Don't Discriminate Against the Shortbread

I have never liked shortbread, it's just so plain to me and it is severely lacking in the chocolate and/or peanut butter department. But when I asked Glenn what I should make yesterday, he suggested just starting at the beginning of my 500 Cookies book and knocking out each recipe, one by one. That first recipe just happened to be shortbread. Incredibly easy and incredibly tasty. Needless to say, I actually like shortbread now... I guess as long as I make it myself. I don't like that shortbread is traditionally extremely dry and crumbly. I prefer a little chew to my cookies.


Scottish Shortbread (I don't understand the Scottish part)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons rice flour (I just used regular flour since I didn't have this specialty kind)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
Raw sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and line a 7 x 11 inch pan with aluminum foil. Sift the all purpose flour into a bowl and stir in the rice flour.

Beat the butter and the sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla extract. Work the dough until it starts to clump together, then press it into the pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The shortbread will seem to be done before it is, so ensure that it cooks the full 45 minutes (or if you are like me, you completely ignore this warning and do it your own way).

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the raw sugar, and cut into fingers. Cool for 20 minutes and remove from pan. For an extra tasty treat, dip half of the cookies into melted chocolate.

Is It Supposed to Look Like Brownie Batter?

Well, I got a new cookie cookbook which is super exciting, not that I need anymore, but this one just begged for me. It was so cute and small and lime green and has 500 cookies in it. I had to have it. Anyway, I am flipping through it and I see these cookies that look almost identical to my favorite Chewy Chocolate Supreme cookie at the Great American Cookie Company. I of course had to try it. So I make it, and taste it, and it is delicious, but when I go to drop it by tablespoonfuls on the pan, it looks just like brownie batter, smooth and slightly runny. I go on and attempt to neatly place this runny mess on the cookie pan and stick it in the oven. I second guess myself and decide to add more flour to the cookie dough so it looks more like cookie dough. When I look in the oven, I begin to think that maybe it's going to run onto the bottom of the oven, but thankfully I didn't. It turns out that they actually kinda sorta turned out how they were supposed to, but it was too late and I had already made my changes. Whatever, next time I will give the chocolate more time to cool, and maybe that will help the runnyness of it all.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (I later added an extra 3/4 cups)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse (i just used 1/2 cup chocolate chips)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Melt the bittersweet chocolate with the butter. Set aside and allow it to cool slightly. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract until thick and pale. Stir the melted chocolate into the egg mixture and then gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks.

Drop tablespoons of mixture onto baking sheets and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Slide the parchment paper onto wire racks to cool.