Chocolate Covered Olive Oil and Orange Shortbread Cookies

It is getting so close to Christmas (less them 2 weeks! AAHHH!!) which in my house means it is officially cookie time.

Starting my cookie baking binge on a quick and easy cookie. Shortbread. Made with few ingredients, one bowl, one sheet, in and out and done. To spice up the flavor a little I added orange and for ease of not having any non frozen vegan butter, I used olive oil instead which I think, judging by the reactions of the mr and sister, was a great idea. (I had to hide the cookies from mr.. he couldn't stop eating them)

ll sorts of flavorful and crispy, these are a good cookie to have and to share. Just the right amount of cookie to get into the cookie season.

And because I am nothing if not a stickler for aesthetically pleasing things, look at the shape. Most cookies are round. It’s nice to have a long and rectangular cookie around for a change, am I right? Am I weird? Yeah, a little.

To the cookies!

The stuff. Flour, salt, mild olive oil, brown sugar, an orange, and some chocolate chips.

Sugar and oil go into a bowl and mixed until completely combined. Add in a few tablespoons of juice from the orange, mix, then add in flour, salt, and zest from orange. Mix until it all comes together into a dough that is a little crumbly.

Gather dough and place on a cookie mat or parchment paper and gently roll out into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Place on a baking sheet and pop into fridge for about 1/2 hour. Preheat oven. Then once oven is preheated, pop the baking sheet into the oven.

In the meantime, rough chop up the chocolate into smaller pieces.

After about 18 minutes, the cookie should be a light golden brown. Pull it from the oven and working fast, take a sharp knife, pizza wheel, or bench scraper and cut the giant cookie into smaller cookies. Long strips look nice, but whatever shape you want, just do it fast and gently and don’t burn yourself.

Then pop the cookies back into oven again for another 5-6 minutes until a little darker brown.

Once cookie is a nice golden brown, pull it from oven and sprinkle the still hot cookie with the chocolate. Wait a minutes or two until it starts to melt, then with a knife, smear it around. Sprinkle with sprinkles or fancy gold dusting sugar if your feeling festive.

Now you should let them cool so gently slide them onto a wire rack. Just until the chocolate sets.

Then it is cookie time.

-C

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Chocolate covered Olive Oil and Orange shortbread cookies

make around 2 dozen

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 2/3 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 tablespoon orange zest

• 1 tablespoon orange juice

• !/2 cup chocolate chips either smashed or cut into little pieces

• 2 tablespoons sprinkles (optional)

Garb a bowl and mix the oil and brown sugar together until completely incorporated and there are no chunks of sugar. Add in orange juice and mix. Then add in the salt, flour, and orange zest. Mix until a slightly crumbly dough forms. Gather dough into a ball (use your hands) and place on a large piece or parchment or a splat mat. Roll out into a rectangle-ish shape about 1/2 inch thick. Slide the whole thing still on parchment or mat right onto a baking sheet. Stick the baking sheet into the fridge to rest for about 20-30 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 350

One giant cookie has chilled a bit, place it it the oven and bake for for 18- 20 minutes or until a light golden brown. Remove from oven and right away, very carefully, cut the large cookies into whatever shape and however many pieces you want using a knife, pizza wheel or dough scraper. And don’t separate them yet. Once cut, pop back into oven for another 5-8ish minutes or until cookies are a nice golden brown.

Remove from oven and while still hot, sprinkle the chopped chocolate all over the top. Let it melt for a few minute then with a knife, carefully spread the melted chocolate all over and sprinkle with sprinkles of course. And now you can separate them.

Transfer cookie to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Now eat them.

These cookies will last a week, if not more on counter in a air tight container. They also ship well!

Peach Almond Shortbread Bars

Peaches are here. YAY!!! Peaches are for sure one of those fleeting fruits, one that once in season, you need to eat as many fresh as you can because once they are out of season, they are not good. Not good at all. And me being me, I see peaches, I buy a shit load, and now I have a fridge drawer full. Not complaining in the slightest, but peaches cannot sit around all summer waiting to be eaten. So if you are going to buy a shit load, know what you are going to do with them all.

My peaches, well they haven’t had to wait long. I have been eating at least a peach a day and… I made these bars with a few. Sharing my peaches, thats what I do. HA.

These almond peach shortbread bars. Fantastic A+ on all fronts. Easy to make, not a whole heck of a lot of ingredients, make the house smell amazing, and really kick off the peach, summer vibe thing that goes on around here.

'“Millions of peaches, peaches for me. Millions of Peaches, peaches for free” 🎶 (Peaches by The Presidents of the United States of America. If you have’t head the song, look it up. I don’t think I can even look at a peach without hearing the song in my head.)

Now to the peach almond shortbread bars!

The stuff. Peaches, almonds, vegan butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

Easy peasy. Almonds go in to food processor first. Blend and pulse for a minute or two until they turn into a medium fine almond meal. (Don’t over blend or you will end up with almond butter.) When almonds are ground, add in the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and sugar. Pulse until combined. Then add in the butter in chunks and pulse until dough just starts to come together.

Almond shortbread dough.

Half the dough goes into a 9x9 baking pan. Smooshed evenly all over the bottom poke it with a fork. Then it just needs to go into the oven to bake. 15-18 minutes or so, just until it starts to brown a bit.

Peaches need to be cut so cut them up. !/2 inch thick slices, after the pits be removed of course.

Blinded baked bottom. Looks good yeah? Let it cool for a few minutes and then it gets peaches. Three rows, all over lapping and nestled together.

The top gets the remaining half of dough and is now it’s ready for the oven. Another 40-ish minutes or so to really seal the deal.

Taken from the oven when golden brown, cooled, cut up, and placed on a pretty plate because pretty is nice.

I am pretty sure you figured out what to do next…. EAT IT!

-C

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Peach Almond Shortbread Bars

makes a 9x9 pan which can be cut Into the sizes of your choice

• 1 cup vegan butter

• 1 cup packed brown sugar

• 2 cup cup all purpose flour

• 1 cups raw almonds

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3 large firm peaches

• 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven 350

Place almonds into a food processor and pulse and blend until a fine meal has formed. It should take only a minute or two and stop half way and scrape the edges and sides do the almonds don’t start to form a paste. Add in the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon,and sugar and pulse until combined. Add in the vegan butter in a few chunks and pulse until the mixture turns into a crumbly dough. Stop pulsing and dump mixture into big bowl.

Take half of the mixture and place into a 9x9 baking pan. Evenly distribute and press the dough into the bottom. Take a fork and poke the dough all over then place the pan in the oven. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the dough just starts to lighly brown. Remove from oven.

While the bottom crust is cooling off for a few minutes, slice peaches into 1/2 inch slices. Obviously make sure to remove pit.

Now take your half baked crust and layer peaches evenly on top. It is easies to start at the top, make three rows across and then layer the peaches down (like in the picture above). Once peaches are layered, grab the remaining half of dough and evenly distribute on top. Place back into oven and bake for another 40-45 minutes or until the crumble on top is a nice deep golden brown.

Remove from oven, let coo completely (or as completely as you can) cut into pieces, and then you eat it.

Left over pieces should be placed in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. They freeze well individually wrapped too.

blind back for about 15 minutes of until the crust is starting to brown around the edges

bake for another 30 minutes