Chocolate Cherry Shortbread

I absolutely adore the National Cherry Blossom Festival held in Washington D.C.  Love it!  My husband and I made the journey to D.C. several years ago and were lucky enough to see the trees at peak bloom.  They truly are stunning!  And to back up that claim, I personally took pictures of nearly each and every cherry tree around the Tidal Basin.  Seriously.  

Photo by Laura

So when spring rolls around, I get myself to the National Cherry Blossom Festival website and check the progress of the blooms.  I become obsessed with all things cherry blossom.  My desktop sports the blossoms, my iEverythings are the same.

Photo by Laura

And while I am confessing my complete and utter fascination with all things cherry blossom, I have to tell you that I personally find many cherry recipes to be bland. 

If I do happen across a really good batch of cherries, they find themselves promptly baked in a pie.  But that can be hit or miss at the market.  And when you want to feed an obsession, boring, bland or out of season cherries just don't make the grade.

 

That's why I like to bake with dried cherries.  They're available year round and are quite versatile.  And best of all, they're packed with bright cherry flavor.  They can be a little pricey, but thankfully this recipe calls for a half cup of chopped, dried cherries.  And since cherries pair well with chocolate, I'm pulling out deep, dark chocolate.  I love the sweet-tart taste of cherries paired with the intense flavor of dark, nearly bitter chocolate.  And just to warm things up, I spice these cookies with pepper.  Pepper has not only that bit of heat, but paired with chocolate and cherries, pepper shows off a lovely spicy note; not sweet, but one that will leave you guessing what it is.  I use white pepper, but only because I like the aesthetics of it, but don't feel you have to run out and buy white pepper if you don't have it, just use finely ground black pepper.

This cookie is a based on a classic shortbread recipe.  Butter, sugar, flour--that's shortbread.  Shortbread is a workhorse in a baker's recipe box because you can take the basic recipe and change it with an addition of this zest or candied ginger, add chocolate, spice, fruits or nuts and no one would know it came from the same butter, sugar and flour shortbread recipe.  Feel free to experiment--and best of all, you get to eat all of your cookie trials.

A few tips about adding chocolate to a recipe where you want to see the chunks and not color the dough.  I add the chocolate chips--in this case Ghiradelli 60% Intense Dark chocolate bars cut into pieces--just before the final turn or two in the mixer.  This mixes the chocolate into the dough without breaking the it and keeps the chocolate from coloring the cookies.  I also add the cherries at the same time.

At this point you can form the dough into a ball, wrap and chill it for an hour or so before rolling it out.  I prefer to form the dough into a cylinder, wrap it in some parchment, mark it and chill it.  You can also wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it for future use.  When I worked summers in the Hamptons on Long Island, I always had cookie doughs in the freezer, ready to use at a moments notice. 

A trick bakers use to get the dough into a nice, tight roll is to place the dough on parchment.  Form it into the shape you need, fold the parchment over the dough and with the edge of your cookie sheet, spatula or even the flat of your hand, press against base of the dough, forcing the paper to tighten against the dough, smoothing it and shaping it into a lovely cylindar.  Wrap the ends, mark the dough and chill, or cover and freeze.  Cookies at hand whenever you need them!

 Place dough on parchment.

 Form into log with hands.

 Fold parchment over dough and push against the dough at the base.  Dough will form into log, smoothing and lengthening as you press.

 Smooth log ready to wrap and chill.

 Roll dough in parchment and twist ends. 

Write name of dough and date if you intend to freeze. 

When the dough is chilled, usually within a couple of hours, I cut the dough in half and score the dough before I cut it into discs to bake.  No rolling, no loss of cookie dough, no mess--I love this recipe!

I like my shortbread thick, you can cut yours half the size I have here.  Just shave some time off when you bake them.  These are cut approximately 1/2 inch thick and they take 20 minutes to bake.  If you cut yours 1/4 inch thick, they should be ready between 12 and 15 minutes.  Watch the bottom for color.  Shortbread should never really get a deep brown color, but they will get a lovely golden edge to them.

Should the edges of the disk break because you've cut through a chunk of chocolate, just push it back into shape and place it on the cookie sheet.  Bake these in the oven at 325° for 20 minutes, 12 to 15 for thinner cookies.  Let cool on sheet and store them in an airtight container. 

If you'd like to dip these when they're cool, melt 1 cup of dark chocolate chips with 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream, stirring to combine.  Dip edge of cookie, lightly wiping bottom across rim of bowl to wipe excess from the cookie.  Let the chocolate firm up before serving--if you can restrain yourself!  If you'd like give the chocolate a helping hand, put the tray of cookies in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes.  

I like these with a nice cup of coffee to play off the dark chocolate and cherry flavor.  Mix up a batch, enjoy my obsession with all things cherry blossom.

Chocolate Cherry Shortbread 

• 1        cup   unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2     cup   white sugar
• 1        teaspoon  pure vanilla extract    
• 1 3/4  cups  all purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4     teaspoon white pepper (if desired)
• 1/2     cup   coarsely chopped dried cherries 
• 1/2     cup   coarsely chopped dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli 60% Intense Dark Chocolate

Preheat oven to 325°.  Line cookie sheets with parchment or Silpat Mat.

Place room temperature butter and sugar in bowl of a mixer.  Beat until well combined.  Add vanilla and beat until combined.

Add flour, salt and white pepper (if desired) and mix just until nearly combined.  At this point, add the chopped cherries and chocolate and mix on low just until combined.  This should only be a couple of turns of the beater.

Scrap dough onto parchment and form into log, or shape into disc, wrap and refrigerate.  Chill until dough is firm, about 2 hours.

Cut into discs and place on lined cookie sheets.  If rolling dough, roll with using a little flour as possible to keep the cookies from absorbing the extra flour and becoming tough.  Cut with cookie cutter and place on sheet.  Continue to roll until all dough is cut.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes if making thicker cookies.  If you have cut your cookies thinner, bake 12-15 minutes, just until bottoms are a pale golden color.  Allow cookies to cool and dip in chocolate if desired.

16 1/2 inch cookies or 32 1/4 inch cookies.

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