Chocolate-Dipped Brown Sugar Shortbread

 My son and I have decided that all Barefoot Contessa desserts are extremely decadent. Meaning: Eat one cookie and it sends you over the moon on a sugar high.

These Chocolate-Dipped Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies are no exception. 

The recipe says the batch makes 30 to 36 cookies, but I got 45 out of one batch.

The recipe says you can bake two trays at a time, but I would do one tray at a time on my next go around. I ended up using three baking sheets. The one sheet that baked on its own produced the cookies with the best browning around the edges. Plus, they were sturdier.

Which leads me to my next finding: Dip the cookies fast and use a light hand. These cookies are delicate and are easily breakable. But, of course the baker gets to eat the rejects. Ha.

The dough was very easy to shape. It does not need to chill. It was not crumbly like a traditional shortbread dough that uses powdered sugar. The brown sugar component definitely makes the actual cookie extremely sweet.

The recipe calls for milk chocolate chips, but we roll with semi sweet or dark chocolate in this house, so I went with the semi sweet.

I omitted the nuts as I am deathly allergic. I was thinking of decorating with sprinkles but my son ixnayed that, and in retrospect I think that was a good call because I don't think they need anymore sweetness. Although, sprinkles would look cute. When I make them again - and I definitely will - I will still go no sprinkles. I'm sure pecans add a salty finish, but we can't do that here.

These were so much fun to bake and eat.

I hope my tips help you!

Chocolate-Dipped Brown Sugar Shortbread

From "Modern Comfort Food"

By Ina Garten

Makes 30 to 36 cookies

3/4 lb. (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. kosher salt

For the chocolate coating:

1 cup milk chocolate morsels, such as Hershey's (6 ounces)

6 Tbsp. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup toasted pecans, minced and lightly salted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange two racks evenly spaced in the oven.

Place the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on medium speed just until the butter and sugar are combined so you don't whip a lot of air into it. With the mixer on low, add the vanilla and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and mix just until the dough comes together.

Scoop out 1-ounce pieces of dough (about 1 Tbsp.), roll each one into a ball, then roll it into a 2 1/2-inch-long log. Place the logs 2 inches apart on two sheet pans lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until the cookies start to brown around the edges and spring back when lightly touched. Set aside to cool on the pans.

For the coating, place the chocolate and the butter in a heatproof bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir the mixture vigorously and continue to microwave in 30-second increments until the chocolate is just melted.

Drag half of the rounded top of each cookie through the chocolate and place it, chocolate side up, on a piece of parchment paper. While the chocolate is still warm, sprinkle on the pecans. Repeat with all the cookies. Set aside for at least 30 minutes for the chocolate to firm.

Please note: The Jersey Girl omitted the pecans due to a food allergy. Her batch yielded 45 cookies. She used three baking sheets instead of two. She used semi-sweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate. She melts the chocolate on the stove top instead of the microwave.

Cookie Time

A cookie makes the moment so much better.

And if you make these Chocolate Thumbprints, you will have many happy times.

The recipe comes from “Martha Stewart’s Cookies” Cookbook.

In theory, Martha Stewart scares me. Her prim and proper way. Her perfect enunciation. Her navy blue wardrobe. She’s not exactly warm and cuddly.

But, I’ve grown to appreciate her fabulousness. My Dad always sweated Martha. Back when she had her first program on PBS, he would watch her religiously and compare all of my Mom’s cooking techniques to those of Martha.

“Martha would do it this way,” he would say, while carving my Mom’s roast.

I remember Dad marveling over an episode during which Martha was out back in her vast New England garden collecting leaves and greenery for Thanksgiving dinner. My unimpressed full-time working mother of three with no staff exclaimed, “Give me a break,” while shaking her head. There were probably some explicative peppering this outburst.

Although dried leafery did not make it onto our holiday table, the meal of course rocked.

I totally get my Mom’s point regarding Martha. Who can really live up to that level of perfection? It seems so daunting. Perhaps this is why my cooking idols, I mean the ones who are close to my soul, are more along the lines of Nigella Lawson and Lydia Bastianich and my Mommom Sacco, who has never had her own TV program, but probably should.

Anyways, I’ve made a few recipes from Martha’s cookbook. And they’ve all been stellar. My father-in-law raved about the Chocolate Thumbprints while eating a bundle. The cookie merges simple shortbread with a dark chocolate filling. The rich chocolate melts into the tender shortbread. It’s a glorious thing.

They go perfectly with a tall glass of milk.

And they surely will impress those with whom you are sharing.

Chocolate Thumbprints
From “Martha Stewart’s Cookies”
By Martha Stewart
Makes 4 1/2 dozen
1 cup (2 sticks) plus 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tsp. corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, the confectioners’ sugar, salt and vanilla on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in flour, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium until combined.

Form balls using 2 tsp. of dough for each; place balls 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes, remove from oven, and press thumb into cookies to make deep, wide indentations. Rotate pan, and return to oven; bake until light brown on the edges, 7 to 9 minutes more. (If the indentations begin to lose definition, remove cookies from oven and press again.) Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Combine chocolate, the remaining 3 Tbsp. butter, and the corn syrup in a small heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water; stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Allow to cool a bit until slightly thickened. Fill thumbprints with the chocolate mixture, and set aside to firm up. Cookies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Please note: It is recommended to have a bowl of ice water ready to cool off your thumb while pressing into the hot dough to make thumbprints.