Easy chocolate shortbread

[Bilby]

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, and cocoa powder. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Work mixture with your hands until it clings together (dough will be very dry to start). Shape into a smooth ball.
2. On an ungreased cookie sheet, pat or roll into an 8x8-inch square (if rolling, lightly flour the rolling pin to prevent sticking). Score by gently pressing with a knife into 32, 2x1-inch rectangles (do not separate). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until cookie is just firm in the center. Cut square along score lines into rectangles again while still warm. Cool on a wire rack.

[Bilby]

Brown sugar shortbread
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan and set aside.
Beat butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract together until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add flour in 4 batches and combine well after each addition. This can be mixed with your hands. Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and pat into an even layer. Prick the surface with the tines of a fork. Score the top (without cutting all the way through the dough), so that it will be easy to break apart into serving pieces. Bake in the upper third of the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the top is puffy and lightly browned.

[Bilby]

Classic short bread


11/4 cups flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) firm butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon sugar for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, stir together flour, cornstarch and 3 tablespoons sugar. Mix in butter until mixture is very crumbly and no large particles remain. With your hands, gather mixture into a ball; place in an ungreased 8- or 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom. Using your fingers or the back of a soup spoon, firmly press dough into an even layer.
With the tines of a fork, make impressions around the edge of dough; then prick surface evenly. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until pale golden brown. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar. While it's hot, cut with a sharp knife into 8 or 12 edges. Makes 8 to 12.

[Bilby]

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies 2 cups sifted flour
1/2 cup strained unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch process)
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream butter in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Add the vanilla, sugar and salt and beat to mix. On low speed add the flour and cocoa, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until the mixture holds together.
Form dough into a ball, and flatten it slightly.
Flour a pastry cloth, rubbing the flour in well, and a rolling pin. Place the dough on the cloth, and turn it over to flour both sides. With the floured rolling pin and your hands, shape and roll the dough into a square, 1/2 inch thick (no thinner). It is important to make it the same thickness all over. Cut the dough into 11/2-inch squares. Pierce each cookie with the tines of a fork. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Makes 25 to 30 cookies.

[cat lover]

Those all sound really good; think they might be just the thing for me to put into my Christmas cookie and fudge tins I do every year! I don't have many to do; just my DS's bosses and then my DS's families. I always do fudge and then fill in with cookies; so these will be a nice change for the cookie part. Thanks for sharing!