Chocolate - Maple Shortbread

As summer winds down and fall picks up, the Craftsbury Farmers' Market comes to an end. We had a great time selling maple candy and maple-sweetened baked treats. One of the biggest hits of the season was our chocolate-maple shortbread. The perfect mix of dense delicious shortbread and maple sugar, made bitter and perfect with unsweetened cocoa powder. Dip into coffee, hot cocoa or tea, or just enjoy as is.

Cream 6.3 oz of softened butter

Cream in 90 g of maple sugar, with a splash of vanilla extract (Yes, this recipe is in both oz and g - it's adapted from the shortbread recipe in Bouchon Bakery)

Sift together: pinch of sea salt, 70 g of unsweetened cocoa powder, 120 g of white all-purpose flour and 80 g of whole wheat flour.

Stir sifted mixture into creamed butter mixture. This will take some work!

Place the thick dough on a piece of plastic wrap and using the heel of the your hand, press the dough into a square, cover with the plastic wrap and refrigerate dough for at least a couple of hours and no more than 48. When ready to make the shortbread, take the shortbread out of the fridge to thaw and pre-heat the oven to 350. When the shortbread is ready to roll out, roll into a thick rectangle and with a knife or pastry cutter cut out 12 shortbreads. The dough will likely crack as it is rolled out and cut - use your hand to press it back together and shape the individual shortbreads into rectangles. Place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes then beginning checking every couple of minutes for done-ness. They will start to develop a bit of firmness to the touch as you gently press them -- when in doubt, take them out, underbaked is better than overbaked!