These melt in your mouth brown sugar chocolate shortbread cookies take just four ingredients! Perfect as a delicious holiday gift or (just as important) for your own holiday cookie jar, because we all need some shortbread cookie deliciousness in the house.
These brown sugar chocolate shortbread cookies are a true Christmas miracle in my book. First of all, they take only four ingredients. Second of all, two of those four ingredients are chocolate and brown sugar, two of the best and most Christmas-y tastes in the world. Third, they are the perfect, perfect last minute Christmas gift if you have found yourself at that point in the holiday whirlwind. A plate of these and you are a Christmas superstar. Let’s make them!The other two ingredients are butter and flour, and you need a biscuit cutter (or the top of a jar, or anything else round that roughly cookie-sized. Cream up the butter and the sugar, then add the flour, then add the chocolate. The mixture might look a little crumbly but never fear! We are going to mush it into a ball and pop it into the fridge to chill and everything is going to be right with the world.
After the dough is nice and chilled, roll out out until it is about 1/4 inch thick, and then grab your biscuit cutter (or jar top, or you can even just cut it into squares) and press out little rounds of cookie dough. Bake them up until they are just golden, cool them on a wire rack and that is that – perfect little chocolate-y shortbread cookies!
Now of course you can save them for your own holiday self, but they also make a great giftie. Put them on a pretty plate, or stack them up in a wide-mouth Mason jar, or go to town and make this peppermint plate and put them on that.
And then have yourself a merry little Christmas. Framed Cooks will be taking Christmas off to drink red wine hot chocolate and sing carols (badly but enthusiastically) and general hug everyone in sight, now that my chickies are home for the holidays. May yours be merry and bright, and see you on the other side!
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Brown Sugar Chocolate Shortbread Cookies!
Prep Time: 20 minutes- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: about 20 cookies 1x
Category: Dessert
Method: Oven
Cuisine: American
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Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1/2 pound butter (2 sticks), room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 1/3 cups flour
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer until fluffy.
- Mix in flour, then chocolate. Dough might be a little crumbly – don’t worry!
- Form the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick – I like to do this on a silicone mat so it doesn’t stick.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Using a biscuit cutter or a jar lid, press dough into round shapes and place on cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks.
Hi there! I’m Kate, and I’m a recipe writer, food photographer and devoted bacon lover. I started Framed Cooks in 2009, and along the way my recipes have also been featured in places including Huff Post, the Today Show, BuzzFeed and Glamour. My mission is to create and share family-friendly recipes that make cooking both easy and fun…yes, I said FUN! My kitchen is my happy place, and I want yours to be that place too. Let’s cook together!
Framed Cooks is delighted to have appeared on these great sites!
Making these tomorrow- can’t wait!
Hurray! Hope you loved them. Happy New Year, Ginger!
Wow! I love these cookies especially since they have my favorite ingredients! Happy New Year, Kate!
Happy new year to you too, my friend!
holy cow, i’m loving that ingredient list!
The best, right! Four ingredients is my favorite number. :)
Hi there, this looks like a great recipe and I’m going to bake these cookies for Christmas? I am wondering if this recipe can be frozen till I’m ready to bake? I would also like to prepare the ingredients in a mason jar for ready to bake cookies, do you have any other shortbread cookie recipes? Thank you
Hi Becca! Yes, you can definitely freeze the dough ahead of time – just make sure it comes completely to room temperature before you bake them. And I do have one other shortbread cookie recipe that I love – here’s the link! https://www.framedcooks.com/2015/12/chocolate-chip-coffee-shortbread.html
Now how did I miss this little gem of a recipe? Chocolate and brown sugar as shortbread?! Yes, please! It is snowing here in eastern Iowa AGAIN and cookie baking is the perfect snowy day/weekend activity. At least at my house it is. And with wind chills predicted of 20 – 30 below zero this weekend, I’m not venturing out.The red wine hot chocolate sounds like a perfect partner to these and a great afternoon snack. :) By the way, I made a triple batch of your loaded baked potato soup the other evening (because teens live here) and it was delicious! Youngest teen took leftovers in her lunch and had more when she got home from school.
P.S. I really like the updated look of your site!
Thank you!! I’m really excited about it. :) xo
20 to 30 below?? I want to FedEx you all the red wine hot chocolate in the world! I always automatically bake something when the weather is cold, and I was feeling sorry for myself that it was 4 degrees the other day, but YOU WIN! Stay warm and cozy my friend!
Can you use chocolate chips?
You can – I would either use the mini ones, or give the regular sized ones a quick chop to break them into smaller pieces before you use them. Hope this helps! :)