Recipes
Chocolate coffee shortbread
2 hours Preparation time
15 minutes Cooking time
20 Serves
Ingredients
Vanilla shortbread
170 g unsalted butter, room temperature
80 g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
200 g plain flour, sieved
Plain flour, for dusting
Coffee chocolate ganache
135 g fresh cream 35% fat
25 g roasted coffee beans
15 g honey
190 g good-quality milk chocolate
30 g unsalted butter, room temperature
Chocolate marble
400 g good-quality white chocolate
250 g good-quality dark chocolate
Method
Vanilla shortbread
- Place the butter, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed to combine.
- Once there are no lumps of butter remaining, add the egg yolk and vanilla, then mix to combine.
- Lastly, add the flour and mix until the ingredients just come together as a dough.
- Press the dough into an even, flat square, wrap in cling wrap, and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven on Fan Plus at 160°C.
- On a lightly floured workbench, roll out the chilled dough to approximately 5 mm in thickness. If the cookie dough becomes soft, allow to chill in the fridge again before cutting.
- Use a 5 cm flower cutter to stamp out the shortbread.
- Arrange the shortbread flowers on a perforated baking tray, allowing adequate space between each biscuit. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden-brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely at room temperature.
Coffee chocolate ganache
- Place the cream into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, induction setting 7.
- Remove from the heat, then add the coffee beans, cover the saucepan with cling wrap, and allow to infuse for 15 minutes.
- Strain the cream into a clean saucepan and discard the coffee beans.
- Add the honey and bring to a boil on medium-high heat, induction setting 7.
- Meanwhile, place the milk chocolate into a small jug.
- Pour the boiled cream and honey mixture over the chocolate, allow to stand for 30 seconds, then whisk.
- In two additions, add the butter and emulsify.
- Pour the ganache into a shallow container and cover the surface with cling wrap.
- Allow to set at room temperature for a minimum of 2 hours, preferably overnight.
Assembly
- Transfer the prepared coffee chocolate ganache into a piping bag fitted with an 8 mm round piping tip.
- Pipe the ganache in a shell pattern over every second shortbread flower, starting from the petals and working inwards.
- Sandwich together with the plain shortbread flowers, gently pressing them together. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Chocolate marble
- Remove the shortbread from the fridge 15 minutes prior to dipping.
- Temper the white chocolate by placing it into a saucepan on low heat, induction setting 2-3, and stir continuously until you have 50% solids and 50% liquid. Transfer the chocolate into a heat-proof plastic bowl and stir vigorously until the solids have completely melted.
- Repeat this process to temper the dark chocolate.
- Transfer the tempered dark chocolate into a paper piping cone and pipe lines over the surface of the tempered white chocolate in a grid pattern.
- Dip the surface of the shortbread flower into the chocolate to coat just the top. Then lift the shortbread and gently shake to remove any excess chocolate.
- Sit the shortbread flower down on the non-chocolate coated side and allow to set.
- Repeat with the remaining shortbread, ensuring each new biscuit is dipped into the chocolate area that still has the grid pattern. Once the entire surface of the chocolate has been used, pipe additional grid lines on top of the white chocolate.
Hints and tips
- Once completely cool, the baked shortbread flowers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
- If assembling the biscuits on the same day, place the ganache into the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes prior to use.
- The chocolate coffee shortbread are best eaten on the day of assembly but can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- After you've tempered the chocolate for the chocolate marble, you can keep it tempered in the warming drawer on the lowest setting until you're ready to use.
Applicance Functions
Kirsten Tibballs
Kirsten Tibballs, proclaimed by MasterChef Australia as ‘the Queen of Chocolate’, is one of Australia’s most celebrated and internationally respected pastry chefs and chocolatiers.
With a desire to pass on her knowledge to other passionate food lovers and professional pastry chefs, Kirsten established Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School in 2002 in Brunswick, Melbourne. Savour creates an opportunity for students to learn from and work alongside their award-winning chefs. It boasts a state of the art kitchen and hosts a number of renowned international pastry chefs each year.