This was my first attempt at making any kind of shortbread. They were… okay. I’ve been calling them “marginally successful”. Comparing mine to the ones in the source picture, I’m going to go ahead and say that I let a bit too much of the juice from the maraschino cherries into the cookies. I also probably underbaked them by a bit. They still tasted decent though! Also problematic was the dark chocolate chips that I used were awfully wide at the base which made it difficult to make clean slices in order to put them in the oven.
I really don’t have much else to say about these… I wouldn’t discourage you from making them, but I would recommend making sure your chocolate chips are either smaller, or chop them up, and to make sure you drain the maraschino cherries. I’ll likely try these again at some point.
Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Shortbread
Source: Closet Cooking
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
1/2 cup white and/or dark chocolate chips
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 ounces white and/or dark chocolate, chopped (optional)
Cream the butter and the sugar.
Mix the flour and the salt.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until it starts forming larger clumps.
Mix in the maraschino cherries, white chocolate and vanilla extract.
Form the dough into the shape that you want, wrap it in plastic and let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour. (I did a rectangular log but you could also do a circular log.)
Cut the log into 1/4 inch thick slices and place them on a parchment lined baking pan with one inch of space between them.
Bake in a preheated 325F oven until they just start to turn lightly golden brown on top, about 10-15 minutes.
Let cool completely.
