Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
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I admire shortbread cookies for their creative potential. This is something I came up with yesterday. They are easy to make and satisfy the sweet tooth nicely. This recipe is very similar to my earlier post on shortbread cookies with raspberry preserves; YUMM!
Ingredients for Chocolate Shortbread Cookies:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Shortbread Cookies with Raspberry Preserves:
Preheat Oven to 350˚ F.
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are combined. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla.
(You can use a hand mixer or a wooden spoon for this).
2. In a separate bowl, mix together flour and salt and add it to the sugar/butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
(If using a hand mixer, you will have to mix in the flour and salt by hand or using a wooden spoon).
3. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about 30 minutes.
4. Use 1/2 of the dough at a time, keeping the second half refrigerated. On a floured surface, roll the dough out about 1/8” thick.
5. Use cookie cutters to stamp out your cookies. Have a sharp spatula or food scraper on hand to pick up the cookies easier.
6. Place all cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown.
7. Let cookies cool to room temperature, or you can refrigerate them.
8. Melt 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave or stovetop according to package instructions.
9. Use a butter knife to cover half of each cookie top with chocolate. Refrigerate them at least 30 minutes, or until the chocolate hardens. Once the chocolate hardens, you can stack them in tupperware and refrigerate for a few days.
Notes: You can add some ground nuts to the batter and have what are called “linzer” cookies.
Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks, 12 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Pinch salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat Oven to 350°F.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are combined. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, mix together flour and salt and add it to the sugar/butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.
- Place dough on a lightly floured surface and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about 30 minutes.
- Use 1/2 of the dough at a time, keeping the second half refrigerated. On a floured surface, roll the dough out about 1/8” thick.
- Use cookie cutters to stamp out your cookies. Have a sharp spatula or food scraper on hand to pick up the cookies easier.
- Place all cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown.
- Let cookies cool to room temperature, or you can refrigerate them.
- Melt 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave or stove top according to package instructions.
- Use a butter knife to cover half of each cookie top with chocolate. Refrigerate them at least 30 minutes, or until the chocolate hardens. Once the chocolate hardens, you can stack them in Tupperware and refrigerate for a few days.
Notes
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Pretty nice. I made them a little bit thicker so they will be softer. Sprinkled sugar on top would be interesting as well.
Hi Natasha! I noticed there is no egg on your list of ingredients. Do you not to use eggs in making shortbread cookies? Thanks!
Hi Len, that is right. No eggs needed for this recipe to work. I hope you love these cookies!
I did these Saturday afternoon, did not get the chance to decorate them with any chocolate as my husband and kids ate them before they had a chance to completely cool down, did another batch yesterday afternoon, caught my son with a mouthful before breakfast, now it’s 11 am Monday morning and I only have 6 left! I think that says enough about how good these are !!! I wonder what will happen if I add the chocolate to them
That is the best when kids love what we moms make. That’s so great!
Dear Natasha, I love this recipe and how the cookies turned out. The only thing I encountered – the dough, when I was working with it, still unbaked, was crumbly and difficult to work with, I sometimes was not able to transfer cookies to the sheet they were breaking. I know something is wrong on my side, not with the recipe for sure! What can you think of I potentially did wrong? Too little flour? The best part of it is that the actual cookies came out heavenly and not crumbly at all)) looking forward to making these for Christmas!
Hi Elena! I would recommend check out post on measuring tips. Sounds like it may have been to much of the draw ingredients. Was anything adjusted in the recipe?
I tried to follow precisely, but it is true that I probably did not measure flour correctly. Thank you so much for your link to measuring tips!!!
You’re welcome!
These look very good, Natasha! I wanna make them for Christmas, for tomorrow. Can I make them and have different shapes like a christmas tree, etc, and put icing on them?
Julie, these cookies will work great with different shapes. Merry Christmas to you and your family! 😬
Soooooo GOOOD *¬* I made some with cashew nuts!!
Where I live, butter is really expensive and looks like the texture and taste are also different, so I use margarine ^^
Thank you for a great review Patricia, I’m glad that you made them work with what you had available :).
Can i just make these cookies without the chocolate? Will it still taste good or plain?
Yes you totally can! I’ve also made them with raspberry preserves sandwiched between two cookies and dusted the top with powdered sugar. https://natashaskitchen.com/2009/12/29/shortbread-cookies-with-raspberry-preserves/
Thanks:)
Hi,
Can I use dark chocolate instead of semi sweet chocolate chips?
Hi Racquel, I haven’t tried using dark chocolate yet to advise, you might need to do an experiment on that one. If you try it, please share with us how it goes!
Love the cookies. I did try the dark chocolate chips instead of semi sweet. They taste amazing but look awful. It started melting very nicely them quickly got chunky and weird. I used it anyway but if it was for anything other than close family I would just use semi sweet.
Making these today with my kiddos:) Yup:)
Let me know what you think of the cookies! 🙂
Hi Natasha!! I tried for many years making the perfect shortbread cookies and I failed many times until I followed your recipe and they came out soooo good! The cookies are so delicious, just the way I like them, crispy and chewy at the same time, buttery but not too much and the chocolate is just the perfect addiction to make them even better! Mmmm! Thanks for the recipe I’ll defenitely bake these again!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Hi Natasha! Long time I didn’t bake any, but I turned out make this cookie again today and make lil different by adding up 2tbsp of cocoa powder + pinch of cinnamon to the recipe. I don’t use chocolate to cover them, but icing sugar 🙂 Hope you like to what I’ve done to ur recipe :p
I’ve made this cookie today, was dedicated to my son and he really loves it! Thanks for the recipe. I really like ur food blog, will try your recipes one by one 🙂
Hey I have a question, I made these and although my family loved them I found them way too crunchy and thin. Are they supposed to be crunchy?
Also, I made them as thick as they are supposed to be but they turned out way too thin. Is there anything I’m doing wrong or is this how they’re supposed to be? Thanks! These were REALLY good though!
You can roll them out thicker – they aren’t supposed to be a soft cookie, but I wouldn’t really say its supposed to be crunch either. All ovens are a little different. If your cookies turned out too crunch, just reduce the cooking time by a few minutes and see how they work out that way. Your oven may just bake them faster. Glad you liked them anyway 🙂
sooo gonna make these soon! they look delicious and I have 5 siblings so they will most likely gobble them up before the chocolate finishes drying!
Yum, I plan on making these soon, I’ve even got the star-shaped cutters for the job.
Thank you Natasha.
You’re welcome. Check out the ones I made with rasberry preserves sandwiched in between. Its the same cookie recipe. Enjoy them!
This is a variation of my favorite sugar drop cookies that I make every time my grandson comes over. We have dinosaur, Easter and Christmas shapes and we just love cutting out cookies and even making our own shapes. The chocolate and peppermint are excellent ideas for Christmas and I will add it to my list to bake.
hi there! just wanted to let you know we featured this post on the FoodPress.com homepage today under “Today’s Specials” – chocolate AND shortbread together? heaven! thanks, have a great day! jane
Thank you! I’m very excited about that 🙂
These do look like Christmas )) I can see them dipped in chocolate, and then dipped in finely crushed peppermint sticks… I think I am in the mood to bake cookies now!
Oooh, peppermint. That does sound like Christmas!
These look yummy–they’d be a good addition to a Christmas cookie platter (I’ve already got Christmas on the mind :).
Everything is centered around Christmas for me. I’m always saying, “I can’t believe there’s only 3 months till Christmas…” Its my favorite holiday!