slice & bake chocolate orange shortbread cookies

Honestly, you don’t need to make any other cookie — these slice and bake chocolate orange shortbread cookies should be your go-to, now and forevermore. Made with salted butter, citrus zest and chunks of semisweet chocolate in a buttery shortbread dough, I dare you — DARE YOU — to eat just one at a time.

You guys, I know I say this a lot, but when it comes to these cookies? I think we can just stop here. I’ve reached full cookie potential with these BBs.

Because when you combine the flavors of sea salt, chocolate, orange and a buttery shortbread cookie, it’s the closest thing to dessert perfection, in my book. And we have one person to thank for it all.

The Story Behind ‘The Cookies’

That person is Alison Roman whom, if you have any connection to the food world, you’ve probably heard of before. She’s the star behind the cookbook Dining In, and she’s also the person who invented The Cookies — which is what started me down this tasty road of cookie tinkering until I developed my own riff on her famous treat. And so, here we are.

If you’ve never heard of The Cookies, just Google it and you’ll instantly be bombarded with scroll after scroll of recipes and photos of Roman’s game-changing dessert. It’s her take on the chocolate chip cookie — a classic that she says is “deeply flawed” — with a shortbread base, decadent chocolate chunks and the intriguing use of salted butter (she says it gives the cookie a better depth of flavor, and I have to agree).

How to Make Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookies

Ever since I heard of these cookies, I knew I had to make them. But here’s the thing — for whatever reason, I was attracted to the idea of adding a citrus flair to the cookies. Maybe it’s because I’ve done the chocolate-orange thing before and it’s kind of AMAZING, so I knew it could only be an upgrade here. In any case, I went that route, and I have zero regrets. I also like to think it sets this recipe apart from the legions of others out there.

So here’s the situation: You start with a salted butter-based shortbread dough (yes, please go out and buy salted butter just for this recipe — you won’t be sorry, I promise times infinity). You stir in the chocolate chunks (use a bar of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate here and chop it up into larger, coarse pieces. No thin shards of chocolate or, heaven forbid, chocolate chips allowed). Add in a couple tablespoons of fresh orange zest, roll the dough into logs, let them chill until really set, then slice and bake.

And if that wasn’t enough, let’s go ahead and dip them in chocolate and top them with sea salt and more orange zest, shall we? WE SHALL.

Tips for the Best Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread can sometimes be a finicky dough to work with, since it’s lacking in eggs for added binding. Nevertheless, it becomes less tricky with practice, and with these tips you’ll be on your way to cookie bliss in no time:

1. Be sure to incorporate the ingredients completely. Scrape the sides of the bowl after adding in each ingredient so everything gets mixed together evenly.

2. Don’t skimp on chilling the dough! Two hours minimum is absolutely necessary for these cookies to bake right.

3. Make sure to use a very sharp serrated knife to cut the log into slices, and use a gentle sawing motion when you hit a large chunk of chocolate. If the dough crumbles slightly after slicing, just gently press it back together into a round before baking and it should come together in the oven.

All right, my friends — it’s time for you to make The Cookies, GVD-style. I hope you love them as much as I do (because, like, I really, really do).

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