Sunday 7 June 2015

PRETTY LITTLE CHOC CHIP SHORTBREAD



Even when I'm feeling a little bit under the weather I can't resist the temptation to get into the kitchen on a day off and whip up some little homemade baked goods. They need to be simple little treats when your feeling a bit blue and these chocolate chip shortbread's are ideal. It takes no time at all to whip up your dough, shape into little discs of deliciousness and bake and you can feel your home with the comforting smell of freshly baked biscuits in less than an hour! If that doesn't perk you up then I don't know what will.

My little secret to the perfect little shortbread is the addition of polenta. I find they give the shortbread's a beautiful fine and crumbly texture as well as a more interesting flavor than a plain shortbread. If you don't have any polenta knocking about then your could use semolina or even rice flour or you can simply just add an extra 75g of plain flour.

As with most of my bakes containing chocolate I prefer to use dark chocolate chips as I think they work best in baked products and give them a more luxurious feel. You can however use milk or white chocolate instead if you wish or why not use a mixture of all different types to really mix it up.

 No chocolate chips? Leave them out and make some crumbly plain shortbread instead however I'd sprinkle over a smidge of golden caster sugar before placing them in the oven just to give them a bit of sweetness that would normally be given to the dough by the chocolate chips.

Lets get baking. You can get about 60 shortbread's out of this dough so be prepared to bake them in batches unless you have a massive oven. You'll need to make 60 though; they will fly that quickly out of your biscuit tin that if you don't they are going to be all gone before you know it;


Chocolate Chip Shortbreads

175g Softened Unsalted Butter
75g Golden Caster Sugar
175g Plain Flour
75g Fine Polenta
200g Dark Chocolate Chips






  1. Get your oven straight on to 180 degrees (160 fan) and line the biggest baking tray you have that will fit in your oven with grease proof paper.
  2. Place the butter, sugar, flour and polenta into a bowl and mix together until a dough has formed but do not over beat the dough otherwise the texture of the biscuits will be doughy rather than crumbly.
  3. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and begin kneading in the chocolate chips. Do this in batches byspooning on a quarter of the chips, knead them through and then adding the next quarter but again do this as quick as possible and don't over knead the dough.
  4. Take the dough and start shaping them into your biscuits. Take a piece of dough roughly around 12g in weight and roll into a ball. Place on the baking tray to flatten to the top to make a disc shape about 5cm in diameter.
  5.  Repeat this with the rest of the dough, spacing the shortbread's around 2 fingers width apart to allow for expansion. As mentioned you may not be able to fit all the biscuits on the one tray so don't try and squeeze them all on and save the leftover dough for your next batches.
  6. Once the tray is full, place in the oven and bake the biscuits for around 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and carefully transfer the shortbread to a wire rack to cool. 
Refresh the baking paper on the tray and make more shortbread with the remaining dough, bake and repeat until all the dough has been used. Wait until all the biscuits have cooled and then grab yourself a plate full and a cup of tea. The polenta makes the shortbread's really crumbly and delicious and every now and then you will get a delicious mouth full of those chocolate chips. Store the biscuits in a tin for around a week although if you are like me they will not last you more then a few days, especially if your house if full of children or visitors. They are going to fall in love with these pretty little choc chip shortbread's as much as you have.

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