Chocolate + Orange Shortbread

You know those chocolate oranges they always sell around the holidays? Yes, the ones that come wrapped in tin foil that you have to whack against a table to crack apart. I love those things. For as long as I can remember my mom has been putting them in my Christmas stocking, and they have become one of my favorite holiday treats. I am 100% sure that they are solely responsible for my love of all things chocolate + orange. I am on an unofficial mission to find the perfect chocolate + orange baked good and I think these shortbread cookies are a pretty strong contender!

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These shortbread cookies are buttery, flakey, tender, and SO EASY to put together! They start like most cookie doughs – creaming together the butter and (powdered) sugar. We are going to add the vanilla, salt and orange zest to this as well. I would suggest using a larger bowl to give yourself some extra mixing room. Once the butter, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and zest are light and fluffy we can add the flour. The dough will look really crumbly, but don’t worry – that is totally normal!

Once the dough is mixed it is time to shape it! There are a few different options here. You could press this dough into two 8×8 cake pans to make cookie bars, you could carefully roll this out and use a cookie cutter, but I prefer to roll it into a log. The easiest way to do this is to lay a large rectangular piece of cling wrap on a table or counter. Carefully scoop the dough out into a line in the middle of the cling wrap.

Once you have the dough in a pile/line on your cling wrap, you are going to use your hands to press the dough together. We want to pack the dough tightly before we wrap it up. (I promise this is the most difficult part of this recipe, but you’re going to do great!)

Once you have the dough packed together in a line a tightly as you can get it, it is time to roll it up in the cling wrap. After you have it wrapped, feel free to squish it with your hands a little more – just to make sure that it has come together. Now it goes into the fridge for at least 20 minutes. We want the dough to chill and become firm. After your dough has chilled for at least 20 minutes, preheat your oven to 325 degrees, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. (It works just fine without parchment paper, but we’ll be making a mess with chocolate later in this process and the parchment makes it much easier to clean up.)

Remove your cookie dough log from the fridge. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into pieces about 1/4″ thick. Shortbread cookies don’t typically spread too much – especially if the dough is still nice and chilled. Place the slices of cookie dough onto your prepared baking sheets about an inch apart. Baking at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until they are slightly golden brown just at the edges. While your cookies are baking you can start melting chocolate!

You can pour 1 cup of dark chocolate chips into a glass bowl, and melt them in your microwave in 30-second intervals – stirring between each until the chocolate is smooth. I prefer to melt chocolate with a double boiler – which is just a small pot of water (about 1/4 full) with the glass bowl of chocolate placed on top of the pot. Heat the water to just about boiling, and stir the chocolate as it melts. Once your cookies come out of the oven allow them to cool completely before drizzling them with the melted chocolate. I love to top these with a sprinkling of flakey sea salt and more orange zest right after adding the chocolate.

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