Espresso Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

These cookies are everything you could want from a cookie: crispy, espresso flavored, and dipped in chocolate. They come together with just a few ingredients and you can pick your favorite cookie cutter to decide it's shape. Perfect for Christmas or Valentines day or any other cold winter day when you need a pick me up.

Ingredients:

1/4 lb of cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

5 oz of all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp finely ground espresso beans

Dipping Chocolate:

5oz semisweet chocolate

1/2 tbs vegetable shortening

Using a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugar, and salt with a flat beater on low speed.

Mix until the butter combines with the sugar, but not smooth (1-2mins).

Add the flour and ground espresso and continue to mix on low speed. When looking for ground espresso, you would want to choose something that is smooth and robust. I'm fortunate to be close to a Trade Joe's and I love their espresso. If you don't happen to have any espresso coffee, you could use a medium to dark roast coffee. If it's whole bean then make sure to grind it really fine. If you have instant espresso powder that would work as well.

Scrape the bowl frequently, until the dough has just come together (about 3 minutes).

Do not overmix the dough, otherwise the cookie will be tough vs flakey. The goal is to handle the dough as little as possible to achieve a flakey cookie.

Shape dough into a ball and roll dough on a lightly floured surface. Aim to roll the dough to 1/4" thick. It is important to have the dough an equal thickness so they will cook evenly.

Pick out your favorite cookie cutter and cut out the shapes. Press scrapes together and continue to cut out cookies until there is no more dough left.

Place cut out cookies onto a tray with parchment paper or silpat mat.

Next, place tray of cookies into the fridge for 20 minutes to chill. The reason behind why you chill the dough is to solidify the fats in the cookie. This way it prevents the cookies from spreading when they are in the oven. The sugar also has a chance to absorb more of the liquids, helping the cookie keep it's form.

Preheat oven at 300 F. It is a good time to turn on your oven, when you put the cookies in the fridge. Your oven should be up to temperature by the time your cookies are chilled.

Bake cookies until golden on the bottom and edges. Check cookies after 30 minutes and rotate tray. If cookies are pale to golden on top then remove from oven. If cookies are not done yet, continue to bake up to 30 more minutes. This may seem bizarre to have such a huge range of bake time, but this is due to a low baking temperature and the variation of ovens.

Place a parchment paper or silpat mat on a work surface.

Choose your chocolate wisely. I love Barry Callebaut chocolate chips. They are rich in flavor and boost the chocolate level. Put chocolate and shortening in small heatproof bowl and microwave for 30 seconds at a time. Stir every 30 seconds until it's smooth. This is to prevent your chocolate from burning.

Dip half of each cookie into the chocolate. Set the cookies on the parchment and let set up at room temperature (about 2 hrs, if you can wait that long). If you are in a rush for the cookies to set up, place in the fridge or outside if you happen to live in a colder part of the country.

Enjoy and share with your favorite person.