Chocolate Dipped Mini Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Imagine this: A tender shortbread cookie dough, with mini chocolate chips, baked until tender– then dipped in melted chocolate. Oh yeah! They are buttery, tender, slightly sweet and perfect for chocolate lovers. They are beautiful on a Christmas platter of cookies, yet perfect year-round.

Christmas Cookie Baking has begun! I’m off to a tasty start with this recipe for Shortbread Cookies with mini chocolate chips, and dipped in dark chocolate. Rich? Yes! So, what’s the difference between regular chocolate chip cookies and shortbread cookies? Eggs. That is, shortbread cookies don’t have eggs in them. They are, simply, butter, sugar and flour.

There is one detail that I would not change– use only mini chocolate chips. Regular chocolate chips would be too big, and would be too large for each cookie. Butter and powdered (not regular sugar) are creamed together. For flavor, some vanilla should do the trick. Last, add all purpose flour.

Shortbread is very different from traditional cookie batter (especially without egg to “bind” the dough). It’s very crumbly. You know it’s properly mixed, when you can squeeze some crumbles together and it “sticks”.

That’s when you add the mini chocolate chips and give them a good mix.

Done! So, how does one form this crumbly dough into cookies? Easy! You need a one gallon zip-loc bag and a rolling pin.

Step one: fill the bag with the shortbread dough and evenly disperse, pressing out any excess air.

Step two: Flatten the dough with a rolling pin, until the dough begins to adhere.

Step Three: Refrigerate for at least an hour. (I made mine the day before).

Preheat the oven to 325F and line your baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Cut open the zip-loc bag and cut the dough into bars. NOTE: I cut about a dozen rectangle cookies, but found that the edges of the dough were very crumbly. I fixed that by placing some plastic wrap over the crumbly dough, pressing it until it became “one” again.

Bake between 18-24 minutes, depending on your oven (mine took 24 minutes). You want the cookies to be slightly brown on the edges. I let them cool, a bit, right on the baking sheet.

I used to have plenty of fails in melting chocolate– more than I care to admit. I’m fortunate to have two Trader Joe’s near where I live. I love their Belgian chocolate bars, because they are not really expensive and they melt beautifully! (I think that chocolate chips are a challenge for me to temper/melt, because of the additives that make them into a morsel shape.) I have learned to melt them in my microwave in 30 second intervals. Stir. Repeat, until the chocolate is fully melted. At last! No more seized chocolate. The solution? Don’t scorch the chocolate by microwaving it for longer than 30 seconds at a time.

Oh my goodness! How easy was that?! The cookies were still barely warm, but that was no problem to dip them in chocolate. I set the cookies right back on the parchment paper so that the chocolate could set. Likewise, you can refrigerate them for 15 minutes or so.

Chocolate heaven!

TASTING NOTES: The cookies were really easy to make, because there aren’t a lot of ingredients. Butter and powdered sugar makes a really tender cookie. The balance of cookie to chocolate chip is perfect. The chocolate dip makes these very rich– so I can only eat one or two at a time. That’s a good thing! I think this recipe has possibilities for variations– change the chips to other flavors like cappuccino (I have a bag or two of those), or even white chocolate. Switch out the chocolate chips for dried cranberries, or even nuts!