Nerd in the Kitchen

Easy & Delicious Shortbread

Today is the last exam in the law class that I TA. The kids are good, I like them a lot. So much in fact that I occasionally bake for them. The tricky part is that class is at 8am. What is easy and can be produced in large quantities and is still appropriate for the morning? A few weeks ago, I made 3 different kinds of muffins. That was a little insane, especially since I had to bake most of them at my friend’s apartment, requiring me to move my entire baking process midway. That was rough, but the muffins were awesome. Of course. There wasn’t really another option, was there? I didn’t think so. Well that brings us to the shortbread. One of my favorite blogs made super-easy lemon-chamomile shortbread. Simone has made these a bunch. Super tasty, but I was looking for something a little different from that combo. That’s when I ran across a clever kitten’s espresso-chocolate shortbread. Sounds perfect! However, it requires at least 2 hours of chilling, then cutting, and putting on baking sheets…ugh…so much work for the end of the semester. That’s when I decided to make my own recipe. And it came out really well. I actually made two different kinds: espresso-chocolate-toffee-almond shortbread and plain old espresso-chocolate shortbread. I made the toffee-almond first, then altered the recipe for the second one. Also, I made a double batch toffee-almond in a 9×13 pyrex and single batch plain in a 9×9 dark-coated pan. Totally different results. The toffee-almond were thick and and crumbly, whereas the plain were thinner and less crumbly. I found that doing a double batch in the stand mixer isn’t the best idea. The dough doesn’t come together quite the right way, instead forming shortbread sand that then needs to be patiently pressed into the pan. Is one form better than the other? Nope. Both are great, it just depends on what you’re looking for. So since I did this twice in a row with different variations, I’m going to post my favorite one, which was my second try. However, it’s really easy to make it into the toffee-almond. Really the only different was the type of chocolate bar I used (the toffee-almond used a milk chocolate toffee almond bar, the plan used a dark chocolate bar)!

Easy Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread

Makes 18 cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

~2 oz. chocolate of choice, finely chopped

2-1/4 cups flour

1-1/2 tsp. instant coffee

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 9×9 pan.

2. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy.

3. Add the chocolate, flour, and coffee and mix until combined and smooth.

4. Evenly press into prepared pan.

5. Bake for 28 minutes, until set and edges begin to brown. The overall color doesn’t change much in the baking process, so don’t be worried if they don’t look done.

6. Let cool for 10-15 minutes, then cut the shortbread into 9 squares and cut each of the squares along the diagonal, creating perfect little triangles. Let cool completely in the pan before removing.

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