Orange, Chocolate Shortbread

Yesterday, just to prove to Rebecca, our very organized onsite gardener of Gabriella’s Gardens, that I could do it, I filed last year’s seeds.  Not alphabetically as she was hinting I should, but by category – greens, heat loving plants like tomatoes, sprawlers like cucs and squash, flowers, herbs and lastly, bushy things.  You know, beans, peas and fennel.  Hmm… I wonder if she’ll still need to “organize” them further in the spring?

So it’s serendipitous that the 2010 Seed Savers Exchange catalog arrived in the mail today.  Perfect for a blustery day, a cup of Earl Grey tea and a wedge of Orange, Chocolate Shortbread.  By the time I ‘m finished with it, the corners will all be dog eared and the cover probably missing.  Signs of being well-loved and used.

This recipe is one I adapted from my Ginger Shortbread in At Home, At Sea: Recipes from the Maine Windjammer J. & E. Riggin.

Orange Chocolate Shortbread
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
zest from one orange
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°  Cream the butter in a medium bowl.  Beat in the sugar and vanilla.  Mix in the flour and salt; it’s easiest to finish mixing the dough with your hands.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Pat the dough into a 9-inch round cake pan.  Score it into wedges with a sharp knife.  Bake about 20 to 30 minutes, until the shortbread is a pale golden brown.  Cool in the pan; while still warm, cut along the score lines.

Makes 8-10 pieces

Annie
It was blustery this morning and now it’s almost 60 degrees outside – how wonky is that?

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