The ole MSBH really hit it out the park with their shortbread cookie recipes. These Chocolate Shortbread Fingers are no exception – they are brilliant.
Dutch processed cocoa (I love the King Arthur Flour Company’s “Double Dutch Dark Cocoa“) brings all the deep, dark chocolate flavor to these cookies; it’s mixed in with the dry ingredients. Cinnamon is used too, giving them that earthy Mexican chocolate flavor.
The dry ingredients are mixed with sugar and butter and dumped onto a parchment-lined baking sheet…
…and pressed down and against the sides with your fingers. My dough might have been a bit (just a bit) drier than it should have been and so it was a bit chunky and cracked at this stage. I was worried a bit (just a bit) but in the end the cookies were just fine.
While baking, your kitchen will smell like the most decadent chocolate shop in all the land. The tops get gorgeously crinkly. Upon removal from the oven and while still in the pan, the individual cookie “fingers” are cut.
Immediately after slicing the cookies, while still hot from the oven, the entire top is liberally sprinkled with sugar. A lot of the sugar melts to some degree and creates a wonderfully sweet contrast to the prominently deep, coffee-like chocolate flavor. Additionally, the subtle crunch from the sugar topping is a nice contrast to the dense, soft texture of the cookie itself.
The cookies cool completely in the pan and then are simply lifted out and separated. This is so easy – cutting them while they’re still hot from the oven is the key!
So simple, but so gorgeous.
One important caveat: they go from “Best Cookie Ever” to “Cardboard-y Grossness” overnight – they are best eaten the day they are made.
It is recipes like this one that make the MSBH one of my favorite baking books.
OMG – these are truly special. I would not have made them if I had not read your review – so thank you for saying they are brillant – because they are!
I know! They’re one of my FAVORITES.
We’re yours still soft after baking? I don’t know if I under-baked mine or if maybe it was my homemade butter. Or maybe they’re meant to be soft and chewy. Great flavor though!
I don’t recall but I think they were the consistency of regular shortbread. If hey had been overly soft I would have mentioned i in my post, I’m sure. (wow, you make yOur own butter!)