Messin’ with Perfection Dark Chocolate Espresso Shortbread
Who likes deep, dark, decadent chocolate? ME! Who doesn’t? Actually, as a chocolate lover, I am always a little amazed at people who don’t like it. Hmph. Go figure.
These are so chocolatey delicious ….and so easy. And, when you bake them in a round pan, you can cut them into wedges and turn them into Christmas tree cookies! Easy, but a wonderful change from sugar cookies. They go together in just a few minutes, then press them into a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan, or whatever you want to put them in.
I made these last year, and had an awful time remembering what I did, which was really annoying because they were sooo good.
These are quite intense chocolate, so you can always cut back on the cocoa. I used Hershey’s special dark, but you could use regular, it’s all about what you like. I just used a simple powdered sugar glaze, tinted it with regular old supermarket food coloring, put it in a sandwich baggie, and nipped a TINY corner off the bag to ice them. Easy, pretty, delicious, chocolatey trees!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon good vanilla
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa ( I used Special Dark)
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder ( I used Medaglia D'Oro Espresso powder)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sift together the first five ingredients and set aside.
- Beat the butter with the powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
- Press into an ungreased 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.
- Bake about 13-15 minutes for a softer cookie. For a crunchier shortbread, bake 20-23 minutes.
- Cool in the pan, then flip out onto a cutting board or surface. Cut into eight wedges. Decorate as desired.