A couple of weeks ago I made these chocolate shortbread cookies with peanut butter drizzle. Although I don’t really like making them, shortbread cookies are my favourite type of cookie to eat. And these ones in particluar are quite special.
What sets these cookies apart from regular shortbread? They are made entirely with oat flour, which means they’re gluten free. Regardless if you follow a gluten free diet or not, I wholeheartedly recommend you try these cookies.
Oat flour has numerous nutrients such as: protein, fibre, B vitamins, magnesium, iron, and more. So if you are going to bake cookies anyway, why not make them healthier? Especially when you don’t have to sacrifice on the taste.
Unlike most other gluten free flours, oat flour actually tastes nice. When baked, I find that it gives a slightly nutty flavour. But if you add any flavour agents such as cocoa powder (like I did in this cookie recipe), you cannot taste the difference between oat flour and regular wheat flour.
Note: Oats are naturally gluten free, however, sometimes they can get contaminated during processing or packaging. If you cannot tolerate gluten, I recommend you buy oats and oat flour that are certified gluten free.
The only difference you may find is a slightly grainier texture. But even that is negligible. However, the dough for these chocolate shortbread cookies is a little more fragile than with typical shortbread cookies. But this is common with all gluten free doughs.
Just handle it with care and don’t panic when you see cracks in the dough. They will appear when you roll out the dough. Do your best to smooth it with your finger. After the cookies bake and cool down to room temperature, they will develop structural integrity.
For the drizzle, I simply melted some peanut butter chips. However, you could spread some real peanut butter and jam to make PB cookie sandwiches. Likewise you could place some ice cream between two cookies to make ice cream sandwiches. You could even grind them up to use as the base for a cheesecake. Your options are endless.
See more cookie recipes here.
And now, for the recipe:
Chocolate Shortbread Cookies (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 2 cups (200 g/ 7 oz.) oat flour
- 1 stick (115 g/ 4 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (60 g/ 2 oz.) icing sugar
- 1⁄4 cup (25 g/ 1 oz.) Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp. vanillated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2-3 tbsp. oat flour for dusting the work surface
For the glaze:
- ⅓ cup (60 g/ 2 oz.) peanut butter chips
Instructions
For the cookies:
- Sift the oat flour and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the salt and whisk them well together.
- In a large bowl, add the butter, icing sugar, and vanilla sugar. Using a stand mixer at low speed, or a wooden spoon, beat to a creamy and fluffy consistency.
- Slowly add the flour mix into the mixing bowl and continue mix-ing until well incorporated, forming a soft dough. Gently flatten the dough to a disc of about 25 mm (1 inch) thickness. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to 6 mm (¼ inch) thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out shapes, re-rolling the scraps until all the dough is used.
- Place the cookies 25 mm (1 inch) apart on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate them for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F).
- Take the baking tray from the fridge and place it directly into the preheated oven. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
- Note: Using a cookie cutter of 63 mm (2.5 inches) in diameter will result in 12 cookies. The number of cookies will vary with the size of the cookie cutter. The baking time will also differ with cookie size.
For the glaze:
- Melt the peanut butter chips in a bain-marie. Drizzle over cookies.
