Chocolate Dipped Walnut Shortbread (vegan option)
These Chocolate Dipped Walnut Shortbread cookies are the perfect sweet treat. Serve alongside a cup of coffee for an afternoon snack.
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A French classic
These Walnut Shortbread cookies are based on a French classic – the sablé. I hadn’t heard of this nutty biscuit until I tried doing the Great British Bake Off challenge where I attempted recipes that had appeared on the show (you can see my attempts here).
But what actually is a sablé? A sablé is a shortbread like biscuit that originates from Sablé-sur-Sarthe, in France.
They are super simple to make with just a handful of ingredients. It’s the high fat content combined with icing sugar that makes them melt in the mouth unlike any other biscuit.
Once you’ve mastered the basic biscuit you can start adding other flavours. It’s not uncommon to add nuts to the biscuit mix and my favourite is walnut. By blitzing the walnuts in to a super fine powder you keep the nutty flavour without compromising on texture. What’s not to love?!
Make it vegan
It’s incredibly simple to make these biscuits vegan – all you need to do is swap regular butter for a non-dairy alternative.
My favourite is Flora but Trex and Naturli baking block also work well! Flora is my favourite as it has the most buttery flavour!
You can find more about making your favourite recipes vegan in my Big Vegan Baking Guide.
The recipe
Chocolate Dipped Walnut Shortbread
Ingredients
- 30 grams walnuts toasted
- 30 grams butter (use non-dairy butter if making vegan)
- 25 grams icing sugar
- 30 grams plain flour
- 1 pinch baking powder
- 75 grams dark chocolate
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 160°C/140°C fan/Gas 3.
- If your walnuts are not already toasted, simply place them in a dry saucepan (e.g. no oil) and heat for 2-3 minutes until they start to darken and release their nutty aroma.
- Put the toasted walnuts into a blender and blitz on high until they have formed a powder.
- In a small bowl, cream together the butter and the icing sugar.
- Stir in the toasted walnuts followed by the flour and baking powder.
- Mix until the ingredients are all well incorporated and a stiff dough has formed.
- Wrap the ball of dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15-30 minutes or until it is firm enough to roll out.
- Roll the dough out on to a lightly floured surface until between 0.5 and 1cm thick.
- Cut out your biscuits using a cookie cutter of your choosing and place on to a baking sheet.
- Place the baking sheet back in the fridge to cool for another 10 minutes (or in the freezer for 5 minutes)
- Once chilled, bake for 20 minutes or until they are just turning golden.
- Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled, melt your chocolate gently either in the microwave for 15 second intervals, and stirring each time or over a bain marie.
- Dip the biscuits in the chocolate and decorate with gold leaf or sprinkles if you wish.
More Christmas Cookies
Although you could enjoy this biscuit all year round, I love serving these Chocolate Dipped Walnut Shortbread at Christmas! A little bit of edible gold leaf may seem over the top but it’s a great way of taking a biscuit from every day to festive!
Why not make a Christmas cookie platter with some of these other festive biscuits this Christmas?
More Christmas recipes
For the full range of Christmas recipes on the blog, check out the Christmas recipe archive.