Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbread



This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Tia of Buttercream Barbie. She chose Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbread. This is an unusual shortbread in that you roll the dough into a log and make them into slice-and-bake cookies. The shortbread also contains salt and pepper, which may seem strange. I have made a couple of cookies that contain pepper and I like the flavor in cookies. You can get the complete recipe for these cookies on Tia’s blog, and don’t forget to check out all of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers and their interpretation of this week’s recipe.

I was happy that this was a slice-and-bake cookie, as those don’t seem to take too much time. I didn’t change the recipe much at all. I did use dark cocoa powder, which gave the cookies a deep, rich color. For the salt, I used Hawaiian Pink Diamond Sea Salt. My husband and I just returned from Hawaii and we picked up a couple of different types of salt. (We also bought lots of macadamia nuts: those recipes are on their way!) This particular salt contains Hawaiian Alaea volcanic clay, which gives it a beautiful pink color. It doesn’t taste that different, at least to me, but it sure looks great!

These cookies came together so quickly, but they were a little hard to shape into logs. The dough is sticky and gets all over your hands, the kitchen counter, etc. I rolled mine on a Silpat and that worked ok. I topped some of the cookie with extra salt and I wish I would have done that will all of them as that added a lot. The texture of these cookies is excellent; they just melt in your mouth. I liked the salt and pepper in these, and I think they would be good with cinnamon and some other spices. These were unusual and very good!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, on page 128

15 comments:

Kayte said...

Oh, I admire all you creative people who can dress up a plain cook and have it be truly photo-worthy. Sigh. Someday I might learn how to do all that...until then, plopping them on a plate and snapping a photo is as good as it gets. I have that pink Hawaiian salt on my Christmas wish list as I like to try new things like that and it looks so pretty. I agree: slice and bake, what's not to love about those!! Nice job.

Hindy said...

Kayte's right. It's a gorgeous photo, volcanic chocolate cookies and their pink lava salt. Nicely done!

Jessica of My Baking Heart said...

Oooh, I'd love to try that Hawaiian Pink Salt - it makes your cookies POP! :)

Tia said...

looking good!!! love the salt touch. thanks for baking w me!
Buttercreambarbie

Tia said...

thanks for baking w me! i love the salt on top. great touch. Buttercreambarbie

Cindy said...

Looks yummy, I'll make it soon. Sometimes life gets in the way of good cookies.

Sunshine - www.cancersurvivor26.blogger.com said...

Looks yummy!

www.cancerinthecity.com

Katrina said...

Love the pink salt! I still can't get nice round logs either, but something that helped a little, first I wrapped it in the plastic, then tried to form as much of a round log as I could, after about an hour chilling, I shaped it some more, which helped once it was more firm. I still don't know the whole trick that some people get with perfectly round slice and bake cookies. ;)

Jacque said...

Oh, wow, yours are dark... yummm! They look perfect.

Joy said...

They're gorgeous! They are so perfectly round - and the salt is beautiful!

Cakelaw said...

Your cookies look beautiful and I love the pink salt. I rolled mine in the plastic wrap I chilled them in to avoid some of the mess.

Anonymous said...

great looking cookies...gotta get some pink salt!

Nichicakes said...

love the pink salt too... i have to try that some day.

alvarosa said...

the pink salt is great - can only repeat what the others already said!

Lynne Daley said...

I love the pink lava salt you sprinkled on the cookies. The dark cocoa color is great, too. Lovely cookies!