Chocolate Shortbread Cookies are buttery & crisp delights. It is a simple recipe and perfect for serving on a Holiday platter or for gifting!
If you love Shortbread Cookies and also love chocolate, then this is definitely the recipe for you. For another delicious Christmas Cookie recipe give my Pistachio Cranberry Shortbread Cookies a try too!
Sabrina’s Chocolate Shortbread Cookie Recipe
Shortbread Cookies are the ultimate, simple holiday treat. They have an easy and delicious base that you can build off of with different mix-ins and flavors. Which is why I’ve been experimenting with lots of different shortbread recipes this season. You can find German Walnut Shortbread Cookies and Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies and let me know what you think!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 and line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Add butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar to a stand mixer and cream on high speed for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Lower speed to the lowest setting and add in the flour and cocoa powder slowly until just combined.
- Roll the mixture into a 2-inch wide log and wrap with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Cut into ½ thick slices and bake for 20 minutes.
Nutrition
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Note from Sabrina
It’s easy for Shortbread Cookies to break in transit. If you’re planning to ship the cookies, make sure to package them carefully so they don’t crumble. Put plenty of cushioning at the bottom of the container so the cookies aren’t hitting anything hard. You can also wrap each cookie in plastic for extra safety.
Table of contents
About this Recipe
Shortbread Cookies are the perfect melt-in-your-mouth treat. They’re buttery, rich, and sweet but not too sweet. Enjoy Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with a cup of coffee or Hot Chocolate in the morning for a sweet holiday breakfast. They’re also great for holiday parties, as an edible gift, or to leave out with a glass of milk for Santa if you have kids.
Baking Tips & Tricks
- It’s important to use softened butter in the recipe. Let it sit out at room temperature for a few hours ahead of time so that the butter is nicely softened. Leaving the butter out in advance works much better than putting it in the microwave.
- Make sure to refrigerate the dough for at least a half hour. Refrigerating the dough helps the cookies to keep their shape and makes the butter cold, which helps the shortbread cook properly.
- Piercing the top of the cookie dough with a fork gives the Shortbread Cookies their signature look, and helps them to cook evenly throughout.
How to Store
- Serve: You can keep Chocolate Shortbread Cookies at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Store them in an airtight container in the pantry. If you live in a humid area put a paper towel in the bottom of the container to soak up the moisture.
- Store: To keep the cookies fresh for up to 1 month, store them in the fridge. Put the cookies in a ziplock bag or other airtight container separated by parchment paper.
- Freeze: You can freeze Shortbread Cookies for up to 3 months. Let them thaw at room temperature then reheat them or eat them cool.
Ideas to Serve
Shortbread Cookies are a great holiday gift for your neighbors, friends, family, and coworkers. To package the Shortbread cookies either wrap them in clear cellophane with a holiday bow on top or put them in an old fashioned cookie tin. If you’re packaging them in a cookie tin, separate each layer of cookies with wax paper.
Variations
- Chocolate chips: Make a Double Chocolate Shortbread Cookie by adding in chocolate chips. You can use semisweet, milk, dark, or white chocolate in the recipe. Another option is mixing in butterscotch or cinnamon chips for a contrasting flavor.
- Mix-ins: For different mix-ins try adding nuts, dried fruits, or other candies. Pecans, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, or cashews will add some nice crunch to the recipe. For fruit try cranberries, cherries, or dates. You can also mix in peppermints, toffee bits, or mini M&M’s.
- Gluten-free: To make these cookies gluten-free replace the regular flour with almond flour, oat flour or arrowroot flour.
- Flavors: For some flavor additions try mixing in almond extract, peppermint extract, or orange zest. You can also add seasonal spices like ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.
Related Recipes
More Delicious Shortbread Cookies
Photos used in previous posts:
This recipe reminds me of the butter cookies (similar to Mexican Wedding Cookies) my grandma used to make, only this one is CHOCOLATE!! My plan is to go a bit thinner and do a thumbprint for a drop of Rasberry Jelly!! I can’t wait to try it out!
And we can’t wait to hear what you think of the cookies Kathy! Please let us know!
This chocolate shortbread cookie is perfection. Nice sandy texture and very chocolatey. This is my go to recipe and I always double the recipe. I use the metric measurements for a perfect cookie every time.
Great to hear Debra and thank you for the kind review.
Can I turn this into gluten free by switching out the flour for say..coconut flour?
Any gluten free flour that is 1:1 ratio to all purpose flour should work. Keep in mind that the flavor will be altered a bit.
These cookies are soo delicious. I added 1/3 cup of chopped up Hershey’s kisses to the recipe and my bf and I loved it. This recipe made 14 cookies for us
Sounds Amazing!
Haven’t made these yet, but I can tell by the ingredients and the fact that they are shortbread, they will be delicious. What I want to do is roll the cookie dough out to about a quarter of an inch and then cut with 2 inch heart shaped cookie cutters. Do you think that this will work out since the dough is kind of a crumbly dough when it’s shortbread??
Linda, that sounds like a wonderful idea! Yes, you can roll and cut out these cookies. I recommend chilling the dough for at least an hour before rolling and cutting, then roll out, cut, and chill the raw cookies again on the baking sheet to help your shapes bake with clean edges.
Delicious! Made the recipe exactly as written and the shortbread was wonderful! Will be adding to my collection.
Thank you Veronica and especially for the 5 star review 🙂
I made these for Christmas presents last year and people really enjoyed them. I chose this recipe over several others because I liked its simplicity, and the fact that the chef includes a lot of really useful tips, including using softened butter and refrigerating the dough, and why this makes a difference.
I did add chocolate and peppermint oil (note extract — it’s very strong, so just a few drops); people said the cookies reminded them of the Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints – which I think is a compliment!