Monday, August 23, 2010

Coffee & Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Squares

The year 2008 was happiest for me. I went to US and once there,I discovered blogging and baking. Madhuram of EgglessCooking was the one who motivated me to bake(I blindly follow her advice) and DK of ChefInYou behind my  international experiments. The year also made me discover several reverred bloggers and one in particular that astonished me was Aparna of MyDiverseKitchen.It was BBD#12 hosted by Aparna (also thanks to Zorra),that I first delved into her blog.I always thought you could never bake breads and other delicacies in India what with the powercuts and nonavailability of items and all other excuses.Actually the fact that she is doing this in India,allowed me to mentally prepare myself to continue baking when I returned in 2009.Ofcourse by that time,I was very happy to see Sunshinemom, Deeba and Simran baking and blogging happily in India.

Once I returned (and till now) I keep on mailing her my baking doubts(hope she does not mind) and have also tried out few recipes -baking and otherwise -from her and her I am posting the latest one tried from her - Coffee and chocolate Chunk shortbread squares. OMG its scrumptious.I usually put off making shortbread as it is buttery but since I had few extra choco pieces I decided to go for it.You must surely do a shortbread by Dorie Greenspan and suggested by Aparna.I halved the recipe and 2 sticks of butter gave me hiccups and halving seemed a nice idea.Still I got around dozen and more  pieces of which just few remained the next day.

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour: 1 cup
Salt : a pinch

Unsalted Butter : 1 stick /100gms/1/2 cup:softened
Powdered Sugar: 1/3 cup

Vanilla Extract: 1 tsp
Coffee : 2 tsp powder + 2 tsp Hot Water mixed together

Chopped Chocolate: 6-8 tbsp

Preparation:
Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add in vanilla and prepared coffee (coffee powder + hotwater mixed or coffee decoction). Beat in sifted flour and salt on very low speed just until combined. The dough will be crumbly and sand like but donot overwork the dough as it can affect the texture of the shortbread.Fold in chopped chunky choc pieces.

Transfer the dough onto a ziploc bag or within plastic wrap and gently press outt the dough with hands or rolling pin to a 1/4 ' thick rectangle.Turn the wrap/bag to the other side and while rolling occasionally lift the plastic from the creases and gently press out air pockets if any.Cover completely and let the dough chill in the refrigerator for atleast  24 hours.The more the time taken,the perfect the shortbread will look.

Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180C/ 360F. Take out the dough remove the plastic wrap or ziploc bag and cut the dough into 1.5" inch squares and place these on a lined baking sheet.The original recipe goes for unlined or non greased baking sheet.



Bake for about 15-20 minutes till the edges start browning. Mine by done around 15 minutes or so.Keep an eye after the 12 minutes else you will end up with  burnt chocolate squares. :)

Cool on a wirerack and enjoy the crumbly buttery taste with choco chunks thrown in. Lipsmacking.I loved it warm from the oven. and somehow only clicked the pics.


This is my first entry to T&T:MyDiverseKitchen at SriValli's, an event by Lakshmi.Enjoy the sinful chocolate shortbread.



12 Comments:

Swathi said...

Coffee chocolate chunk shortbread squares looks delicious. I like Aparna's Blog she has very nice collection of recipes.

chef and her kitchen said...

They look cute...nice recipe adapted from her blog...as u mentioned they are all inspiration bloggers for so many,infact me too

Divya Kudua said...

I had bookmarked this too..now thanks to you,the dough is sitting pretty in my freezer,baking it tomorrow!!

Sunshinemom said...

They look lovely and I also notice that these days it is you who does all the baking! I do bake but am trying to avoid APF so am still perfecting my gluten free recipes before posting. I know how difficult it must have been to keep some for pics:).

Priya Suresh said...

Irresistible shortbread squares...feel like grabbing some..

Vanamala Hebbar said...

Nice and looks crispy

Yasmeen said...

Scrumptious shortbread.I'm in India right now,and I miss baking :(

suma said...

Oh yes,I have found the blogging community to be very generous with sharing knowledge and found blogging to be an enriching experience. Butter,coffee and vanilla is undoubtedly a combo which rocks!! Looks fab!!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Yes, these shortbread squares are seriously addictive!
And thanks for the compliments and no, I don't mind answering your mails. :)
Thanks also for baking from my blog.

suma said...

Hi! Would you know where I can get vital wheat gluten here in Bangalore?? Have been looking for it..

Madhuram said...

Thank you very much for the mention Sweatha. Ultimately cooking/baking boils down to whether you have the interest or not. So you should get most of the credit. Great job Sweatha. I know I haven't visited here for quite a long time but I'm so astonished to see the numerous new/amazing recipes you have been blogging about.

Srivalli said...

Shortbread as it should be!..thanks

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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