Chocolatey Shortbread Hearts

I've always struggled with shortbread and found it can be a temperamental thing to bake. Sometimes it's too hard, sometimes it's too soft, and when the texture's perfect - it's not pretty! Shortbread tends to bubble on the surface while it's cooking and the only real way to stop this, is to prick the unbaked hearts with a fork. This doesn't look so pretty either, so I always resort to dipping mine in chocolate!



Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 sifted icing sugar (Confectioners Sugar)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100g of chocolate - white, milk, dark - whatever you like!

Directions

1. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until combined
2. Beat in flour and salt. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; chill until firm, at least 2 hours, or overnight.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until 1/16-to-1/8 inch thick. Cut out hearts with a heart cookie cutter. Transfer cookies to an ungreased baking sheet, chill for 30 minutes.
4. Heat oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit /180 degrees celcius with a rack in the center. Press the pricks of a fork into each cookie to make designs. Bake until just beginning to brown around the edges, about 18 minutes.
5. Once the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over simmering water. Then the fun part! Decorate the cookies however you like - dip them, drizzle the chocolate over, add sprinkles! Transfer cookies to a sheet of baking paper to dry.
   

Makes about 15 Shortbread Hearts - depending on the size of the cutter you use.