut butter taste.  And, I must add, the sea salt really makes this recipe!  All of the flavors combined just really, really work together to make one fantastic cookie.  I hope you enjoy them, too!

Cherry Shortbread Hearts Dipped in Chocolate

I am leaving in a few minutes for vacation.  While I am gone I have attempted to schedule two automatic posts on cupcakes.  This is my first time doing it this way, so I hope it works!  If not, I'll post them live when I'm back in a little over a week.  Please bear with me!  Now, onto the cookies....

I'll get right to it....these didn't turn out exactly as I had planned.  I've made this shortbread cookie before and it's heavenly.  This time I forgot to skim the recipe beforehand (have I mentioned it's so important to read the recipe before beginning!) so I rolled the dough too thin.  When that happens they  brown past the edges.  When that happens the don't taste great.  Trust me.  Not that they were AWFUL, just not what they could and should have been.  Here's the recipe, which, if you follow correctly, will produce wonderful, buttery shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate.  Promise!

Shortbread Cookies

Adapted slightly from Ina Garten

3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice

1/2 cup maraschino cherries, chopped

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

A few drops red food coloring (to desired hue)

6 to 7 ounces very good semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together butter and one cup of sugar until they are just combined.  Add the vanilla, cherry juice, cherries and food coloring..  In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt and add them to the butter/sugar mixture.  Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.  Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a disk.  Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2 inch thick and cut with chosen cutter.  Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugar.  

Bake 20-25 minutes or until edges begin to brown slightly.  Allow to cool to room temperature.

When the cookies, place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Put 3 ounces of chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds.  Stir with a wooden spoon.  Continue to head and stir in 30 second intervals until the chocolate is just melted.  Add the remaining chocolate and allow to sit at room temperature , stirring often, until it is completely smooth.  Stir vigorously until the chocolate is cooled and smooth and slightly cooled.  Stirring makes it glossier.

Drizzle each cookie half way with enough chocolate to coat it.

I also have a difficult time with achieving glossy chocolate.  Still working on that.  The chocolate was too thick for me to drizzle, so I dipped, but the line is uneven and trying to fix it made things worse.  I will definitely make these again and try to improve on it.  The cherry flavor was nice and I like the bits of cherry throughout the cookie.  I thought about skipping posting these cookies altogether, but I promised I'd show the good, bad, and the ugly.  These cookies are a combination of the three, I think!

If you try your own version and have success, let me know!

I have shared this recipe with:

Shortbread Cookie Topped with Caramel, Chocolate, and a dash of Sea Salt

My, that's a mouthful!  But that's what this decadent dessert consists of.  So, if you like the combination of salty and sweet and you have 5 sticks of butter just laying around, let's get baking!

I came across this particular recipe on Annie's Eats, a blog I am in love with.  She has amazing creativity and the best recipes.  It does take a bit of time to put these cookie bars together, but I must admit, they are pretty spectacular!  They contain all of the items found in a Twix bar, but they really taste nothing like that.  As Annie puts it, these are a more sophisticated, grown up version of the beloved candy bar.

These bar cookies are made in three layers:  shortbread, caramel, and, chocolate.  To start, prepare the shortbread:

Shortbread

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup of Sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.  Make sure to cover the sides of the pan with the paper so the layers don't stick.  In one bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.  Set it aside.  In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix on low until all ingredients are incorporated.  Transfer mixture into the 9x13 pan and press it flat in an even layer.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden.  If the shortbread raises while baking, gently flatten it as it cools.

I should have lined the pan with the parchment paper entirely.

While the shortbread cools, begin making the caramel:

Caramel

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup sugar

4 tablespoons light corn syrup

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

Begin by adding the butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk into a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir the ingredients occasionally until the butter is melted.  Increase the heat to medium-high until it begins to boil.

Decrease the heat to medium again.  As the mixture simmers, stir constantly so it does not burn.  Continue simmering and stirring until the color becomes a nice amber and the sauce has thickened a bit.

Now, pour it over the shortbread layer and spread evenly:

Let it cool thoroughly so the caramel does not melt when you add the hot chocolate mixture.  You can chill it in the refrigerator.  I just let mine sit for awhile and answered some emails before beginning the chocolate.  ;)

Melted Chocolate Glaze

8 ounces of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chopped in small pieces

1 teaspoon light corn syrup

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Sea Salt to sprinkle on top

In a double boiler, add chocolate, corn syrup and butter.  If you don't have a double boiler, you can boil water on the stove top and place a heat proof bowl over simmering water, which is what I did.  Also, I used Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips rather than chopped chocolate.  It worked out just fine.  

Stir the mixture occasionally until it is melted smooth.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the caramel layer: 

Then use an off-set spatula to spread it evenly:

One last step, a few minutes after the chocolate sets, sprinkle some sea salt across the top.  I used a sea salt grinder.  The sweet/salty combination is amazing.  Cover and chill the pan of deliciousness, cut into bars when you are ready to serve it.  You can freeze what you don't use, which is advisable, as this is not a calorie friendly treat!  I think you'll love it, though.  Enjoy!

I shared this recipe with: