Happy New Year! And what better way to celebrate 2012 than with a baked good? A group of friends came over last night to celebrate so I decided to bake my remaining two logs of butter shortbread cookie dough. I knew I was going to make these Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread cookies, but I also wanted to make chocolate-dipped shortbread. Sadly, I ran out of time to make the chocolate-dipped shortbread, so we ended up with one batch of plain and one batch of Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread. I had the same problem with these cookies that I had with the Five-Spice Shortbread - the topping just doesn't stick very well. But I got around that by sprinkling the chocolate-ginger mixture on top of the cookies before putting them in the oven (after dipping them individually in the mixture). Another problem I had with the cookies was that it was almost impossible to get all of the ingredients in the chocolate-ginger mixture evenly distributed (both in the mixture itself and on the cookies). Some cookies had a lot of chocolate and no ginger, others were a little more balanced, whereas some were so loaded down with ginger that they were almost harsh. I think that if I make these cookies again, I will mix the chocolate-ginger mixture into the dough, rather than using it as a topping. I think that will leave you with a more even distribution. Alex said that the plain shortbread cookies are still his favorite, followed by the Five-Spice Shortbread. I thought both of those were really good, but I thought the flavors were really good too. I liked the candied ginger element a lot. I just have to play with it a bit to perfect it...
Recipe after the jump!
Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread
Adapted from Simply Ming
By Ming Tsai
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup turbinado or other granulated sugar
3 tbsp extra-brut cocoa* or regular unsweetened cocoa (we used regular unsweetened)
1/4 cup minced candied ginger
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (if your chocolate chips are on the larger side, run your knife through them a few times to roughly chop them)
1 chilled log of butter shortbread cookie dough
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Combine the sugar, cocoa, ginger, and chocolate chips in a food processor or mini food-prep. Pulse several times to mix ingredients together. Pour chocolate-ginger mixture onto a plate. Set aside.
Cut the log into twenty 1/2-inch rounds. Firmly press one cut surface
of each round into the cocoa mixture and arrange the rounds 2 inches
apart on all sides on a parchment-lined or nonstick cookie sheet or
sheets. If the topping doesn't adhere very well (mine didn't), then go ahead and sprinkle more on top.
Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the cookies with a spatula and cool on a wire rack.
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