Chocolate Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies

Friday night involved going to our friends’ house for dinner. It wasn’t just any dinner; we’d be cooking in teams iron chef style. We drew out of a hat for teams, who would be doing the main course vs appetizer and soup, what the main course’s protein would be, and what vegetable would be used in the appetizer or soup. It was super fun.

I ended up on the main course team with mussels for protein. It’s like this game was reading my mind. I’ve been craving mussels for awhile now, so this absolutely hit the spot. We steamed them in a white wine, Pernod, and veggie stock mix. They were served on a bed of buttered orzo with caramelized leeks, shallots, and garlic. Seriously awesome. I meant to take a photo or two, but the wine was catching up to me we were having too much fun.

Our gracious hosts also brought out little fruit tarts and ice cream for dessert. Delicious.

The crust of the tarts were very shortbread-like, which took me back to these cookies I made. I’m kind of a sucker for shortbread. The simpler the ingredients the better. I like the pure, unadulterated version. These were supposed to be drizzled in chocolate, but my drizzling skills were terrible. I ended up just smothering them in chocolate in the end, painting them with my fingers. I should have just dipped half in and called it a day, but finger painting was pretty fun. I won’t lie.

Using a course oat flour [grind it yourself — easy peasy] made for an extra delicate and crumby shortbread, which I was okay with. The chocolate definitely helped to act as a glue, but not in an overwhelming way. I also had an excuse to use up the random bag of rice flour I have in the pantry. I can’t even remember why I bought it. Oh right, brownies. You can use all-purpose instead if you don’t want to bother hunting some down.

These came from my favorite cookbook. Are you surprised? I’m not.

Inspiration: The Sprouted Kitchen Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats pulsed into a course flour
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 3/4 cup rice flour
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
• 2 1/2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
• sea salt flakes for garnish

Preparation

In the bowl of a food processor, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until it’s light and fluffy. Add the oat flour, rice flour, salt and nutmeg, pulsing the processor and scraping the sides as necessary until the dough comes together.

The dough will be sticky, but roll it into a log about 3″ in diameter. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for an hour or two. Preheat the oven to 350° when it’s about time to take the dough out.

Line a baking sheet or two with Silpats or parchment. Quickly slice the dough into 1/2″ segments, equally spacing them out on the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle them with the sea salt if you’re using it.

Bake them for 14-16 minutes until the edges just start to brown. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Melt the chocolate using your favorite method. I prefer to make a double boiler out of a glass bowl and a pot of water. Once it’s melted, attempt to drizzle or dip or smother with your fingers. Who cares about presentation?

Store in an air tight container once the chocolate hardens.