Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate (Petit Ecolier-Style)
Gluten-free vegan shortbread cookies with chocolate, Petit Ecolier-style.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Total Time: 41 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies
- Category: cookies
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: dessert, vegan, gluten-free
Ingredients
Cookies
- ¼ cup non-dairy butter, at room temperature / softened
- 2 ½ tbsp dark maple syrup
- ¼ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp gluten-free flour blend (I recommend Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend) (or make your own by combining: ½ cup brown rice flour, 6 tbsp tapioca starch, ¼ cup sweet rice flour, ¼ tsp guar gum)
Chocolate Topping*
- 1 cup non-dairy dark chocolate chips (or chopped vegan chocolate of your choice)
- 2 tbsp cacao butter**
Instructions
- COOKIES: Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Prepare a rolling area with two additional sheets of parchment paper for that, and have a 2" round cookie cutter ready.
- Place butter in a large mixing bowl and whip it briefly with a hand mixer until creamy. Add sweetener, salt, and vanilla and mix once again to combine. Add in flour and use a wooden spoon to mix. Then get in there with your hands and mix everything together by working the dough until you can shape it into a ball. Note that depending on the flour mix you use there may be a slight variance, so keep in mind that the consistency of the dough should not be sticky but should press together when pinched and not crack when you roll it into a ball — be sure to knead it really well first for some time, if it’s a little sticky, add a little more flour (try 1-2 tbsp at a time); if it’s a little dry add a little more butter or maple syrup. Shape the dough into a ball and then flatten into a disk.
- Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to ¼” thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out round cookies out of the dough. Carefully transfer to a prepared cookie sheet, spacing them ½” apart (they won’t spread as they bake). Gather up any dough scraps and repeat until all the dough is used up. Note that if the dough seems to get a bit dry as you try to gather it back into a dough ball, add a bit more butter or maple syrup and knead once again. Once all the cookies are cut out, use a fork to carefully pierce some holes in the each cookie (to prevent bubbling and excessive cracking) -- try to poke holes throughout the center, but without getting too close to the edges.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven for approximately 11-12 minutes, until the edges begin to become a little golden. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Note: cookies will harden a little within minutes of cooling, so don’t over-bake. Allow the cookies to cool completely.
- CHOCOLATE TOPPING: While the cookies are baking, melt the chocolate chips and cacao butter using the double boiler method. Place your silicone chocolate mold onto a small metal tray (for stability). Spoon half of the melted chocolate mixture into the mold's cavities (don't over-fill). Once the molds are full, place the tray in the freezer for about 10 minutes for the chocolate to set. Once it feels firm to the touch, carefully un-mold the chocolate onto a parchment-lined tray or plate and set aside. Reheat the remaining chocolate mixture if need be, fill in the molds once again and allow the chocolate to set in the freezer once again. You should have a tiny bit of unused melted chocolate at the end of this process, and that's good -- you'll need it for the next step.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, spoon a few drops of melted chocolate onto one of the cookies, then place one of the round chocolates you made on top in the center of the cookie. Press down lightly. Set aside and repeat with the remaining cookies. These chocolate "drops" act as the "glue" to hold the chocolate top in place. Enjoy!
Notes
*If you prefer, rather than making a chocolate topping you can just use cut pieces of your favorite chocolate. In which case, you can skip most of step 5. You can melt a tiny bit of the chocolate you're using to use it as the "glue" drops. You can also cut out your shortbread cookies into whatever shape suits the shape of your chocolates best.
**I used cacao butter for its lovely flavor here, and also to help thin out the chocolate a bit so it's easier to pour into the mould. If you prefer, you can use coconut oil instead, but keep in mind that cacao butter stays firmer at a higher temperature so the cookies will keep better at room temperature as well without the chocolate melting. For the cacao butter here I used about 8 cacao butter wafers. If you're using chunks of cacao butter, chop them up smaller so they melt faster into the chocolate.