Oh, these are so delicious.
Loathe to waste the six egg yolks leftover from our Mother’s Day pavlova, I used them to make two batches of our shortbread freezer cookie dough. I froze seven of the eight logs, but left one in the fridge to experiment with.
The following morning, I let the roll come to room temperature, then kneaded some very finely chopped crystallised ginger and bake-stable chocolate pieces into the dough. I tried to make the inclusions as small as possible, to allow for a cleanly sliced cookie. The dough was then reshaped into a log and popped back into the fridge to firm up, before slicing and baking in a 160C (fan) oven for 18 minutes.
The end result is a moreishly crisp shortbread, with distinguishable bursts of flavour. The bake-stable chocolate – the Callebaut baking sticks shown below – hold their shape in the oven, and as a result the cookies kept their variegated appearance, rather than being dotted with oozing melted chocolate chunks (which is usually a good thing, but not what I wanted in this case).
If you haven’t tried the shortbread cookie dough, I hope you’ll give it a go. The original post is here, and I’ve updated it to include cup measures and a printable version.
The shortbread is quite easy to make, providing you have a large mixer, and the frozen logs are a useful standby to keep in the freezer. The dough is endlessly adaptable and makes a fantastic emergency gift or treat – you can have freshly baked cookies on the table within half an hour!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
OMG……….they look heavenly!!!!!
mmmmmm Yummy I must try these.
Oh those Callebaut chocolate baking sticks look interesting. Do you like using them (as opposed to the usual pebbles?). And nice looking shortbread too!
Jude, Siren, thank you! :)
Lorraine, they’re very cool. I buy them at Chefs’ Warehouse (no surprise there :)), and they’re like an upmarket version of the old Nestle choc chips – they keep their shape when baked and don’t melt and ooze. I use them when I specifically want my chocolate to hold its shape in the oven, and I’ll often mix them with the quick melting Callebaut callets to get a mix of firm and soft chocolate in cookies and bars. In this case, I really wanted a crisp clean look to the finished shortbread, so I just used the sticks – very finely chopped.
These look very professional and use one of my favourite flavour combinations. I don’t have a large mixer or food processor – I wonder if a scaled down version, mixed by hand, would work as well?
Suelle, I think so – my friend Gillian left a comment on the original post saying she’d made a scaled down version and it had worked well! She scaled down by 1/3. I know lots of shortbread is made in a food processor, but I’ve never used one for this recipe, just the mixer. The large stand mixer is really to cope with the large volume of ingredients.
You could do a special edition and dip half in a little chocolate :) just for me….
MMmm! They look scrumptious just as they are- but I like Joanna’s idea- half dipped in chocolate.
I’m making these, too!
Thanks, for another great recipe, Celia!
Heidi
Jo and Heidi, I’ll have to do a dipped batch for you! Not yet, though, I can’t eat another whole batch by myself again… ;-)
Oh yes this is my fav combination too. They look scrummy Celia. I’ll have to make these ones. The original recipe is so perfect and yes you are right, I made the original recipe (scaled down) with an electric hand mix only.
Gorgeous looking cookies – ginger and chocolate together are so good and I’d love one now with my mug of cocoa. Interesting to see your Callebaut sticks for baking. Do you know how these are different to normal chocolate, I mean what process it goes through to make it bake-stable?
Choclette, I have no idea! I do know they’re a lower % cacao than the other Callebaut – the sticks are 44%. I suspect they’re tempered differently, but I don’t know the intricacies. Nothing out of the ordinary on the ingredients list. I think the sticks were originally designed to go into the centres of pastries like chocolate croissants. They’re great fun to play with though – I don’t always want my chocolate chunks to melt away… :)
these look simply perfect. i was sure they’re the kind you roll out and cut with cookie cutters. incredible that they’re sliced! what a steady hand you have!
it’s the first time i see these chocolate sticks. i’m starting to get the feeling you’re very serious about your chocolate, celia :)
Completely obsessed with the stuff, Dana.. :) Oh, and the fridge cold dough slices well, providing the inclusions are really finely chopped!