Vegan Shortbread Cookies (dipped in dark chocolate, with crushed pistachio & sea salt)

Valentine's Day is right around the corner. My heart is with a man that lives on the other side of the ocean and I wanted to send him something home made that would ship well. He loves pistachio ice cream and when we met the first time in Davos he gave me literally 15 bars of Swiss chocolate to take back to Canada. Safe to say he's a fan of chocolate. So that's the inspiration for these little V-day heart cookies. I think they are kind of adorable. They are also dead easy. Shortbread is awesome like that. I love how versatile shortbread cookies are too. I've made them a million ways over the years working in restaurant kitchens and at home. Pink Peppercorn (a Vday function), fresh rosemary (savory shortbread on a cheese plate), lavender (accompanied the bill fold when customers came to pay after dinner) are the ones that pop into my mind as I write this. Ahh food memories. Those all were made with real butter but now a days at home I am cooking with Earth Balance. I put extra cookies in my freezer and I actually love them straight from the ice box.

Recipe

This is a small batch. I was able to fit all of the cookies in one round on a cookie sheet.  75 g of chocolate was enough for me to dip all of the cookies. Double the recipe if you want more than this!

Shortbread:

• 1 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup vegan butter (room temp)
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Chocolate for Dipping:

• 75 g dark vegan chocolate
• 1 tsp coconut oil

1. Cream together vegan butter and powdered sugar for a couple of minutes. Scrape down sides and mix in your vanilla.

2. Add the flour and beat together on a slow speed until combined. Don't over mix.

3. Form dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350°F while dough is chilling.

4. To roll out your dough you will need to dust your counter space liberally with flour, as well as the shortbread dough and rolling pin to prevent sticking. Roll out to desired thickness. It really doesn't matter how thick as long as they are all uniform in size. I rolled mine to about a 1/4 inch thick. Choose desired cookie cutter. Gather your scraps into a new disc and re roll and cut out shapes until you have used up all the dough.

5. Bake cookies on a parchment lined sheet pan for about 12 minutes. They are done when you start to see a bit of colour on the edges and bottoms. Let cookies cool completely before dipping them in chocolate.

Chocolate for Dipping Cookies:

Using the double boiler method with a pot of boiling water and a small bowl over top, melt your chocolate (broken into pieces first) and coconut oil together until smooth uniform. Simply dip half of your cookie in the chocolate, sprinkle on chopped toasted nuts of your choosing and a sprinkle of sea salt. When you are done garnishing the cookies just pop them into the fridge to set.