This easy Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies recipe features crisp, buttery cookies that are flecked with chopped chocolate. A sprinkle of sea salt is the perfect finishing touch – irresistible!
This Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies recipe is easily one of my favorite cookie recipes. With simple, minimal ingredients, this beautiful cookie offers rich flavor and a perfectly crispy-crunchy texture. I canNOT resist them!
Why We ❤️ These Shortbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe holds great memories for our family. During our stay with my sister Cheryl and BIL Dave in Cairo, Egypt, Dave made these awesome shortbread cookies. (Scroll past the recipe card for more about our time there.) Here’s why we love these cookies!
- Simple ingredients. Just grab butter, sugar, flour, chocolate, salt, and vanilla – this is all you need!
- Delightful flavor & texture. I love everything about a classic shortbread cookie, from the buttery flavor to the crisp texture. And this recipe takes it up a notch, with little flecks of chocolate that I absolutely adore!
- Keeps well. These cookies are great for holiday cookie tins because they keep really well. Shortbread is also very freezer-friendly…and really, straight from the freezer is how I prefer to eat these!
Recipe Ingredients
Here’s a glance at what you’ll need for this shortbread chocolate chip cookies recipe. Find the exact ingredient amounts and detailed instructions in the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
- Chocolate – Use a good-quality semi-sweet chocolate bar, such as Ghiradelli. Don’t use chocolate chips in these cookies because you want little bits of chocolate dispersed throughout the dough rather than large bites of chocolate. (If you like citrus-flavored shortbread, check out these orange shortbread cookies.)
- Butter – Use unsalted butter.
- Granulated sugar – To sweeten the cookies.
- Vanilla – A little pure vanilla extract adds a warm flavor note.
- Flour – All-purpose flour provides the structure to this cookie.
- Salt – Just a pinch of salt adds a little contrast to the sweet.
- Maldon sea salt flakes – This is optional, yet highly recommended. I like to finish these chocolate chip shortbread cookies with a little sprinkle of flaky salt. Everyone loves it!
Tips for The Best Shortbread Cookies
When you make such a simple cookie recipe you want to pay attention to a few elements, such as softening the butter and baking times, to help them turn out perfectly. Here are some tips:
- What kind of chocolate to use? I most often use a good-quality chopped semi-sweet chocolate bar. But if I’m looking for an extra special, just-for-me kind of treat, I use a specialty brand of dark chocolate bar. You can also play around with the type of chocolate – even milk chocolate or white chocolate for a different look and flavor.
- Adjust the baking time depending on the cookie size. When making cut-out cookies, the baking time depends on the thickness of the rolled-out dough and how large you cut the cookies. You may need to bake your cookies longer or shorter depending on their thickness and size (thinner and/or smaller cookies don’t need to bake as long).
- Use softened butter – but not too soft! This is an important tip: You want to use softened butter, but not softened so much that it’s super soft or melty. Too-soft butter will make the dough harder to work with + cause the cookies to spread while baking.
- Keep the dough refrigerated. While you’re rolling and cutting out the dough, make sure to keep the other half of the dough cold in the fridge. This will also help the cookies hold their shape during baking.
- Make the dough ahead. You can make the dough in advance and store it in the fridge, wrapped tightly in plastic, in an airtight container, for up to a few days.
Proper Storage
These cookies freeze exceptionally well. A little tip from me to you: you can eat them frozen; it’s my preferred method of enjoyment! Here’s how to store these cookies:
- Counter – Place cooled cookies in an airtight container and store them on the counter for up to 1 week.
- Fridge – Keep cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days.
- Freezer – Place shortbread cookies in a freezer-safe, airtight container or freezer-safe sealable bag and store them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw them in the fridge before serving them, or enjoy them crisp and cold straight from the freezer!
More Chocolate Chip Recipes To Try
Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 6 ounces good-quality, semi-sweet chocolate baking bar
- 1½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (not overly soft or melty)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
- Maldon sea salt flakes, optional, to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Chop chocolate bar into small pieces. Aim for the biggest pieces to be no larger than ¼" in size. If they are too big, they cause problems with getting clean cuts with the cookie cutters. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, beat butter on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and beat until smooth and a bit fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add vanilla and beat until just incorporated. Add flour and salt and beat until just incorporated. Gently fold in the chopped chocolate.
- Divide dough in half and then flatten each half slightly into a disk shape. Wrap each disk tightly in plastic wrap and set them (separately, not resting on top of each other) in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. If your butter was on the warmer/softer side, you may need to refrigerate a few minutes longer.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the dough disks to a ¼″ thickness. Cut dough into desired shapes using lightly floured cookie cutters. The heart cutter I use is about 3½" wide by 3" tall. Place cut dough shapes on prepared baking sheet, 1" to 2" apart. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes if desired.
- Bake for about 12 minutes, or until just browned and firmed up. Note that if you use a cookie cutter that is smaller or larger than I use, or if your dough is rolled thicker or thinner, you will need to adjust baking time accordingly. Remove pan from oven and let cookies rest on pan for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with second dough disk. Just be sure to keep your dough chilled until you are ready to roll and cut. If the dough gets too warm, it will spread when baked. Dough can be re-rolled after the first cuts. If dough gets too warm, chill it again in the refrigerator.
- *If your cookies are spreading a bit, the butter was probably a little too warm. Then I recommend placing pans of cut dough in the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes prior to baking. Or a hack that I’ve used to tighten up the shape while the cookies are still warm after coming out of the oven, is to use a thin metal spatula to gently nudge in the perimeters where needed.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
This post was originally published in 2011, then updated in 2024.
Where this Cookie Recipe Comes From
I first enjoyed these cookies when my brother-in-law Dave baked a batch for us while we stayed with them at their home in Cairo.
While we enjoyed many savory dishes in Egypt that I still think about (Ooohhhh, the street cafes with fragrant gyro meat revolving on vertical rotisseries and that wonderful spicy lentil soup!), these delightful cookies are what I remember when it comes to dessert.
Dave made these chocolate chip shortbread cookies in the shapes of arrows and stars. I started making them in heart shapes after we returned from Egypt, and have been making them every year since, always around Valentine’s Day!
We shopped for ingredients at Carrefour, a large and very modern grocery store that is similar to our own US grocery stores. It was stocked with many unfamiliar products as well as familiar looking items in unfamiliar wrapping, like the “Borio” (Oreo’s here in the US).
From the tiny bananas and best cucumbers I’ve ever eaten, to huge vats of fresh spices and boxes of unrefrigerated milk (supposedly popular in most parts of the world, but kind of shocking for our US Midwest dairy-land minds), it was a foreign food lover’s delight.
We shopped at Carrefour prior to leaving on an excursion across the Sinai Peninsula, to spend Christmas at a little piece of paradise on the shores of the Red Sea.
Christmas at the Red Sea
To start our journey, a van from the resort on the Red Sea picked us up in Cairo. We drove UNDER the Suez Canal, across the Sinai Peninsula – our first time on the continent of Asia.
I thought I would be bored driving across the desert, but our trek was quite the opposite. The constantly changing landscape of varying browns and golds against a brilliant blue sky were captivating.
And between the rough road, the extreme high speed of our vehicle with the windows wide open, the bathroom breaks capable of producing nightmares, and the numerous unnerving police check points…well, how could one honestly be bored?
As we traveled east across the Sinai, the landscape rose up. A lot! It was simply breathtaking.
When we reached Taba, at the border of Egypt and Israel at the Red Sea, the rock formations changed from horizontal stratas to cragged fingers reaching for the sky. Or the heavens, actually. All I could think about as we drove through this harsh and rugged beauty, was how Moses wandered that very land for forty years, leading the Israelites out of Egypt.
We traveled south from Taba, weaving in and out from the Red Sea, catching teasing glimpses of that sparkling blue water.
Seven hours after departure, we arrived at Dahab Paradise, parched (because we didn’t want to drink much, so we didn’t have to make more bad bathroom stops) and road-worn. The welcome drinks of fresh guava and strawberry juices were swallowed by our eyes before they ever touched our lips.
The kids immediately took off their shoes to run on the refreshing green.
The resort was nestled into golden mountains, and was quiet and intimate with only 35 rooms. A very striking contrast from our first week in Cairo’s hustle and bustle.
The pool overlooked the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba. Can you see that hazy mountain silhouette across the sea? That’s Saudi Arabia.
I was mesmerized by Saudi Arabia’s moody mountains across the sea. They seemed to play games, fading in and out of view, never fully revealing themselves.
This is looking north of Dahab Paradise. At that jutting point is where the Blue Hole is located, a famous dive site with the nickname “Diver’s Cemetary”. Dave wanted to take us snorkeling there, as he had scuba dived there previously and found it extraordinary. But the words “cemetary” and “snorkeling” in the same sentence, for someone who has never snorkeled before, was a no-go for me.
So he came up with Plan B, to get Hatti and I in on our first snorkeling experience in the warm waters of the Red Sea. We took a taxi to a beach abundant with washed up coral, on the south end of Dahab, and snorkeled there instead. Traveling light and fancy free for those few hours, I left my camera at Paradise, so our beautiful memories are all we’ve got.
In the evening, when the winds died down, and the moon rose up big and round and glowing, Paradise was even more enchanting. Over a nightly bottle of shared red wine, we listened to the sea’s gentle waves spill onto the shore.
I wish I could have bottled up the fragrance of the gorgeous flowering vine climbing outside on our balcony.
It was refreshing to see green and flowering plants, and the sea was a spectacular backdrop.
We saw camels along the water’s edge multiple times. And, yes, we were the Minnesotans always pointing, oohing, and aahing at them.
We found blinking Santa hats on our door handles on Christmas morning. Dave and Cheryl fully took the gesture to heart.
This is our 2010 family Christmas photo, when we ventured into the town of Dahab. The highlight for the kids was all eight of us hanging out of an open Jeep (aka “taxi”) on the ride back to Paradise. We sang the whole way back. My nephew and niece entertained us by singing “Jingle Bells” in Arabic.
Dahab Paradise features a Bedouin tent, where they serve warm tea. When I saw everyone drinking it in Cairo, I imagined it to be quite strong. But, no, it was the sweetest warm tea I have ever had. After every evening meal, and sometimes during the day as well, we visited the Bedouins and shared some tea.
The Bedouins play a one-string instrument called the rababa. And they were surprised and quite pleased when Dave and Cheryl’s kids started singing Christmas songs in Arabic. They joined right in with us on our Christmas celebration!
Yes, we enjoyed ourselves at Paradise. There were plenty of big smiles…
…and feet up on loungers.
It was a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming sort of Christmas.
Hey, I followed and made this recipe, result was amazing, thanks for sharing.
I tried this recipe this afternoon and it was easy and delicious. Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe with us.
On Monday I enjoyed one of these delicious cookies that you sent to Grandma. Yum! Thanks for the treat.
Lucky you, she hadn’t eaten them all! :) xo