White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day.  My husband and I don't really celebrate Valentine's day, but I'm usually busy making cupcakes or cookies for one of our children's classes.  Somehow this year, I managed to not have anyone to bake for.  So I saw this recipe and thought I would try it out.  Our daughters love cherries and I had some leftover from the previous cupcakes (I bought too jars in case I needed to make a second batch).  These White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread cookies came from another Pinterest search.  They looked really scrumptious.  I made a few notes to the original recipe with thoughts I had while I was baking them.

Here are the Ingredients:

1/2 Cup maraschino cherries, drained and finely chopped (I also put them in my little processor)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cold butter
12 ounces white chocolate baking squares with cocoa butter, finely chopped (I used white chocolate chips and chopped them in the processor as well)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 drops red food coloring (optional - I didn't use any)
2 teaspoons shortening
white nonpareils and/or red edible glitter (optional - I just used red colored sugar sprinkles)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spread cherries on paper towels to drain well.

2.  In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar.  Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs.  Stir in drained cherries and 4 ounces (2/3 cup) of the chopped chocolate.  Stir in almond extract and, if desired food coloring.  Knead mixture until it forms a smooth ball.

(I didn't have a pastry blender, so I tried it with a fork.  The butter was way to hard, so I dumped everything into my food processor and pulsed it until the butter was combined.  Then I added the cherries and white chocolate and pulsed until it started sticking together.  I then dumped it into a bowl and kneaded it a little to form the ball.)

3.  Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls.  Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (I always use parchment paper).  Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar, flatten balls to 1-1/2 inch rounds.

(I tried using a melon baller for the dough, but found it easier to just use a teaspoon.  The dough holds together well, so it was easy to shape and roll.  When I flattened with the glass, I had lots of sticking.  Even with the sugar they still stuck.  It took a long time to peel each cookie off the bottom of the glass.  I will have to come up with a better way to flatten them.)

4.  Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until centers are set.  Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet.  Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

5.  In a small saucepan, combine remaining 8 ounces of white chocolate and the shortening.  Cook and stir over low heat until melted.  Dip half of each cookie into chocolate, allowing excess to drip off.  If desired, roll dipped edge in nonpareils and or edible glitter.  Place cookies on waxed paper until chocolate is set.  Makes about 60.  (I didn't have the time to melt the chocolate on the stove top, so I just put it in the microwave.  It melted fine, I put it in for 30 seconds at a time and stirred until it was completely melted.)

Storage:  Layer cookies between waxed paper in an airtight container.  Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Now for my thoughts:  these cookies are delicious.  Since they are shortbread, they are not super sweet, but the added white chocolate makes them just right.  The prep was a little time consuming.  I ended up chopping all the chocolate and then realized, I really only needed to chop the 4 ounces that was going in the cookies.  Also, I wish that I would have thought to use the food processor sooner, rather than trying the fork method first.  But once they were baked, cooled, and dipped, they were great.  There will be do need for storage at our house.  

I took a plate of what was left to our Pediatrician's office (since it seems like we are there once a week) and they thought they were fantastic.