Double Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

Double Chocolate Chunk Shortbread cookies taste like fudge. The dough comes together quickly and since it's a shortbread, no eggs are used. 

This is a great cookie to make and store in your refrigerator or freezer for last minute holiday cookie needs. 

Jump to:

• A Cookie Challenge
• How do I fix crumbly shortbread dough?
• Recipe Tips
• Cookie Baking Advice
• Serving Suggestions
• Recipe
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• Comments

When you need cookies, you just slice rounds off the log and bake. 

Do you know what happens when you have cookies baking in your oven? 

The house smells like you've been baking all day! Win win. 

This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click through to make a purchase, I may earn a commission, which helps defray the cost of all this chocolate. See Disclosure.

Fudge. That's what these double chocolate fudge shortbread cookies taste like. 

So, what you should know about these cookies is that in addition to tasting of fudge, they are diminutive.

That's a $5 word for tiny, really tiny.

But it's okay because the intense flavor makes up for the small stature.

If you follow the recipe, one batch of cookies, once sliced, are about the size of a quarter.

You can fit the roll of cookie dough inside a paper towel tube.

In fact paper towel tubes are recommended for storing the cookies in the fridge so they don't flatten one side and stay nice and cylindrical.

The recipe is from the Wall Street Journal.

A Cookie Challenge

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this cookie is easy as pie.

It ain't.

Judging from the comments left on the WSJ article, this recipe is double trouble for some bakers.

Numerous people had trouble with the dough because it doesn't form into a ball or clump of dough like you might expect.

Instead you're left with a crumbly mess.

The dough will remind you of making pie dough before you've patted the crumbs into a round of pastry. 

In fact, husband approached after I had dumped the dough onto the counter to manhandle it.

“What are you making?” he asked.

“Cookies," I said. "I failed the technical."

If you don’t get that joke, perhaps you haven't seen The Great British Baking Show and its occasional disasters. 

A few WSJ commenters said they had reduced the amount of flour in subsequent batches.

You could do that if you want but the recipe will work as written.

You just have to squinch the crumbles together into logs before chilling them.

But, don’t let this put you off.

This is a worthwhile cookie and it lasts at least two weeks once baked.

So, it's a good cookie if you're preparing a lot of treats say for a high tea and want to make a few things in advance.

How do I fix crumbly shortbread dough?

Scoop the crumbles onto the middle of a piece of plastic wrap maybe 12 by 12 inches.

Pull both horizontal edges of the plastic wrap together and compress the crumbs with your hands.

Shape and press and smooth until you’ve got a log of dough.

This takes just a few seconds.

Put the log of dough in the refrigerator and to chill at least three hours, preferably overnight.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it warm up to room temperature.

This way the dough is less likely to crumbly again while you’re slicing it.

Recipe Tips

I tweaked the recipe slightly by putting the cocoa powder in after beating the butter but before adding the sugar.

The WSJ recipe would have you add the cocoa powder to the dry ingredients and add those at the end.

That’s fine, you can do that.

But, I like to mix the flavorings with the butter in the beginning stages of a cookie dough life cycle. I think you get a richer flavor that way--similar to toasting nuts before using them.

What I love about this cookie is that the flavors are easily customizable. In fact there are at least 6 or 7 variations in the article.

I even came up with my own variation-toasted pistachio white chocolate--which I’ll be sharing soon.

Serving Suggestions

Some of those WSJ readers complained about the tiny size. I get it.

I made one roll of dough following the writer’s suggestions and the cookies were about the size of a quarter.

That’s a bit too small.

Meanwhile, like your thighs, the cookies look much larger on camera than they actually are.

The images that went with the article showed a much larger cookie and looking at the photo of my batch, you'd think those were much larger than a quarter but they aren't. 

That is frustrating when you’re expecting a cookie to look like the image but it’s actually just a fourth of the size.

But, these cookies are worth it all the same.

If you're looking for a less fussy cookie recipe that doesn't use eggs, you must try my recipe for Butterballs. 

Or go back to basics with Egg Free Chocolate Chip Cookies