cinq.

The holidays are officially among us. Christmas tree lots are filled with families searching for the perfect tree. Shopping malls are packed with people frantically making holiday purchases. It is the season of peppermint mochas in red christmas cups, snowflakes (paper ones at the very least), and of course, holiday parties! And do you know what goes along with holiday parties? If you thought of decadent sweets and fancy treats you would be absolutely correct!

This past weekend, my parents were going to a neighbor's christmas party and asked me to make a dessert for them to bring. I said yes, of course.. the only issue was figuring out what to make. I had so many ideas (my multiple dessert Pinterest boards are to blame). After clicking and flipping and searching, I decided on a toasted coconut shortbread cookie with a dark chocolate drizzle.

 Coconut is hands down one of my favorite things, aside from chocolate of course. And combining the two? Pure bliss. I really couldn't imagine anything better. I saw the recipe and immediately made a shopping list and drove to the store and got to work. The dough is a basic shortbread recipe. The only difference is the addition of toasted coconut. I bought sweetened coconut, and toasted it on a cookie sheet in the oven until golden. I then tossed the toasted shreds of heaven (aka the coconut if you didn't catch on) into a food processor in order to get a really nice consistency to add to the shortbread dough.

After a few too many lick-the- beater moments, I reluctantly wrapped the dough in plastic wrap and popped it into the fridge to chill. To me, this is the only downside to baking. I am so impatient with food and have such a hard time waiting hours and hours for things to chill, set, and bake. After what seemed like decades (really only and hour) I took the dough out from the fridge and let it warm up for a few minutes. 

 Once it became soft enough to roll, I floured my counter top and got to rolling and cutting. I used a christmas tree cookie cutter to be festive, but any cookie cutter would be perfect for a recipe like this. After cutting out plenty of adorable christmas trees, I stuck them into the oven for about twenty minutes to bake! 

As the cookies were baking, I started melting the chocolate for the drizzle topping. This step isn't required, the cookies certainly taste fantastic on their own. I just thought the dark chocolate would work well and add a little bit of chocolaty goodness to the cookies. You could also dip the cookies in white chocolate or even frost them with a frosting you like. 

I melted the chocolate using a double boiler, basically just a pan with water and a bowl on top.

Once the cookies came out of the oven (looking great and smelling even better might i add), I used a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate on top!

I am officially hooked on these cookies. I think I will be making a few more batches to send to people. Shortbread are great for shipping because they are fairly hard and won't smooth together while en route! 

Here is the amazing recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen :

Toasted Coconut Shortbread
Adapted from Bon Appetit, April 2004

The original recipe was double this size, yielding six dozen cookies. I halved it.

1/2 cup (about 1.5 ounces) unsweetened shredded coconut*
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature**
1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (Updated: for unsweetened coconut, the smaller amount; sweetened, the larger amount)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread coconut on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until coconut is light golden, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Cool completely, then grind in a coffee grinder, food processor or blender until coarsely ground.

Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Mix in salt and vanilla. Beat in flour in 2 additions. Stir in toasted coconut. Gather dough together, flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic. Chill at least 1 hour. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out dough disk on lightly floured work surface to scant 1/4-inch thickness. Using 1 3/4- to 2-inch-diameter cookie cutters, cut dough into rounds. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather dough scraps and reroll; cut out additional cookies.

Bake cookies until light golden, about 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. (Can be made ahead. Store airtight at room temperature up to 1 week.)

* I couldn’t find unsweetened, so I used sweetened and dialed back the sugar by 2 tablespoons.
** If you’re looking for an excuse to splurge on the good butter, shortbread is it. You will absolutely appreciate the extra flavor as it shows up in this cookie.