Throughout the summer, my sweet tooth calls for some nice cold ice cream. Now that it’s fall, when I want dessert, warm cookies sound much more appealing. These cookies provide the buttery crumble of shortbread, the crunch of cacao nibs, and the sweet bitterness of dark chocolate.
Inspired by Food & Wine’s Cocoa Nib-Chocolate Chip Cookies, I cut back on the amount of chocolate and added cacao nibs instead. Since I subbed in quite a bit of whole wheat flour, which absorbs more moisture than white all-purpose flour, I added a tiny bit of oil so that the dough could still be rolled out.
Dark Chocolate Cacao Nib Shortbread
Adapted from Food & Wine Cocoa Nib-Chocolate Chip Cookies
One 4-oz dark chocolate bar
1/2 c cacao nibs
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 pound butter, softened (2 sticks)
2 T canola oil
1 1/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350*F. Chop up the chocolate.
Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the oil, egg and vanilla. Add the flours and baking soda, and mix until well-incorporated. Gently stir in the chocolate and cacao nibs.
Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out cookies.
Savvy Tip: If you don’t have a 2-inch biscuit cutter, you can use a cookie cutter or the top of a drinking glass.
Space the cookies 1 inch apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 22 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet half-way through. Repeat with the rest of the dough. You can re-roll the scraps once to cut out more cookies!
Savvy Tip: After you roll out the dough a second time and cut out cookies, bake the scraps! Can’t let any of the precious cookie dough go to waste.
I meant to sprinkle the cookies with sea salt before baking, but completely forgot. I think that little bit of saltiness will make these cookies even better!
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This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD & WINE archive. As a FOOD & WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD & WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD & WINE for my participation.
Mmmmm… I’m with you, Julie– I crave cookies in the Fall, too
… Especially buttery, crumbly shortbread– These look amazing!
Looks delicious! I love cacao nibs
Cookies are definitely a fall comfort food – especially warm out of the oven! These look delicious, Julie.
I hate to admit that I buy packed cookies, but I absolutely love the chocolate pecan sandies. They are dangerous once opened. Do you think the recipe would work as well if I substituted pecans of cacao nibs?
Yes, just chop them into small pieces so they don’t break up the cookie dough too much when you roll it out!
These sound AMAZING! Shortbread in just about any form is my favorite cookie; but they’re so fattening….but I guess no worse than the pint of Ben and Jerry’s I ate last night! Help me out on the cacao nibs, though. I’m much more of a cook than a baker and I’m not familar with them.
Thanks!
Michele
Cacao nibs are dry-roasted cocoa beans, basically. You can sometimes find them near the baking chocolate or in the bulk section of your grocery store!
wowwww-zaaa. these look really, really good. i typically don’t like milk all that much, but for some reason whenever i eat shortbread, i always crave it. shortbread cookies are just so dunkable, i guess!