Christmas is almost here! It will be quite a different year with all my siblings traveling elsewhere, but my little family will celebrate with my parents and - truth be told - I think we're all looking forward to a quieter celebration. I've probably been a little too relaxed about it because I haven't wrapped any gifts, sent family cards, or even finished most of my shopping. But we went to see The Nutcracker yesterday and have baked dozens of cookies while listening to Christmas carols. More cookies are in the works, of the chocolate variety.
I'm thrilled to be partnering with Tony's Chocolonely on a series of collaborative recipes inspired by their delicious, 100% slave-free chocolate. The first collaboration is with Nora Antene, the pastry chef at Tusk in Portland, who created Christmas Spice Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with Tony's limited edition mulled wine milk chocolate bar. The cookies are on the Tusk dessert menu now through December 24. Guests who dine at the restaurant on Christmas Eve will receive a special gift from Tusk and Tony's.
If you're inspired to keep baking with slave-free chocolate, I also recommend chocolate mousse or semolina chocolate chunk fritters from our Valentine's Day series. Find the full list of Not Just Dessert recipes here. Stay tuned for a new recipe coming in January and wishing everyone happy holidays!
Tony’s Chocolonely Christmas Spice Chocolate Shortbread
Recipe created by Nora Antene
Ingredients:
225 g butter, soft
90 g brown sugar
50 g granulated sugar
4 g salt
4 g vanilla extract
275 g flour
65 g cocoa powder
3 g baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
¼ tsp clove
1 bar Tony’s Chocolonely mulled wine milk chocolate, chopped into 1 cm cube
Flake salt, for garnish
Cream butter, sugars, salt, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients and slowly add to creamed butter. Mix in chocolate pieces until combined.
Roll dough between two pieces of parchment paper to ¼ inch thick. Chill until firm, about 20 minutes. Cut into circles or favorite holiday shape, and sprinkle with fleur du sel. Bake at 350°F for about 8 minutes or just until the cookies puff and crack. The cookies will be very soft, but will firm up after cooling. Enjoy!