Cookie Heaven: Mocha Shortbread

Last weekend, we spent a wonderful day at the third annual Eat Boutique holiday market, a sort of craft fair for artisan food makers, organized by local foodie guru Maggie Battista. Yankee was a media sponsor of the event and we had a great time meeting our readers, as well as the talented bakers and chefs and brewers and confectioners who were selling their wares. The market also hosted a group of cookbook authors, who signed their books and chatted with readers. I was there representing Yankee’s Lost and Vintage Recipes and  The Apple Lover’s Cookbook. And so was Karen Covey, a Massachusetts-based food writer who published her first book, The Coastal Table, this year. The book celebrates the food-rich corner of coastal New England that stretches from southern Massachusetts, through Rhode Island, and down to Connecticut. It’s gorgeous, with lovely photography by Cassandra Birocco, and it’s full of delicious recipes. Karen was kind enough to bring samples of her buttery mocha shortbread to the fair and it was amazing. The chocolate and coffee flavors gave the shortbread so much depth and the texture was so tender. A perfect cookie for Christmas. “It has butter in it, I’m not gonna lie,” Karen said. But ’tis the Christmas season, after all.  Enjoy them!  

  Karen Covey’s Mocha Shortbread Adapted from The Coastal Table (Boston: Union Park Press, 2013) Karen uses Rhode Island-made Dave’s Coffee Syrup, winner of a 2013 Yankee Food Award  to flavor her shortbread, but you can substitute any coffee- or mocha-flavored syrup if you can’t find Dave’s brand in your area. Total time: 40 minutes Hands-on time: 20 minutes Yield: 16 wedges (or 32 pieces) Ingredients: Directions:

PRINT