Tuesday, September 20, 2011

TWD: Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbread

This was an intriguing recipe for me. I have made chocolate cookies before with a touch of cayenne in them, so pepper in cookies wasn't an entirely foreign idea. And I've tried fleur de sel on sweets, so that one was a known quantity. But I've never had them combined in a cookie.

This was a basic shortbread. I love that this type of cookie comes together so easily. I used coarse ground pepper and fine sea salt in the cookies. In the original recipe, Dorie has us roll the dough into two logs before refrigerating it. I went with my favorite technique of hers for shortbread and I spooned the dough into a gallon size zip top bag. It gets rolled flat and stored in the fridge until baking time. Then I just cut it into squares and bake them off. Dorie's original recipe said the yield was 24 cookies. I got 64. Hmmmm.

Before baking, I sprinkled one cookie sheet worth of dough with Portuguese Cream Salt. It was recommended to be the last time I was at The Spice House. (LOVE that place) I think some coarse sugar would have been good as well.

Mmmmm.

This is a really good cookie. I would certainly label it a "grown-up" cookie, but The Boy and The Girl gave it big thumbs up. It's not very sweet, and the salt taste hits the tongue pretty strongly. But then there's this... something. A slight burn, maybe, from the pepper. It really adds up to some excellent flavor.


I think the problem with making them smaller and making more of them is wanting to eat more of them. Ooops.

Thank you Tia of Buttercream Barbie for choosing this one!

13 comments:

Cakelaw said...

I love that you made them square and put extra salt on top. You are right - these are not sweet cookies.

Becky @ Project Domestication said...

that Portuguese cream salt sounds very cool! I enjoyed these cookies, and you are totally right not very sweet.

Kayte said...

Ooops, if I was supposed to put salt on top, I didn't do that...I read the recipe quickly because, well you know why. lol Hey, I've had a few in a row now...pressure is on to make that plum cake next week. I like cake, I like plums, not sure I like plums in cake. Might have to find out. Hope your week is going well...enjoy these last bits of summer before the white stuff starts flying in a couple of months.

Nicole said...

Your squares are so perfect! I added salt to the tops of mine and that was a good addition.

Hindy said...

I loved these cookies too. Yours look great as squares with the bonus sprinkle of salt!

Jessica of My Baking Heart said...

Sixty-four?!? So glad I didn't go the ziploc bag route... I would've trashed my diet! :) I love the shape you get from that technique, though. Beautiful cookies!

Katrina said...

Love the squares! I loved these. Your photos are cool with the fun serving plate.

Anonymous said...

your cookies look great!! I tried the ziploc bag way too...mine were just a tad flat though! :)

alvarosa said...

I tried to top them with salt, too, but somehow the salt dissapeared in the dough while baking... Yours look great!

Jacque said...

I thought they were more of an adult cookie too... at least juding by my kids' reactions. Good idea with the ziploc bag. They look great!

spike. said...

wow 64 cookies! Glad the were enjoyed. love the salt on top

Judy said...

Beautiful cookies! I sprinkled salt on the top as well. It added an extra zing.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I like the way you describe the taste of these - they were really good, I agree!