Chocolate-Sriracha Shortbread Cookies

I loved making these delicately spicy sandwich cookies this weekend. The cookies themselves are incredibly airy and light, while the center is rich and intense—and everything works well together here to create a strange yet fabulous bite. Applying sriracha into a batch of melted dark chocolate will cause it to immediately seize up, which usually isn’t a good thing, but perfect for the purpose of making these cookies. Once the sriracha-chocolate has cooled, it can be rolled into a small ball, flattened and sandwiched in between two layers of rich and buttery shortbread cookies. A liberal sprinkle of large crystal salt at the end balances all of the flavors perfectly. Shortbread cookie recipe adapted and halved from food.com.

CHOCOLATE-SRIRACHA SHORTBREAD COOKIES

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• Author: olivesfordinner.com
• Yield: 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 1 cup Earth Balance, softened at room temperature
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup Guittard extra dark chocolate chips
• 1 tsp -1 TB sriracha
• 1 TB large crystal salt
• cooking spray

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Instructions

1. Using a mixer, beat the vegan butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla. Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and then slowly add it to the mixer on the lowest setting possible. Do not overmix.
2. Form the dough into a ball, place into a bowl and cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This will allow the gluten to slightly relax and ensure a lighter cookie.
3. Preheat your oven to 350 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spray liberally with cooking spray.
4. Separate the dough into two pieces and roll of out one of them. The dough will be really fragile, so you can just press it out flat using your hands. Cut out small circles in the dough, using a small biscuit cutter. Transfer to one of the cookie sheets and place in the oven for 11 minutes.
5. While this batch is baking, repeat the process with the other half of the dough. Cut out a small circle shape in the center of each cookie. (I used the cap of a water bottle.) Place on the other cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes.
6. Let both batches rest on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring over to a cooling rack. Baking the cookies will cause them to spread slightly, so if you’d like to keep a perfect circular shape, recut them, using your biscuit cutter/water bottle cap.
7. Using a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips. Once they are fully melted, add in the desired amount of sriracha, stir, and remove from the heat. Once it is slightly cooled, you can roll the chocolate into small balls, and flatten slightly between the cookie layers.
8. Sprinkle with large crystal salt while still warm.