Chocolate Dipped Shortbread an easy to prepare and crowd-pleasing dessert made with homemade shortbread dipped in melted chocolate and topped with sprinkles.
Shortbread is one of those universally loved treats. Who can resist its buttery flavor or crispy-crumbly but yet still soft texture? It’s a classic, and it should be.
Shortbread is fantastic on its own, but it is also a basis for many other desserts! My family has been making a shortbread pie crust for generations. I have used shortbread to make caramel sandwich cookies, and I made red velvet shortbread cookies for Valentine’s Day.
The secrets to making a really good shortbread are to use a high-quality butter and to use a mix of semolina and all purpose flour. Semolina has a courser texture than flour and it helps to give shortbread a slightly crumbly texture. Once you have the semolina, you probably have all of the other ingredients to make shortbread at home already. (If you need to buy semolina, you can find it by flour at the grocery store).
I love the idea of dipping homemade shortbread in chocolate and adding sprinkles. You can choose the color of sprinkles to match the theme of an event or a specific holiday.
You can use any type of melted chocolate to dip the shortbread. You can usually find melting chocolate in grocery stores and that melts better and hardens more quickly than chocolate chips. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate all work well. If you already have chocolate chips, you can use them too, just keep a close eye on them while you are melting them since they can overheat and harden.
If you don’t want to add sprinkles to your shortbread, you can sprinkle nuts or toffee bits on top of the melted chocolate instead.
I rolled out the shortbread and then cut it into triangles and geometric shapes. You could opt to use a cookie cutter instead. If you are using a cookie cutter, the trick to getting the shortbread to hold its shape as it bakes is to chill it in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking it.
How to make Chocolate Dipped Shortbread:
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread is made with homemade vanilla shortbread that is coated with melted chocolate and sprinkles. The preparation time is minimal and the recipe relies on staple ingredients you may have already.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks of Butter at Room Temperature
- 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Semolina
- 1 cup Melting Chocolate I used Dark Chocolate or Almond Bark
- 1/4 cup Sprinkles
Instructions
First, whip the butter in an electric mixer for one minute on medium speed. Then add the powdered sugar and beat for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
Add the semolina, continuing to mix in the electric mixer on medium speed. Then add the all-purpose flour 1/2 cup at a time. Mix until the ingredients are evenly incorporated.
Then divide the dough into two pieces, flatten into discs, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
After the dough has chilled, remove it from the fridge and let it soften just enough so that you can roll it out. Roll the dough out so that it is 1/8 of an inch thick and then cut into whatever shapes you like.
Place the cut out dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill for 10 minutes before baking them on a center rack in the oven for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees. You want to bake the dough until the edges are golden brown.
Once all of the shortbread has baked and cooled, melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Fill a pot with about 4 inches of water, and heat over medium-low heat until is steaming. You do not want the water to boil. Place a glass or metal bowl over the pot, and add the chocolate. Stir the chocolate until it melts.
Shortbread can be a bit crumbly, so I recommend using a spoon to gently coat the shortbread with chocolate. Then add the sprinkles. Let the chocolate set before serving the shortbread, you can place it in the fridge to get the chocolate to set more quickly.