Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Halvah- Shortbread Cookies

Halvah Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped very fine (or mini chocolate chips)
¾ cup walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. With a handheld mixer, cream the butter and powdered sugar until smooth, about a minute. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour and salt. With the speed on low, add the chocolate and nuts all at once. Form dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter (I’m a big fan of the two-spoons method; you can roll the dough in your hands- whatever works best for you. They don’t need to be perfect). Place the dough balls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, about ½ to 1 inch apart. (They don’t spread much- I can fit 24 easily onto my cookie sheets.) Bake until the edges are just beginning to brown, between 10 and 15 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool on wire racks.


In the world of chocolate chip cookies, these are somewhat unique. Because there is no egg they are a quite dry, crumbly cookie, and because powdered sugar is used, the texture is  delicate, and reminds me of halvah, even though there is no sesame. These are light, and it’s easy to eat a handful of bite-sized cookies without thinking twice- perfect with a cup of coffee.

1 comment:

  1. This will be a recipe I will have to try out when the stressed chef (aka me waiting for test results) comes out of hiding. sounds yummy!

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