Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies - Chocolate Dipped, 5 Ingredients

Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies are perfect to make during the holiday season. They're made with only five ingredients (not including salt) and only need 30 minutes of chilling time.

Buttery, flaky classic cut-out shortbread cookies that are then chocolate-dipped. Part of what makes these cookies unique is they use powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar, which makes these cookies taste incredibly delicate. Seriously, these cookies are almost like biting into powdery snow. I find that the chocolate makes these cookies, because it adds a soft, fudgy bite.

The bottom line is Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies are super addicting, and I could probably eat six or more in a sitting.

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What Is a Shortbread Cookie?

Shortbread is a biscuit traditional to Scotland. The biscuits are typically made of one part sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts flour. Shortbread contains no leavening ingredients, such as baking powder and baking soda, and has a very short list of ingredients.

Shortbread is known for its melt-in-your-mouth crumbly texture.

If you're looking for a dense, buttery cookie, you're thinking of Butter Cookies.

What are the Ingredients in Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies?

• High-quality gluten free all purpose flour containing xanthan gum. I use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour (the blue bag)
• Powdered sugar. I buy mine organic from Thrive Market.
• Sticks of butter.
• Pure vanilla extract.
• Salt.
• High-quality semi-sweet chocolate. I prefer to use Enjoy Life chocolate chips, melted down.

How to Make Gluten Free Shortbread Cookies:

For the Cookies:

• To a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, sift the gluten-free flour and powdered sugar together. Add in the salt.
• Stir together, or mix, until combined.
• Add in the butter pieces and vanilla extract, then mix on medium-low speed. Increase speed to medium and mix until the dough starts to come together, about 3-5 minutes. (The mixture will be very powdery/sandy for awhile, and then become a doughy consistency.) I used an electric handheld mixer.

• Cut two large pieces of parchment or wax paper. Lay the first piece of parchment paper on the countertop and lightly flour it. Place the dough on top. Then, lay the second piece of parchment paper on top of the dough ball. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it’s about ⅓ of an inch thick.
• Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. I recommend sticking with simple shapes for this recipe, as the cookies do tend to double in size when baked, even after chilling. Re-roll the scraps and cut out more cookies, until all of the dough is used up. You can lightly re-flour the parchment paper, if needed.

• Place cut-out cookies on a baking sheet (that can fit in the fridge) and chill 30 minutes.

• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F.
• Bake cookies 12-14 minutes, or until just lightly browned on the edges.

• Remove from oven and allow to cool 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.

For the Chocolate-Dipping:

• Chop up a chocolate bar or place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt in 20 second intervals, stirring in-between, until completely melted. You can also melt by using a double boiler method on the stove top, but the microwave is much faster/less mess.

• Use a spoon to drizzle the chocolate over each cookie until you reach your desired coating.
• Place chocolate-dipped cookies on parchment paper and allow to set up 1-2 hours until completely hardened. Alternatively, you could place the cookies temporarily back in the fridge for a faster set-up time. I found that drizzling the chocolate over the cookie worked better than dipping the cookie into the chocolate. Some of the cookie shapes, especially the stars, were much more likely to break when dipped.

• Once chocolate is hardened, store in an airtight container at room temperature. Eat within 3-4 days for best results.
• Enjoy.

Notes:

• I highly recommend using a French rolling pin (the kind that has tapered ends and does not have handles). It works super well for gluten-free dough because it’s lightweight and you don’t have to worry about the handles creating any unwanted impressions. French rolling pins sometimes stick to dough when used by themselves, but since we use parchment paper over top of the dough that isn’t a problem.
• I recommend sticking with simple cut-out shapes for this recipe, as the cookies do tend to double in size when baked, even after chilling. The shapes that worked best for me are stars and circles - the diamond shape did not hold its shape very well.
• Due to the delicate nature of these cookies, drizzling the chocolate over the cookies works better than dipping the cookies, especially if you used intricate cut-out shapes.

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