Another fun variation on classic shortbread to add to your cookie tray this holiday season. Here’s how to make chocolate-dipped shortbread fingers!
When I discovered the perfect plant-based shortbread recipe last year, I made a little promise to myself that I would use it often and in many different ways. Shortbread is the perfect anytime cookie in my opinion, but obviously it’s absolutely essential at Christmas time. I have a few different ideas for this year, but this is the one I wanted to try first. I’ve pre-measured the ingredients into airtight containers for a few batches so I can easily whip up a batch whenever I feel inspired over the next few weeks, but these also freeze incredibly well if you want to actually make your cookies from start to finish and just freeze them for later. I’ve had some of these shortbread cookies that have been in the freezer for four months and they were still perfect.
Ingredients Needed for the Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Cookies
You’ll need:
- One recipe of plant-based shortbread dough or your favourite easy-to-work with shortbread recipe
- 3/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
- Crushed candy cane bits (I used about 3 crushed candy canes)
So simple! So good. 🙂
How to Make the Shortbread Fingers
This dough actually doesn’t require chilling at all before you roll it out. I tried chilling it for this, and it was way too stiff so I had to wait for it to come back up to room temperature. So that’s a step you can skip!:)
Roll your dough out to about 1/4″ thick on a well-floured surface, with a well-floured rolling pin. Using a butter knife, carefully cut out a grid pattern, creating sticks of shortbread dough that are about one inch wide, by four inches long.
Lift the fingers carefully onto lined baking sheets, making sure to leave about an inch of breathing room around each one.
Bake at 325 degrees for about 11.5 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely before moving on to the next step.
Putting the Finishing Touches on the Chocolate-Dipped Shortbread Fingers
Melt your chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the chips for 30 seconds at a time, stir, then microwave again until they’re completely melted.
Place your crushed candy cane in a separate bowl.
Line a clean baking sheet with parchment or a silpat baking mat.
Dip a shortbread finger into the melted chocolate, covering about the bottom 1/3 of the cookie completely, then use your fingers to sprinkle some of the crushed candy cane onto the chocolate. Place the completed cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Repeat until all the shortbread fingers have been dipped and decorated!
Chill the cookies in the fridge for a few minutes to allow the chocolate to set.
I didn’t really feel like this idea needed its own recipe card, because it’s really more of a decorating idea for an existing recipe than an actual recipe in itself, but then I thought that someone might want to add it to their recipe binder so they don’t forget about it, so here’s the printable version as well. 🙂
Another fun variation on classic shortbread to add to your cookie tray this holiday season. Here's how to make chocolate-dipped shortbread fingers!
- 3/4 cup Plant-based butter substitute
- 3/4 cup Confectioner's sugar
- 1.5 cups All-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup Non-dairy chocolate chips
- 4 Crushed candy canes
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Preheat oven to 325. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and butter substitue and mix on medium speed until well combined and smooth.
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With the mixer on low, slowly add in the flour, a little at a time. Keep mixing until a nice dough forms.
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Roll out the dough to about 1/4" thick and cut it into a grid pattern of fingers with a butter knife.
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Transfer the fingers to cookie sheets and bake for about 11-12 minutes.
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When the cookies have cooled completely, melt your chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish and transfer your crushed candy cane to a small bowl.
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Dip each finger into the melted chocolate, coming up about 1/3 of the way on the cookie, then use your fingers to sprinkle a bit of the crushed candy cane on top of the melted chocolate.
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Place each completed cookie down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill in the fridge for a few minutes to set the chocolate.
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These will last for months in the freezer, so make extra! 🙂
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- Plant-Based Orange Cranberry Shortbread
- Three Ingredient Apple Danish Recipe
- Easy Three-Ingredient Banana Bread
- Ritz Cracker Bark AKA Crookies
- The Creek Line House Dessert Archives
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.