Breaking New Ground: another dessert recipe

I think it's a little funny that almost all of my posts about cooking have to do with desserts. I don't usually make anything worth sharing for dinner. Except this soup I just discovered, but I didn't actually "make" it. Anyway, it's awesome- go buy it. But first, keep reading about these cookies I made...

On Friday night Malakai was still recovering from an upset stomach that we are now thinking came from him trying curry (not hot) for the first time. Poor kiddo. He went to bed early, so Ben + I were trying to figure out what to watch on Netflix.

Meanwhile, I had a mad craving for chocolate but only had some milk chocolate chips I had just grabbed at the grocery store. So, of course I busted into those. While I was eating them I discovered a recipe on the bag. One that was quick + easy and I had all the ingredients for. I decided to do some last minute night time baking to satisfy my sweet tooth. Ben even helped me make them, which I believe was the first time he's ever baked with me.

They're called shortbread rounds and they are teensie bite-sized little goodies. We learned quickly that they are very addicting.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter, softened.
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups unsifted flour
1 cup milk chocolate chips (we used the Guittard ones, they're nice + fat)

Only 4 ingredients, I count that as awesome! Especially when working in my mini-sized kitchen.

Since my decision to bake them was last minute, the butter was straight out of the fridge. So I put it on the oven racks while it was preheating, like I did with the cream cheese for my pumpkin rolls. Unfortunately this time, I got side tracked and they melted quite a bit and made a terrible mess in my oven (that might still be there). Ben said it smelled like pancakes. It could have been worse.

I put all 4 sticks of butter in my mixer and the realized that 4 sticks is 2 cups and I was certainly not trying to double the recipe. So I threw the extras in a tupperware container for later, but not too much later. Perhaps baking at the end of the day is not a good task for my tired brain to take on.

Anyway, you beat the sugar with the butter with an electric mixer. Then you slowly add in the flour until blended. The dough should be a bit crumbly. Next add in the chocolate chips and mix by hand.

{ridiculously wonderful dough to chocolate chip ratio}

Then, using the palm of your hands roll well rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough in to 1 inch balls. ( I flattened the first batch because I didn't know what the heck I was doing). Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes at 350 degrees. I always set my timer to the lowest time when I'm baking so if I can't get to them right away I have time time before anything gets burnt.

I made these cookies again today (I put that extra butter to good use quickly!) and I wanted to try other types of chocolate chips. I happened to have dark chocolate, mint, and white chocolate in addition to the milk chocolate. So instead of mixing up a cup into the dough, I scooped the dough into the palm of my hand, smooshed the chips into it and then rolled them up in the middle to make a variety of flavor combinations.

Let the cookies stand for 2 minutes before removing from the sheet. You can opt to dust them with powdered sugar. We did some with + some without and preferred without.