Simple Shortbread Cookie Recipe Dipped In Chocolate
This super easy to make shortbread cookie recipe only uses 4 ingredients! Add some extra flavor and decoration with homemade chocolate drizzle and sprinkles! Perfect for your holiday gatherings!
It’s no secret, one of my most favorite past times is baking…and always has been. Chocolate chip cookies are my go-to…but when I’m feeling creative, I love to try out new recipes.
This usually happens when there is something much more important that I am “supposed” to be doing…like cleaning my house or packing for a trip. I have no idea why my brain works this way, but it literally begs me to do the complete opposite of what I should be doing – and create more mess! Ahhh!!
The other day, when I was supposed to be cleaning my house and packing for a trip out of state (ha! it was the perfect storm) I was feeling stressed and needed some sugar. So, I decided to try my hand at homemade shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate. Isn’t this the type of de-stressor everyone partakes in?
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A few days before, I had made Homemade Petits-Beurre Recipe | French Butter Cookies, which were amazing, so I wanted to play off of that recipe, but with a twist. I took to Pinterest and came across a recipe that seemed easy, so I got busy gathering supplies!
Confession: I have a true baker’s kitchen. I have an entire cabinet designated to extra baking supplies. Yes, you read that correctly, extra. There is nothing worse to me than running out of flour, or sugar or not having sprinkles when you are mid-recipe. So, I sifted through my basket of sprinkles and decided upon these adorable little gingerbread boys and Christmas colored stars and balls…and got busy doing what I should not have been doing! Baking! 🙂
Ingredients
- butter – pretty much every recipe out there says to use unsalted butter. But, I buck the system every single time and use salted butter
- flour – use all-purpose flour, however, I highly suggest using a fine mesh strainer to sift the flour before adding it to the batter. To be honest, I never used to do this, and I thought it was a waste of time. However, after reading lots of European recipes, I’ve learned the importance of sifting the flour beforehand!
- powdered sugar – also called Confectioner’s sugar. Just like the flour, you can sift the powdered sugar beforehand as well
- salt – I used coarse Kosher salt. Kosher salt has a more pure salt taste than iodized salt, so I typically use Kosher in my recipes
Let’s Make Them Together!
How To Make Shortbread Cookie Dough
In a large mixing bowl, add room temperature butter. If you forgot to let your butter sit out on the counter to become room temperature, place it in the microwave in 5 second increments to soften. Do not let the butter become melted.
Beat butter with a paddle attachment until it is creamed, about 10 seconds. Add powdered sugar and mix again until creamed, about 10 more seconds.
Sift flour using a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl. Add salt. Slowly add flour and salt to creamed butter and powdered sugar.
Dough mixture will resemble a crumbly texture.
Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured surface.
Form dough into a ball using your hands.
*Tip: To avoid adding too much flour to make your dough not stick to the rolling pin, place a piece of parchment paper over the top of the dough and then roll out.
The dough will roll nice and smooth and not stick to the rolling pin.
Remove parchment paper and cut your desired shapes using cookie cutters. I chose to use scalloped edged circle cookie cutters.
Carefully remove the excess cookie dough from around the cut outs. Using an angled spatula, gently transfer the cut out cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake at 325°F for about 8 minutes.
Transfer baked cookies onto a cooling rack to cool.
How To Make Dipping Chocolate for Shortbread Cookies
Once your cookies have cooled, it’s time to begin decorating them! This is the fun part!
If you have a double boiler, you can use that – I do not, so I brought a medium sauce pan filled with water to a boil and placed a heat safe glass bowl in the sauce pan.
Fill with semi-sweet chocolate chips and stir frequently with a plastic spatula until all of the chips have melted. (wondering why I have bubbles in my sauce pan? I was multi-tasking and added a little bit of dish soap to the boiling water to remove some burnt popcorn kernels, haha! Just ignore!)
Carefully dip each individual shortbread cookie in melted chocolate and allow excess to drip off.
Place chocolate dipped or drizzled cookies back on the cooling rack and sprinkle on your favorite sprinkles!
Allow chocolate to fully dry before removing from the cooling rack and serving or packing into a container for gift giving or eating!
The cookies turned out delicious and super cute! They were so festive and totally got me back into the mood of cleaning and packing! Sometimes it just takes a little break to do something you enjoy to get back to task for the things you don’t enjoy!
Simple Shortbread Cookies Dipped In Chocolate with Sprinkles
Equipment
- cookie cutter
Ingredients
- 1 c salted butter softened, room temperature
- 1/4 c granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 c powdered sugar also called Confectioner's sugar
- 2 c all purpose flour
- pinch salt
- 1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips melted for dipping or drizzling
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat oven to 325°F
- Remove butter from refrigerator and set on counter. Allow butter to soften to room temperature. About 1-2 hours before using
Making The Dough
- In a stand mixer, cream room temperature butter
- Add sugar, vanilla extract and powdered sugar
- Beat on high for 2 minutes, until the butter mixture becomes creamed and whipped. Do not over mix
- In a small bowl, sift flour using fine mesh strainer
- Add salt
- Slowly add the flour and salt to the butter mixture, with the mixer on a low speed. Mix until the cookie dough becomes crumbly
Roll & Cut Dough
- Remove crumbly dough from mixing bowl and place on a lightly floured surface.
- Using your hands, form the dough into a ball
- Cover with parchment paper and carefully roll the dough out to 1/4"-1/2" thickness
- Using cookie cutters of your choice, cut dough. Remove excess dough and repeat steps above
- Place cut out shapes on a parchment lined cookie sheet
- Bake for 8 minutes or until done
- Remove baked cookies from the baking sheet and let cool on a cooling rack
Dipping/Drizzling Chocolate
- In a medium sauce pan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil
- Place a glass, heat-resistant bowl in the sauce pan, but not touching the water, and pour in chocolate chips
- Using a heat-resistant spatula, mix the chocolate as it melts
- Carefully dip each cookie in the melted chocolate and then place on the cooling rack to dry
- Optional: sprinkle with your choice of sprinkles
Nutrition
Happy baking, friends!!
I found this recipe from Simply Homecooked and adapted it to my liking.
More Delicious Cookies
Homemade Petits-Beurre | French Butter Cookies
Snowball Cookies | Mexican Wedding Cookies
These cookies look so yummy and are so pretty and festive for Christmas!
Looks wonderful! Love your recipes!
Super delicious and really easy to make!
Your shortbread cookies look easy and beautiful. Where did you find the colorful sprinkles with the stars, hearts, etc?
Recipe does not state how much flour is needed
Hi Brenda! Thank you SO much for bringing that to my attention! I’m not sure what happened when I updated the recipe, the flour disappeared! HAHA! I have corrected it now, and the shortbread cookie recipe calls for 2 cups of all purpose flour. Happy baking…and thanks again for letting know!!
Delicious!!