Maida Heatter's Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

This week we're up to #16 on Gourmet's list of the 50 Women Game Changers in the world of food: Maida Heatter, chef, cookbook author, and "queen of desserts". Thanks to Mary from One Perfect Bite for organizing a group of us cooking and blogging our way through this list, one dish at a time.  Check back every Friday for another story and recipe from the list, and e-mail Mary if you'd like to join the group.

"Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you." Maida Heatter

One of the fun aspects of doing this blogging challenge is picking out a recipe to try each week.  It might be something that I've never heard of before, or something that I'm craving at the moment, or sometimes, like this week, it's a chance to check out another version of something I consider to be a specialty: shortbread cookies.  Maida Heatter is the consummate expert on cookies, so these will be fun to try.  I love to test out new varieties, and who knows, these could make it into this year's holiday gift baskets.

I will say right up front that I fiddled with the recipe a little.  First, I made them into a slice and bake log, like I do with all my shortbread, instead of rolling out and cutting the dough.  Then, I added some chocolate chips to the dough just to up the chocolate quotient.  The result is a simple cookie with a big chocolate punch.

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies (adapted from Maida Heatter)

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted then measured by scoop and level process
1/2 cup very best quality unsweetened cocoa powder you can find
1 cup confectioners'(powdered) sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream the butter, and then add the vanilla, salt and sugar. The Cuisinart isn't really the best choice for creaming butter, I know, but a lazy cook without a Kitchen Aid mixer will find a way.  It does a fine job, with a little bit of scraping.

Add in the flour, cocoa and chocolate chips and process just till the dough comes together. The chips will get slightly chopped up, which is good.

Form the dough into a 10 or 11 inch log and wrap in waxed paper.  Roll the log to smooth and shape it, and twist the ends firmly.

Refrigerate the log for at least an hour. When you're ready to bake, slice the dough into 3/8 inch slices. Arrange on a silicone mat or parchment paper and bake at 325 for about 18-20 minutes.

Be careful not to over bake these...because they're chocolate you can't rely on color to tell you when they're done.  Check in on them at 18 minutes, earlier if you sliced them on the thin side.  Like Brownies, shortbread is better underdone than overdone, and a couple of minutes can mean the difference between melting in your mouth, and crispy.

There's nothing worse than a half-hearted chocolate cookie.  These are the real deal; the 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and the broken up chips give this cookie a rich chocolate flavor that shortbread doesn't normally have.  They go equally well with a cup of coffee or a cold glass of milk.
If you're interested in trying some of Maida's desserts but don't have one of her cookbooks, check out Monday's with Maida, a blog project that explored Maida Heatter's recipes every Monday, from 2004-07, here's the archive.

Don't forget to visit these other bloggers who are cooking their way through the 50 Women Game Changers---

Val - More Than Burnt Toast
Joanne - Eats Well With Others
Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
Susan - The Spice Garden
Heather - girlichef
Miranda of Mangoes and Chutney
Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Mary - One Perfect Bite
Kathleen -Bake Away with Me
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen
Barbara - Movable Feasts
Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds
Amy - Beloved Green
Jeanette - Healthy Living
Linda - Ciao Chow Linda
Linda A - There and Back Again
Martha - Lines from Linderhof
Nancy - Picadillo