While many people have Black Friday traditions that involve shopping and decorating, I prefer our tradition of a fairly lazy day, followed by a big family party in the evening.  We were asked to bring a dessert, and settled on these Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies from Smitten Kitchen.  (Yes, that’s two Smitten recipes within the span of 3 days.)

The dough was easy to put together, but must be refrigerated for at least 2 hours prior to baking.  You place the dough in a gallon size Ziploc bag, and then press it flat which eliminates the need for a rolling pin.  This was a neat trick!  And, it’s amazing how the texture of the dough changes in the refrigerator, making it easy to slice with a knife.  I don’t generally use a ruler for baking projects, but we had some confusion as to the correct dimensions for the shortbread squares.  Then there was confusion over whether the lines I cut were crooked.  You can decide.

As it turns out, the cookies that were irregularly shaped were just as good as the perfect squares.  I really liked this shortbread, and the small pieces were perfect to bring to a party.  The espresso flavor was fairly subtle, so I might try using stronger coffee next time.  The original recipe also suggests substituting toffee chips for the bittersweet chocolate.  Now that we know the tricks to making shortbread, I’ll have to try another version soon.

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