Smells Like Home’s 12 Days of Cookies: Day 2
The Make-A-Wish ® Foundation holds a place close to my heart due to the fabulous opportunities they provided my cousin with last year while she was undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma so as soon as I stumbled across these cookies last week in Bon Appetit (December 2009), I put them straight on my holiday baking list. Even better than finding these cookies, though, was the fact that my cousin was visiting last weekend for a cookie baking extravaganza so she was able to make them with me!!
These cookies were a lot of fun to make but were not the most flavorful chocolate cookies I’ve ever had. The recipe described them as chocolate shortbread but…well, not so much. The finished cookies didn’t really resemble shortbread at all. It’s possible that they were too thin and perhaps if I make them again, I’ll bake the dough as traditional shortbread is made (in a large baking pan or dish) and then cut out the star shapes before the shortbread has completely cooled. You can see here that rolling and cutting the dough yielded stars that spread quite a bit from their original shape despite the fact they were thoroughly chilled before we baked them off. Regardless of the recipe though, we had fun making them and my cousin is always a fan of drizzling anything in chocolate.
Thank you, Make-a-Wish ®, for making her dreams come true!!!
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Ghirardelli Wish Stars Chocolate Cookies
source: adapted from Chef Emily Luchetti for Ghirardelli (in Bon Appetit, December 2009)
For the shortbread:
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao), chopped
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Dipping chocolate:
- 12 oz bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao), chopped or in chip form
- 1 tbsp butter
- In a double boiler, melt 4 oz chocolate and set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar together until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add in melted chocolate and vanilla and mix until well-combined. Add flour mixture to the mixing bowl and stir until just blended. Form dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap; chill for 1-2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured board, roll dough to 3/8 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters. If the dough is very soft, chill again for at least 30 minutes.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes. Cool completely in pan.
- Melt chocolate chips with 1 tbsp butter in double boiler. Dip cooled cookie in melted chocolate mixture and let chocolate set. Makes about a dozen cookies.
Note: No services or products were received from either Make-A-Wish® or Ghirardelli in exchange for this recipe review.
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