Sunday 19 December 2010

Chocolate drizzled cranberry shortbread

A quick to make but delicious to eat last minute Christmas gift idea. Shortbread is always well received around Christmas time (who am I kidding - any time!) and adding dried cranberries seemed a good way to turn it into a festive treat. I'm really on a cranberry kick at the moment! The chocolate drizzle was meant to add decoration, but in all honesty some of it fell off. The flavour combination of the chocolate with the sweet sharp dried cranberries and buttery, rich shortbread was really good though - especially the dark chocolate (but I would say that as a dark chocolate fiend!) so next time I'll try adding the chocolate to the dough.

These were easy to put together, but I would really recommend chopping the dried cranberries finely, as I did because otherwise I think they would be too big in the finished biscuits and make the rounds difficult to cut. I do wish I knew how to make the demerara sugar stick to the outside of the roll though - it did in some places but not in others. Very annoying! Any tips most welcome!

Cranberry shortbread
Ingredients
125g butter, softened
30g caster sugar
165g plain flour
40g dried sweetened cranberries, chopped finely (I snipped mine with scissors)
demerara sugar for rolling
chocolate for drizzling

Method
- Preheat oven to gas 4/180C. Line baking trays with baking parchment.
- Beat butter until very soft then beat in caster sugar.
- Fold in flour and cranberries until well combined. Shape into a log and wrap in clingfilm. Chill for an hour or so.
- Roll in demerara sugar then slice into chunky slices. Place on baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden around the edges.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack then drizzle with melted chocolate if you so desire.


Packaged up as a Christmas Cracker, all ready for giving as gifts. Cellophane would be good too, but I didn't have any and as they say - necessity is the mother of invention. Or perhaps it's just me that says that....

Tasty shortbready treats, rich and buttery but with lovely cranberries and chocolate too - what's not to like?

8 comments:

Brownieville Girl said...

I would be very happy if I recieved these as a gift!

Katie said...

Looks delicious and perfect for this time of year with the cranberries

Chele said...

They look lovely - I especially like the chocolate drizzle, even if it does have a mind of its own at the best of times lol.

Johanna GGG said...

I have tried finely chopped chocolate and cranberries in shortbread and felt it was so small you couldn't taste it enough - I love the idea of the chocolate drizzle - I agree with you that you can never have enough chocolate

Kim said...

They look scrummy! Love the cracker packaging too!

Celia said...

Beautiful C! I love the cranberry and dark chocolate combination! And you're so right, there's something very Christmassy about shortbread! :) Merry Christmas!

Suelle said...

I don't understand why I never see your new posts until they're a day or two old. I have my 'reading list' set for new posts to pop to the top too!

Anyway - both your shortbread and your scones look delicious, and very festive. Dried cranberries and chocolate are a lovely combination.

Caroline said...

BG - thanks!

Katie - cranberries are just crying out to be used at this time of year!

Chele - thankyou - that chocolate drizzle has a mind of it's own!

Johanna - next time I might dip them in chocolate instead of drizzling it over - more chocolate to eat and it wouldn't fall off!

Kim - thanks! The packaging was very much spur of the moment though!

Celia - thank you. Merry Christmas to you too. I'm not sure why something potentially as plain as shortbread speaks so strongly of Christmas but it does! Perhaps it's all the butter.... mmmm, butter!

Suelle - thank you! The mystery is simple - I've been trying to catch up with posting as I have a large backlog and intended to post every day this week to try and clear a little. I therefore set the posting day to a day in arrears to accommodate this plan. Sadly I've run out of time to blog anything else - again! That's why they don't always pop to the top. I know I'm not doing myself and the blog any favours doing this, but perhaps one of my new years resolutions should be to be more organised about blogging!

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