You know how some people are known for a certain recipe? Well, I'm known for these. They're from my first cookbook, Generation Eats.
It was the late 1990s. I had been double-testing dozens of recipes for the cookbook and realized too late that I was plum out of granulated sugar. So I used brown sugar instead. My plan was to make milk chocolate chip shortbreads, but it turned out I was also out of chocolate chips. (What can I tell you? I was young and fool-hearted.)
So, what to do when the chips are down?
I had a photo shoot for these dishes the following day, the stores were already closed, but the cookies had to get made. So I grabbed a couple of Toblerone bars (this is where a nascent chocolate addiction comes in handy), chopped them up, put the chunks on top of the shortbreads and baked them off.
A star was born.
TOBLERONE CHUNK SHORTBREAD COOKIES
(makes about 3 dozen)
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 regular sized (100g) Toblerone bars, chopped into large chunks
Method:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla and gradually add flour until dough comes together into a ball. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Roll out dough on floured workspace, cut into squares or rectangles (or both) and use a spatula to lift cookies onto an ungreased baking sheet, spaced a bit apart. Place a chunk or two of chocolate on top of each cookie. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until cookies just start to turn lightly browned.
