Dark Chocolate Dipped English Breakfast Shortbread Cookies

The past few weeks have been tough. It is back to school for teachers as well as students and although you know what to expect because every beginning of the school year is the same, it doesn´t make it any easier. The best way to describe it is that you know how to drive but the highway is different. And the highway is always changing. These changes are influenced by the traffic, the speed, the drivers and the hour of the day. You are always in a state of having to adapt your driving according to these factors. You always want to drive well but you are more cautious at one moment, while perhaps a bit more aggressive in others. That is what my days are like with classrooms of about 30 3rd and 4th graders and each class ¨personality¨is distinct. I have to adapt my personality and teaching according to what they need. At any rate, after having some gloriously long and relaxing holidays, I fell out of that routine. And the result of that is coming home exhausted. Just exhausted. (Evidence of this would be that iam ready for bed at about 8:30 haha) Little by little, we (that includes my students) will get used to a routine and to each other! I just need time and a lot of patience. I am a big fan of memes because they make me laugh. Here are a few to give you an idea of how many teachers feel! (I found all these on my Facebook!)

  

Ok…now for the recipe! 😉

Even though it is still pretty hot here in Madrid(about 82 degrees), I was craving some tea recently and though I prefer English Breakfast, I went for that instead. The result only confirmed what  already knew. And that is that although tea and cookies cannot solve all your problems, they do an exceptionally good job of making you forget them for a little while!

I am sharing the original recipe which can be found here . Just substititute the Earl Grey for English Breakfast or perhaps try it with another tea that you prefer! I also did not use any cookie cutters. I rolled my dough into a little log, refrigerated it, then sliced it. You decide! These are also quite nice without the chocolate.

Dark Chocolate Dipped Earl Grey Shortbread

• Servings: 25 cookies
• Time: 30 min.
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted from Kitchen Counter Chronicles’ Lemon and Chamomile Shortbread Cookies. Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground earl grey tea
• 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon confectioners sugar or granulated sugar
• 5 oz. dark chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and salt until smooth and creamy.
3. Slowly add in earl grey tea and flour. Mix until dough forms. If the dough is a bit crumbly, knead it together.
4. Roll out dough on surface that has been dusted with flour or confectioners sugar. Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness.
5. Cut out cookies, using a 2-inch cookie cutter, and transfer to a cookie sheet.
6. Sprinkle granulated sugar over cookies if confectioners sugar was not used in Step 4.
7. Bake for 11-12 minutes, until edges are lightly golden. Let cool, then remove from cookie sheet and transfer to wire rack.
8. Melt dark chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second increments, adding 3 oz. at a time. (Melt 3 oz., then add 3 oz. more to melt.) Then dip shortbread in the melted chocolate, or drizzle. Let chocolate cool and harden, and enjoy!

Notes

• The size of the cookie will alter the baking time. The smaller the cookies, the quicker they will bake, but the difference is only 1 or 2 minutes.
• This recipe yields approximately 15 3-inch cookies or 12 4-inch cookies.
• If you are using full-leaf earl grey tea—such as the tea you would buy by weight and not by tea bag—use a coffee grinder or food processor to grind up the leaves. Ground loose leaf tea will have more flavor than bagged tea.

Enjoy!  xxxx Natascha