Classic Shortbread

I don’t know what it is about shortbread, but I can’t get enough of it. 

There’s something about the rich, buttery, cookie that makes my heart skip a beat every time it's placed in front of me.

Not to mention the ease of preparing and the basic ingredients make it even more appealing to skip the box at the grocery store and make it yourself.

During the holidays I was seeing shortbread pop up all over the place and knew it was a sign- I had to make some. I even got some delicious chocolate covered shortbread from Sara over at Caffe Ina and boy was it amazing. 

When Mountain Man came home from work the other evening and knew I had something in the oven his eyes lit up when I let him know what was slowly baking its way into our tummies.

Like I said, this cookie couldn’t be more simple and I think that’s part of its charm.

So go ahead and bake yourself a little piece of buttery heaven..

Classic Shortbread

Oven: 300 Bake time: 30-40 minutes

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 cup flour

dash of salt

Sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking dish with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Slowly sift in flour and salt and mix until well combined.

Press cookie dough into baking dish and flatten with spatula.

With a fork, prick dough into small squares, pushing all the way down.

Sprinkle generously with sugar.

Bake at 300 for 30-40 minutes or until light brown.

Happy Baking!!

ps. In other news, we set a date! Come Oct.1, 2011 I'll be Mrs. Mountain man!!

Chocolate Covered Short-zel-bread

So right now I'm going to admit I'm a huge nerd....when I can't sleep I often brainstorm different combos for new cookies and cakes. The week before the Super Bowl, I started thinking of something sweet I could bring to the party I was attending. For whatever reason, the first thing that came to mind was chocolate covered pretzels.. chocolate, pretzels, sweet, salty...an amazing combination. Chocolate covered pretzels was too easy though.. I had to come up with something good and then it dawned on me:

a shortbread cookie (also one of my faves) +chocolate covered pretzels= chocolate covered short-zel-bread.

These cookies have the consistency of shortbread, with a hint of peanut butter, combined with crushed up pretzels and dipped in chocolate. They take a little bit of time because they need to be refrigerated or frozen, but that also means you can make them ahead of time and leave them in the freezer until you have time to bake them!

Chocolate Covered Short-zel-bread

A swEEts Original
Oven: 350 Bake time: 12 minutes

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4cup of flour

3/4 cup crushed pretzels

2TBS peanut butter

Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter, egg yolk, sugar, peanut butter and vanilla.

Add flour and crushed pretzels (to crush pretzels use a food processor, if you don't have one place pretzels in a ziplock bag and crush with your hands or beat with back of large spoon).

Divide dough into a log and wrap in saran wrap. Refrigerate until firm (at least an hour) or place in the freezer. After the dough has been chilled, uncover the dough and cut into slices. Place slices onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes.

After the cookies are baked place cookies on cooling rack. Once cookies are cooled, it's time to melt the chocolate. Place semi-sweet chocolate morsels in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute. Mix chocolate chips until smooth- if some chips still remain heat for another 10 seconds. Dip each cookie in chocolate and place on wax paper or the same parchment paper you used to bake the cookies on. Place freshly dipped cookies in refrigerator for another 10 minutes or so.

Happy Baking! :)