Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I’ve had a bit of a mental block recently. As in, I haven’t wanted to write anything, or even really participate in social media at all.

Which, as a blogger, is a bit of a problem.

It isn’t even that I haven’t wanted to; more that I just couldn’t find the energy. I’ve had zero inspiration. Even when I’ve wanted to photograph or write something, the desire just wasn’t there. 

Rest assured that I’ve still been eating and cooking great meals. But I just haven’t felt like I had anything to share. I think I’ve just been burned out. 

After coming back from travelling so long, I’m still trying to adjust to a more “normal” schedule. Not only that, but we’ve had a lot of decisions to make recently. So many decisions and so many different possible scenarios that it’s made my brain hurt to even think about anything else. Sorry for being so vague, but hopefully normal service will resume shortly and I can go back to my crazy and incoherent stories.

Having said all this, I have been cooking up a bit of an amateur storm in the kitchen recently. Needing to have something to do to occupy my brain, I’ve been making homemade ice cream (for the first time – how is this possible?), meringues and these little cookies. Honestly, I haven’t even cared about presentation recently; it’s all been about taste. Sometimes, you feel so under pressure to make something look good for other people, but when it comes down to it, all anyone really cares about is the taste. And I always like to judge my own food on the “moreish” factor.

As in, if you want more than one bite/slice/cookie after the first, then it’s definitely a winner.

This chocolate chip shortbread had that for me. It is so ridiculously light and crumbly, it’s definitely not one you want to try and attempt to dunk in your coffee, unless you enjoying scooping soggy crumbs out of your cup. But it is so buttery, soft and light that it almost dissolves in your mouth, leaving you with a wonderful ever-so-slightly chocolatey aftertaste.

This  is mental-block-destroying shortbread. You can’t get better than that.

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Recipe by Julia

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened

• 1/4 cup sugar (plus extra for dusting)

• 3/4 cup plain flour

• 2 tbsp semi sweet or dark chocolate chips

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F and line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Cream together the coconut oil and sugar until smooth.
• Stir in the flour and chocolate chips combine well until a thick paste-like dough is formed.
• Turn the dough out onto a work surface and roll out to around 1/2 thick. Use a sharp knife to cut out rectangular fingers (or use a cookie cutter) and place each piece onto the lined baking tray.
• Sprinkle each cookie with a small amount of sugar and then place the tray in the fridge for 5 – 10 minutes to chill.
• Remove shortbread from the fridge and bake for around 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

• This recipe can easily be doubled.
  Always chill the dough before baking otherwise the shortbread could spread.