This Just In

That is a BIG mouthful of a title for such a tiny little cookie.  The flavor of these cookies matches the title though…BIG, wonderful, rich flavor.  These cookies are very addicting.  I seriously think they might be the crack cocaine of the cookie world.  It took a lot of will power not to keep eating these after trying the first two.

?I got the recipe from one of the blogs I like to read, Farmgirl Fare.  She got the recipe from The Kitchn, and adapted it to her tastes.

Of course around here, we don’t ‘adapt’ anything.  We tweak it.

And we all know I can’t leave a recipe alone.  So without further adieu, here we go–and be sure to read “Stacey’s Notes” at the end.

Baby Shortbread Cookies with Mini Chocolate Chips and English Toffee Bits

Makes about 4 dozen 1-inch cookies  Adapted from the kitchn
The original recipe has you shape dozens of spoonfuls of dough into tiny balls and then press them lightly onto the baking sheet to flatten the bottoms. I don’t have that kind of patience, so I just use a little scoop instead.

I also skipped the part where you dip half of each cookie in melted chocolate because I’ve never been able to do that without making a big mess, plus my chocolate never seems to completely dry. If you want a fancier looking cookie you might try it, though I think they’re perfectly fine without.

I’m a sucker for any recipe that calls for English toffee bits, but these would also be good made with all mini chocolate chips or mini chips and finely chopped pecans. And for shortbread purists, I bet they’d be very nice without anything extra added at all.

1 cup butter (I use salted), softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup English toffee bits, such as Heath

Heat the oven to 350.

With a hand held electric mixer, cream the butter and powdered sugar until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in the vanilla, and then add the flour and salt. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the mini chocolate chips and toffee bits.

With a small scoop (1?” across), drop cookies onto a heavy duty baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (Parchment paper is wonderful stuff, and you can reuse each sheet several times.)

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges start to turn golden brown.

Stacey’s Notes: I used a full 8 oz. package of toffee bits in a double batch of dough. I did use exactly 1.5 cups of mini chips though. I didn’t use a handmixer for this, I used my KitchenAid standmixer with the wire whisk attachment. I added the chips and toffee by hand at the end.  I did use the tiny scoop…I got about 15 cookies per sheet that way.  I got my tiny scoop from Pampered Chef and I love it.  The recipe from Farmgirl Fare called for organic butter and flour.  I removed this requirement from the recipe, but you certainly can use whatever organic products you’d like.

 I have a gas oven and I baked my cookies for 13 minutes.  They came out perfect.  The one thing I didn’t like was that some of the edges of the cookies were messy from the toffee bits melting (this is probably my fault for putting extra in there).  I solved this issue by trimming the edges with a very small biscuit cutter, which worked very well.  Prepare for addiction if you make these, they’re that good.

Happy Christmas Baking,

S.