Chocolate-Dipped Espresso Shortbread Cookies

This recipe comes from the Absolutely Chocolate cookbook by Fine Cooking, which I discovered from an episode of Anna and Kristina’s Grocery Bag.   I love this show – they choose a cookbook, make a bunch of recipes (often not very successfully), and then invite a chef to judge their work.  Anyways, this was one of the big hits from the episode about this cookbook.  So I took the book out of the library and made the recipe. Love It!

I made the cookies into hearts, just like the recipe suggested, but of course you can make circles or any other shape your heart desires.

What you need:

• 1 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 & 1/4 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons finely ground espresso beans (you could just go to the grocery store or coffee shop and get enough freshly ground beans for the recipe)
• 9 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)

What you do:

1. Combine the butter, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes.
2. Add the flour and espresso and mix with a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes, until the mixture just starts to come together.
3. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Use a cookie cutter to form the cookies, then place them on a parchment-lined pan.  Refrigerate for about 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 300F.  After the cookies have been refrigerated, bake them for about 35-40 minutes, or until they have become lightly golden brown.  Place the baked cookies on a wire rack to cool.
5. Heat the chocolate and oil in the top of a double boiler; I just put a bowl on top of a pot that has a little water in it, then heat that on the stove to melt the chocolate.  When the chocolate has melted, dip each cookie in the chocolate, scraping the bottom of the cookie lightly on the edge of the chocolate bowl to get a little of the extra chocolate off.  Cool the cookies on a parchment or wax-paper lined pan.
6. Allow the chocolate to set for at least 2 hours.  Store the cookies in an airtight container with a sheet of parchment or wax paper between each cookie so they don’t stick together.