Sonic Boom Shortbread Recipe
Originally published at Modern Domestic Geek. You can comment here or there.
A couple of weeks ago an auction was held for a little girl’s future. One of my contributions to the items to be purchased was my shortbread, which is dipped in chocolate. The lot went for a pretty high price, and the winner asked me for the recipe. Since I haven’t posted in a coon’s age (I’ve been particularly unmotivated, and not feeling the least bit domestic), I thought I would put the recipe here. The name Sonic Boom shortbread is what the auction gave it, but it has since stuck.
What I’m going to to is type of the original recipe, then list the minor tweaks I gave it to get my shortbread. Though - most of it is by instinct - and oven temp and different pans can give different results, so the recipe is not guaranteed. Full recipe after the break
Sonic Boom Shortbread
makes approximately 4 dozen 1.5 inch cookies
1 cup margarine or butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tsp shortening
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix butter, sugar and vanilla in mixer. Slowly mix in flour in small batches. If the dough is really crumbly, add 1 to 2 tsp more butter.
Roll out dough 1/2 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into 1×2 inch strips. Place on ungreased cookie sheets 1/2 inch apart. Poke with holes.
Bake 14-16 minutes or until set and bottoms are light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire rack. Cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
Place chocolate chips and shortening in small microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, or until melted, stir until smooth. Dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate and place on wax paper until set.
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So, that’s the original recipe that I start from. What makes mine different are that I only ever use butter, and take it out of the fridge several hours in advance until it’s room temperature and very soft. From what I can tell, it’s the room temperature aspect that makes the dough easiest to handle. The next difference is that I roll the cookies out to 3/8ths of an inch, because that’s what my measuring bands go up to. I use a marble rolling pin, and this seems to keep the dough from getting too warm and loose. To cut the cookies, I use a pastry sheet, then use a pizza cutter and ruler to get them all approximately the same size. Which almost never happens.
When I bake them, I use Air Bake sheets, with parchment paper. This does make a difference. When I used aluminum cookies sheets with parchment paper, the cookies didn’t come out to the same consistency. I also reduce the baking time to 12 minutes, which for my particular oven, is perfect. The cookies come out a little paler than the recipe indicates, but then I let them set on the cookie sheet for a minute to finish baking just a bit.
Really, any chocolate can be used, but when using chips, I microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each step. It’s really easy to nuke them too long. For the auction cookies, I used a double-boiler and some dark chocolate bars from Asher’s Candies. My favorite is milk chocolate, and I usually use Nestle’s milk chocolate chips for that.
Though as I said earlier, it really is instinct. I start checking the baking cookies two minutes before they are supposed to be done, in case my oven decides to be wonky. And sometimes the batter just doesn’t come together right. For the auction cookies, I had to make three batches of dough. The first batch of dough came out too sticky, and when I tried to harden it up in the kitchen, I couldn’t ever get it to roll out properly. The second batch of dough came out perfectly, and rolled out nicely, but got overdone in the oven, and were actually golden brown on the bottom, and the cookies ended up the wrong consistency. The third batch was the charm, and I’m not sure what was different that this one worked when the others didn’t. But it had to be the best for the winner of the auction.
Hope everyone is able to get great results.