Dark Chocolate Almond Shortbread Cookies

The first time I ever had a shortbread cookies was when I was in elementary school, in girl scouts. Remember the Trefoil cookies?? Trefoils are just your basic plain, thick shortbread cookie. I tried it and was definitely not impressed as a 9 year old. But fast forward to today-- I love shortbread cookies! They're simple to make, super versatile, and definitely worth the time to make them!

And since shortbread can easily be made into all different flavors, today, we're taking butter, delicious shortbread, but making it chocolate! Dark chocolate almond, to be more specific! Make with dark cocoa powder and almond extract, these shortbread cookies are sure to be a crowd pleaser.

INGREDIENTS FOR DARK CHOCOLATE ALMOND SHORTBREAD COOKIES

For these shortbread cookies, you'll need just nine ingredients! Here's everything you'll need:

• All-purpose flour

• Hershey's Dark Cocoa powder

• Salt

• Espresso powder

• Powdered sugar

• Unsalted butter

• Almond + vanilla extract

• Chopped almonds


Making this shortbread dough could not be easier! Start by creaming together your softened butter and powdered sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Add in the vanilla and almond extract. Then, add in the flour, dark cocoa powder, and salt.

Once all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, the dough will still look a bit crumbly-- this is normal! Continue to mix the dough on a medium-low speed for about a minute until the dough comes together. Once it does, simply toss in the chopped almonds, give it a whirl to incorporate them, and you're done!

DO I NEED TO CHILL THE DOUGH?

Yes! Like most other cutout-type cookies, you want them to retain their shape and thickness. Chilling the dough is a huge part of how you do that. Once the dough is made and rolled out, it needs to chill in the refrigerator for just one short hour!

TIPS FOR THE BEST DARK CHOCOLATE ALMOND SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Even though these shortbread cookies are super easy to whip up, here are just a few tips to make sure your cookies are as delicious as they can be!

Make sure your butter is soft! You definitely want to make sure that your butter is good and soft before starting to make these cookies! If the butter is too cold, it won't properly incorporate into the dough. If it's too warm and melted, it will change the overall texture of the shortbread cookies.

Chop the almonds into pretty small pieces. While you want to be able to see the tiny chunks of almonds in these cookies, you also want to make sure they're easy to cut with your cookie cutter. You want them to be smaller than a pea, but not too small. I like using sliced almonds since they're way easier to chop to size.

Don't overwork your cookie dough. A good shortbread is light, slightly crisp, and should melt in your mouth. Overmixing or overworking your dough can make your shortbread to be tough or slightly chewy. Be sure to try and only mix your dough just until it comes together.

Don't skip chilling the dough. Chilling dough for shortbread cookies is important. It helps to solidify the butter, and will be important to help the cookies maintain their shape and not spread.

So, if you've got a handful of ingredients, and just over an hour of time, you need to make these cookies! Hope you absolutely love them! Happy baking ♥

Dark Chocolate Almond Shortbread Cookies

Recipe by Chrissy

Servings

28

cookies

Prep time

1

hour 

10

minutes

Cooking time

17

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

27

minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 6 tablespoons Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons espresso powder

• 1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

• ¾ cup powdered sugar

• ½ teaspoon almond extract

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• ½ cup chopped almonds

Directions

• In a mixer, combine the softened butter, powdered sugar, almond extract and vanilla extract. Cream together until everything is combined fluffy.
• Add in the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and chopped almonds. Mix until all of the flour and cocoa powder is completely mixed in. The dough should be a little crumbly, but continue mixing for up to another minute and the dough should start to come together.
• Turn out your dough onto a sheet of parchment paper. With your hands, press the dough together and form into a round shape. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough, trying to keep a round shape. The dough shouldn't be too sticky, so you shouldn't need to dust with flour. Roll to about ¼ inch thickness.
• Transfer the parchment paper with the shortbread dough onto a baking sheet, and stick it in the fridge to chill. Chill the dough for one hour.
• Once your dough is done chilling, pull the dough out of the fridge, and preheat your oven to 350°F.
• Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Grab your favorite cookie cutter. Begin cutting out your shortbread cookies from the chilled dough and place on the baking sheet. Re-roll the scrape as needed to cut all of the cookies.
• Once you've cut out all of the cookies you can, pop the tray into the oven and bake 15-17 minutes.
• Allow the shortbread to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely. Dip in melted chocolate if desired and enjoy!