Salted Double Chocolate Shortbread Cookies give a holiday favorite a rich, chocolatey twist, with a hint of salt for a perfect balance!
Holiday baking is the perfect time to give your favorite Cookie recipes a makeover, like these double chocolate shortbreads. They take a Classic Shortbread Cookie dough and load it with cocoa powder and chocolate chips for the same crumbly texture with a new, deep chocolate flavor.
Sabrina’s Salted Double Chocolate Shortbread Cookies Recipe
Buttery Shortbread Cookies are a staple in holiday baking. These melt-in-your-mouth cookies are sweet, but not too heavy, with a crumbly, tender texture. They are perfect to give as a homemade gift, put out on a tray at a party, or make ahead and store in the freezer. You can even dip them in tea, coffee, or Hot Chocolate and enjoy them as a sweet, indulgent breakfast.
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
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon flaked sea salt
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.
- Fold in the mini chocolate chips.
- Roll the mixture into a 2-inch wide log and wrap with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Cut into ½ thick slices, sprinkle with sea salt, and bake for 20 minutes.
Nutrition
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Table of contents
About this Recipe
Think of this chocolate variation of the buttery classic as a combination of Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies and Chocolate Cookies. It’s the base dough recipe that replaces some of the all-purpose flour with natural cocoa powder to give it a dark chocolate flavor. The chocolatey goodness doesn’t stop there, though. Melty chocolate chips fill the cookie to make them the most amazing double chocolate cookies. Finally, sprinkling some flaky sea salt to enhance all the melt-in-your-mouth texture and deep chocolate flavor.
Ingredients
- Butter – Unsalted butter adds richness, a ton of buttery flavor, and gives these cookies that melt-in-your-mouth texture. Whenever you cream butter, you want it to be soft at room temperature to create a lot of air for a more tender crumb.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds a sweet, warm flavor to baked goods, but it also complements other flavorings and enhances them. Use pure vanilla extract whenever possible for the best taste and intensity of flavor!
- Powdered Sugar: The fine white sugar provides a smooth, velvety sweetness to balance the rich butter flavor and helps create a cookie that is not too crumbly or dry.
- Cocoa powder: You only need a bit of cocoa powder to give these buttery cookies a dark chocolate flavor. You can use natural cocoa powder or Dutch-process cocoa powder, depending on the intensity of chocolate you want.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: Mini semisweet chocolate chips create pockets of melted chocolate throughout the cookie. The mini chips tend to be best for shortbread cookies because they distribute more evenly for a more balanced melty chocolate chip to chocolate cookie ratio in every bite.
- Sea Salt: Flaky sea salt enhances the chocolate flavor and provides a salty contrast to the sweet cookie. You want to use the large flaky salt granules, not table salt, or these cookies could be too salty.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes, these cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months. You can also freeze the dough, either as a whole cookie dough log or slice the dough first. To freeze the dough log, wrap the log in plastic wrap and then in foil before placing it in the freezer. Thaw the dough in the refrigerator before slicing and baking. For a grab-and-bake cookie, slice the dough into rounds, then freeze on a tray for 1 hour before transferring to a container for longer storage. Bake them from frozen, adding a few minutes to the baking time as needed.
How to Store
- Serve: You can keep shortbread cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. If you’re in a humid area, put a paper towel in the bottom of the container to absorb the moisture.
- Store: Once the cookies have cooled, you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a month. Put parchment paper between the layers of the cookies so they don’t stick together.
- Freeze: If you made the shortbread cookies ahead of time, keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Leave them uncovered at room temperature to thaw.
Ideas to Serve Salted Double Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Just like classic shortbread cookies, these double chocolate cookies are great to tuck into your festive gift boxes during the holidays! For a more seasonal, decorative gift, top the cookies off with some holiday sprinkles at the same time you add the salt. Once they are cool, give them a drizzle of Chocolate Ganache, Salted Caramel, or melted white chocolate chips. Freeze them for an hour if you plan on putting them in a gift box so the sauce topping sets, and they don’t stick together.
Frequent Questions
Yes. Chilling shortbread dough before baking helps to firm up the butter, which in turn helps the cookies hold their shape while baking. It also allows the flavors to meld and intensify, resulting in a richer, more buttery taste. Chilling also makes the dough easier to handle, so it can be sliced or shaped more easily before baking.
A shortbread cookie is a type of biscuit traditionally made with three ingredients: butter, sugar, and flour. It is characterized by its crumbly, buttery texture and rich, slightly sweet flavor. It is often associated with Scotland, where it has been made for centuries.
Not only does larger flaky salt look beautiful, adding a nice sparkle to the rich color of the chocolate, but it also amplifies the taste of the cookie. Adding a little bit of flaky salt actually makes the chocolate taste even sweeter by blocking some of the bitter flavors of natural cocoa powder. It also gives a pop of salty crunch for a delicious mouth texture of soft buttery cookie and crisp flaky salt granules.
Sugar cookies are typically softer and sweeter, with a more delicate crumb, and are usually made with a mix of all-purpose flour, baking powder or baking soda, vanilla extract, plus sugar and unsalted butter. Sugar cookies are often decorated with royal icing or Sugar Cookie Frosting. Shortbread cookies, on the other hand, are just a mix of butter, sugar, and flour, and sometimes vanilla extract. They are denser with a crumbly, tender texture and a rich, buttery flavor, and they are not typically decorated.
Variations
- Chocolate Chips: Try changing up the chocolate in this recipe by using milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or even adding in some butterscotch or cinnamon chips.
- Add-ins: There are lots of different add-ins you can try, like nuts, dried cherries, or crushed peppermints. You can also add spices like nutmeg, ginger, or cloves.
- Cocoa: For a milder chocolate taste, use dark cocoa powder instead of regular unsweetened cocoa powder. Dark cocoa powder is often sold as Dutch-processed or black cocoa powder.
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Absolutely fantastic. I added half mini chocolate chips and half chopped pecans. These cookies are quick and easy to make and are excellent keepers..and of course delicious. I especially like that the recipe doesn’t make too many….just the right amount… love them! I’m sure they will also ship well…that’s a bonus!!!
Yummy – love your creativity
Amazing cookies! Easy to make…lovely texture..not too sweet. I used half cup of chopped pecans and half cup mini chocolate chips. Definitely a keeper. Highly recommended…