Shortbread Cookies Dipped in Chocolate

I am heading to a baby shower tomorrow and need to bring a dessert. I decided to make cookies but wanted to make something different that I haven't made before...how about shortbread? I went ahead and made a basic recipe which a friend gave me a while back with some of my own tweaks incorporated -- like dipping them in chocolate with pink sprinkles! My friend Erika knows she is having a baby girl and I had some pink sprinkles in the house -- it was perfect. These came out great and the extra chocolate that was left over I spread onto wax paper and made into shapes -- I can use these as toppers to cupcakes or a cake another day.

Shortbread Recipe
My original recipe

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups of cake flour
1 cup of room temperature butter
½ cup confectioners sugar
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup chocolate chips
¼ sprinkles of your choice

Directions: Mix butter and sugar in an electric mixer or by hand until well combined. Add vanilla and mix again until smooth and fluffy. Add all the cake flour and mix until completely combined. Take a 20" long sheet of wax or parchment paper and lay flat on a counter. Pour all of the dough into the center of paper and shape into a rectangle. Fold over half the paper and smooth the rectangle out until it is about a ½" thick and about 3 inches high. Fold over the sides and top of wax paper and mold into a smooth edged rectangle and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. When you are ready to bake the cookies, take the dough out of the refrigerator and preheat oven to 350°. Cut the dough into ¼" slices and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the edges are almost browned. You don't want the cookies to brown too much instead keep there light color. Remove the cookies from the oven and place them on a cooling rack. Let cookies cool completely before dipping into chocolate.


After mixing all the ingredients together, I molded the shortbread into a ½" thick rectangle.



Once the dough is chilled, dice it up into ¼" thick slices.

To make the chocolate dipping sauce, place the chocolate chips in the microwave for one minute and then mix with a metal spoon. If it is not melted enough, put in microwave for another 30 seconds and mix again. You can then start dipping the cooled cookies in the chocolate and place on a waxed sheet of paper. Sprinkle your topping choice on the chocolate part before it dries.

Finished cookies.