Salty Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

The kids start school soon.....exactly one week and my little baby will be off to Kindergarten. I'm kind of excited.

I'm sad that the summer adventures will soon be over but am excited about Fall and Winter--Halloween and Christmas.

Does anyone else start to feel this way in the middle of August?

Maybe it is the oppressive heat that we are facing.  Maybe it is the pull of cookie baking season.

In anticipation of fall,which in Florida really just amounts to finally turning off the air conditioner and letting some fresh air in,  I made Salty Chocolate Shortbread Cookies and plan to make them again and again.

A couple of notes though:   iIf  like me, you are expecting to whip up a cookie and eat some about 30 minutes later--these are not the cookies to make.  I didn't read the recipe before I began and didn't realize that they would need to sit in a fridge for a few hours.  For a cookie that can be whipped up really quick, try these -- and are great with some ice cream sandwiched between.

Make a double batch.  I was unaware of how quickly these cookies would be snatched up in my house.  They went FAST.

Salty Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Recipe from Browneyedbaker.com which was  adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (the book I bought myself for my birthday).

You will need:

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅔ cup light brown sugar
¼ granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1) Mix flour, cocoa, and baking soda together in a bowl.  I tossed mine together with a fork since I don't have one of them tools they use for sifting.  One of these days I'll have to experiment with one and see if they are really necessary.

2) Beat together the sugars, butter and vanilla.

3) Turn off the mixer and add the flour/cocoa combination.  Mix until the flour is combined.  Continue mixing for 30 seconds to 1 minutes.  The dough will be crumbly and weird looking.  At this point, you may be asking yourself, "Did I forget to put something in?", "Are there supposed to be eggs in this recipe?"

I am here to tell you now---Don't worry.  It will work out.

4) Lay down a couple of sheets of plastic wrap and take half of the mixture out and roll it into a log.  I am not quite sure how to make a nice uniform log so that I end up with nice uniform cookies.  This is something that I need to work on.....But even though my log was kind of lumpy and mis-shaped, it was OK. My cookies didn't turn out as pretty as they could have but they still tasted great.

5) Put your logs in the fridge for a few hours---I had to wait overnight and it worked out fine.

6) When you are ready to bake, heat your oven to 325 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

7) Slice the logs of dough into ½ inch slices and sprinkle very lightly with the kosher salt.

8) Bake for 12 minutes.  You may question if they are truly done as they will look puffy and soft--but that is OK.

9) Let the cookies cool on a baking rack.  We thought they were best when they were completly cooled---but you can eat them when they are just warm as well.

Happy Almost Back-to School!