Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Bars

This post contains affiliate links.

Butter cookies are my weakness. I think it’s because they remind me of my childhood. My mom, like many other Asian moms, used to buy Danish butter cookie tins to store sewing equipment. But before the tin could be recycled, the cookies had to be eaten – and that was my specialty. I could polish off a whole tin, no problem. I loved dipping them in chai in the morning for breakfast- ugh so many good memories!

I was craving buttery biscuits and coffee so I decided to mash the two. I added some espresso powder and ground cardamom to the butter cookies and then topped the whole thing off with chocolate. The cookie is 50% butter, so it’s not like chocolate will do any more damage right?

These were divine, I ate like 8 of them. The recipe makes 9. No biggie. Desserts don’t count during the holidays right?

This is basically a Millionaire Shortbread bat without the caramel. My husband hates caramel,he doesn’t like his teeth sticking together. I was more than happy to oblige him by double the amount of chocolate to make up for the caramel.

This recipe is so easy to make, there is no excuse! You can also leave out the espresso powder and cardamom and just use vanilla to make it simpler!

Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Bars

Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: one 8x8 pan 1x

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
8 ounces of milk chocolate
2 ounces white chocolate (optional)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 300 F.
In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, salt, espresso powder, and ground cardamom. Whisk together. Add cold cubed butter and press the butter into the flour with your fingers or use a pastry cutter. Do this until it turns into a wet-sandy texture.Dump the dough into an 8×8 square pan and press into an even layer with your hands. Prick holes all over the dough with a fork.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the edges and the top start to turn golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes.
Microwave chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in 20 second increments, stirring in between until melted. Pour the on top of the biscuit and use a spatula to spread it evenly.
Then in the same microwaveable bowl, melt the white chocolate. Mix well, so that the milk chocolate mixes into so it turns light brown/tan. Spoon the white chocolate into a sandwich bag and snip off a tiny piece of the corner. Pipe lines up and down the cake until you run out of chocolate. Don’t worry if they aren’t straight! Then drag a toothpick perpendicular to the white chocolate lines to create a design.
Place in refrigerator until completely cool. Use a warm knife to loosen the sides and turn out over a plate and flip over. Use a sharp knife to cut into squares.