Java Chip Shortbread

Coffee is my main food group, so whenever I see a recipe involving the use of said "liquid life" I am immediately drawn to it. This one I had on the back burner for awhile though, because generally, I'm not a big fan of shortbread. It's always dry, crumbly, and usually tasteless. But this had COFFEE in it. It couldn't be THAT bad, right? Right. So I tweaked it a bit, just to make sure. And now I can't stop eating them. Not the greatest thing for my post-baby body, I'm sure. Oh well. 

Adapted from Wilton

Ingredients:

1tbsp instant coffee
1tbsp boiling water
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips

Directions:

Dissolve instant coffee in hot water, set aside. Mix together butter, sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Add coffee and flour, mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Between the heat of the melted butter and coffee mixture, your chips should start to "streak" a bit in the dough. This is good! Keep folding until the dough looks slightly marbled. Shape into a log (you can make it round or rectangular, I won't tell!), wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour. 

Once dough has chilled, preheat oven to 300º. Slice dough into pieces about 1/4" thick and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You can place them pretty close together since these will not spread. Bake for 8-11 minutes, until edges are just beginning to darken slightly. Let cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes, and then slide the parchment paper (cookies and all!) to a cooling rack. Or if you're lazy like me and don't want to fish one out of the depths of your cupboard, just slide it off onto your counter. Really. The cookies will still be alright. Promise. Unless your 4 year old finds them.. Then you're in trouble, but that's another story. Let the cookies cool on the counter at least 15 minutes before getting into them. The longer you let them cool, the closer to shortbread consistency they'll be, though they won't get to be rock hard and dry like the traditional stuff. Once they've cooled completely, store in an airtight container. If they make it that far. You know. Because you've eaten them. 

Makes about 30 cookies.