Alison Roman's Salted Butter & Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

Okay I am completely powerless when it comes to chocolate, especially chocolate chips, I add them to a LOT of my baked treats, I can't resist a recipe that calls for copious amounts of chunky chocolate chips and one that's really straightforward to make...it's a failing I know!

So needless to say my eye was caught at the sight of these beautiful shortbread cookies on Instagram. I was doing my usual daily hourly scan of my timeline when I noticed this hash tag #diningincookbook, appetising enough as I love dining in but what caught my eye was what usually followed was a plateful of mouth-watering cookies. What's all this? Why is everyone raving about these cookies. Not one to be left behind on a cookie trail of discovery, I decided to find out for myself what Alison Roman's cookies were really like to make and better still what they tasted like! I know I'm a sucker for delicious tasting sweet treats so this is going to be no hardship :)

Alison Roman published her Dining In cookbook late last year and it has been a hit since, however what caught everyone's attention was her shortbread cookie recipe, now I'm no stranger to making cookies, I've been known to go on a three day bender making batch after batch of choc chip cookies but these are different, firstly Alison herself is not a fan of choc chip cookies, so she went about adapting shortbread into this chocolate crammed, Demerara coated masterpiece. These are not difficult to make and I think everyone should have a go at least once at making what might prove to be the last cookie recipe you ever try...yeah they're that good!!

This recipe belongs entirely to Alison Roman, it is from her Dining In Cookbook, the original recipe is here.

Serves 24


Ingredients
*247g (2¼ sticks) Cold salted butter
*112g (½ Cup) Granulated white sugar
*47g (¼ Cup lightly packed)Light brown sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
*294g ( 2¼ Cups) Plain flour
*170g (6 oz) Chocolate chunks
1 Large egg (for egg wash)
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling
Flaky sea salt

* I have a set of measuring cups which I bought in my local home wears store which I use to convert American recipes into grams.   

Method
Line two baking trays with parchment or greaseproof paper, set aside.

I started with fridge cold butter diced into 2cm cubes.

I added the cold butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar and the vanilla to my stand mixer and mixed on medium for 4-5 minutes until it was light and fluffy.

While the mixer was doing its work I hand chopped a bar of Dark Chocolate (55% Cocoa Solids) into chunks, I love chopping my own chocolate chips into big chunks.

Once the butter and sugars were well combined I added the plain flour on a low speed then  I added the chopped dark chocolate. Once everything was looking good I turned out half of the cookie dough onto my chopping board that was covered with cling film, gave it a  mix quick knead- by knead I mean I very lightly squished all the crumbs together - then used the cling film to roll the dough into a 25cm long sausage, repeat with the remaining dough. 

The two sausages should be about 6cm in diameter, tightened the ends and then chill for two hours in the fridge,  then with bated breath I dug out my serrated bread knife and got ready to slice....

Whisk the egg and brush the cookie dough all over, coat the entire roll with the Demerara sugar....this bit is fun! Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F/ Gas Mark 4

I used my bread knife to cut through the dough, I expected some resistance from the chocolate chips but the serrated edge of the knife sliced right through them, cut into 1cm rounds.

Lay the rounds onto your prepared baking trays, sprinkle over the flaky sea salt- the cookies should  5-6 cm apart on a cooking tray. These cookies don't spread in the oven as can often happen with chocolate chip cookies, so two lined baking sheets should be enough.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown and beginning to crack on top...the Demerara sugar coating will be crisp and golden.