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Shortbread piano keys


Cookies never last long in our house. Add chocolate to the mix and they're gone even faster. These shortbread piano keys have only four ingredients. Four! It doesn't get much simpler than that, and simple is music to my ears. Plus, they're so rich and buttery they make me wanna sing!

Here's how they're made:

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips


First, I cream the butter. Then the sugar gets added gradually. Then the flour gets added gradually. Easy, right?

The crumbly dough then goes onto some flour-dusted parchment paper and I form it into a disk. I roll it out to a 1/2 inch thickness, then cut away the edges to leave myself with a large rectangle. Using a sharp knife, I cut the dough into smaller rectangles to make cookies that are about four inches in length.


I ball up the leftover dough, roll it out again, and continue cutting new cookies until all the dough is used up. The cookies then go onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and into a 300 degree (F) oven for 25 minutes. When they're done, I leave them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Next comes le chocolat! Ooh la la!


I melt the chips in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water (my version of a double boiler). The melted chocolate then needs to go into a narrow vessel so the cookies can be dipped. I like to use a popsicle mold. Even though we were dipping cookies into chocolate, my son asked for a popsicle. Sheesh!


All there is left to do is let the cookies rest on some wax paper until the chocolate hardens. Mmmm, shortbread piano keys. Cookies and chocolate make beautiful music together!


Are you a fan of shortbread? What cookie gets made the most in your house? Got any tips for me on cookie storage? I'm on the hunt for a nifty cookie jar!