Chocolate Dipped Cookies
These chocolate dipped shortbread cookies are soft, buttery with a little extra chocolate for the ultimate cookie treat. The dough needs to be chilled before rolling, so once it’s formed, place it in the fridge for at least one hour or until firm. The more patient you are, the prettier your cookies will be. The dough should roll out nicely and make beautiful cut-out cookies.
Shortbread cookies are great on their own, but everything gets better with a little bit of chocolate. For chocolate-dipped cookies, you’ll need to meet half of the chocolate, then add the remaining chocolate and stir occasionally until all of it is melted. Place your butter in a bowl of a hand mixer at room temperature then add in confectioners sugar, a little drop of vanilla then beat that on medium-low and let that cream together for about a minute or two.
You want everything to be well incorporated, once you have the sugar incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high. Add in flour and salt, that little salt is a very important ingredient so make sure you do not skip out that. Beat that on medium-low speed until its blend and then you are going to crank it up to medium-low for about a minute or so until everything is incorporated.
You want to make different shapes of cookies with this dough, at this point roll it up and put it in the fridge for about an hour until firms up really well. Make sure the sough is out of the bowl then place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Take either butter knife or a bench knife and cut your butter into six strips longways. You are going to bake these shortbread cookies in a 350 degrees oven for 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Once baked, take your shortbread out of the oven then recut them from the baking sheet and set them aside. Melt some bittersweet chocolate just in a little bowl in a microwave until its completely smooth then you are going to dip your fantastic shortbread cookies in the chocolate.
Ingredients;
- 2 cups (280 g/10 oz) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks/227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup (130 g/4.5 oz) granulated sugar (or 1 cup/120 g powdered sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 170 g/6 oz dark chocolate
Instructions;
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixer bowl place butter and sugar. With the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat on medium-low speed for 2-3 minutes.
- Beat in vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, beating just until the dough starts to come together.
- Do not overmix or the cookies will be tough.
- Form dough into a ball then flattens slightly to form a disc.
- Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until firm enough to roll.
- If you don’t want to use the dough right away, you can refrigerate it for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to a month, then thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften slightly for easy rolling.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a ¼-inch thickness.
- Cut into 2-inch squares/rounds using a cookie cutter and place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Reroll the remaining scraps and repeat. Place sheets of cookies in the freezer or fridge for at least 15 minutes, until firm, so that they will be less prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes, or until cookies appear golden brown at the edges.
- Baking time will vary and may take longer depending on the size of your cookies.
- Allow cookies to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then gently transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Place half of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, then place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
- Stir occasionally until melted. Add the remaining chocolate and remove the bowl from heat.
- Stir occasionally until smooth and glossy. Dip ½ of each cookie in the chocolate and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Place cookies in the refrigerator for a few minutes until chocolate hardens.
- Store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week.