Ever since I purchased a plethora of cute-shaped cookie cutters, I wanted to capitalize on that and use them in fun ways. I have been seeing a lot of these sandwich cookies or shortbread cookies with fun shapes cut out of the center of them, and I wanted to try my hand at them today with these choco-bear shortbread sandwiches! I went with chocolate, because when in doubt, drown it in chocolate is my own personal motif, and because I personally love the taste of cocoa powder in my shortbread cookies. Cocoa on its own can be bitter and earthy, but when you pair it with sugar and dairy, it becomes quite delicious and well-balanced. So when you pair it with a shortbread cookie, which has a lot of butter and a decent amount of sugar in it, that becomes the perfect combination, in my mind anyways! Since these are first of at least four different kinds of animal-themed shortbreads, I wanted to start the recipe off with some tips and tricks on the best practices for baking shortbread cookies. The first is the butter. Unlike, let’s say a pie dough, you want to cream the butter and sugar together first, until soft. That will help your final shortbread be light and airy, even without baking powder. The second is the resting time. Once you first make your dough, be sure to chill it down. The firmer the dough you are working with, the less it will warp and change shape between you rolling it, cutting it out, and transferring it to another baking surface. After I cut my shortbreads into round, I prefer sticking them in the freezer, just so that they stay cold and firm. Also, unlike with let’s say puff pastry or pie dough, you do not want to weigh down your shortbread if you are baking cookies out of it. I found that what happens is that the shortbread spreads dramatically, and will look like a splat mark after it’s done baking. Let the shortbread breathe in the oven! Follow all of those steps and your cookies should turn out a-okay!

For this specific recipe, I already mentioned that the cookies will be made with cocoa powder, just to give it a nice chocolate flavor. The filling is my homage to nama chocolate, which is a Japanese-style truffle, being made from a dark chocolate ganache that has a little sake in it. The alcohol from the sake will let the ganache set softer, giving it this melt-in-the-mouth finish that works really well against the buttery, crisp shortbread cookies. If you do not have cooking or regular sake, you can use the clear alcohol from the edible paint recipe as well, or even chocolate liquor, which would be my personal recommendation, since that will only help bump up the chocolate flavor in the filling! I did attempt to paint eyes and a nose onto the bears using activated charcoal and clear alcohol, but because of how dark the chocolate I used was, it wasn’t necessarily noticeable. I love eating 80% dark chocolate personally, because it tastes “healthy” so I feel less guilty about consuming it, but I get that is not for everyone, and especially not for making a bear-shaped filling that can be distinguished from an edible paint made from activated charcoal. I would recommend using a semi-sweet or milk chocolate if you are going the painted route, just so that your bears have distinct faces. I swear, if you squint, you can see the eyes and noses on these guys!

Makes 18 shortbread sandwiches:
For the shortbread dough:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp cocoa powder

In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until they reach a silky consistency. Then add to that the egg yolk and vanilla, and stir until those are incorporated as well. Finally, fold the flour, cornstarch, and cocoa powder into the butter to form your dough. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Then on a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out 1 1/2-inch rounds of the dough, and then with half of the rounds, cut out bear shapes, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Freeze the dough for at least 1 hour before baking at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes.

For the dark chocolate ganache filling:
1.5oz dark chocolate chips
.5oz heavy cream
.5oz unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cooking sake

Over a double boiler, melt everything down. Allow the mixture to cool down before transferring to a piping bag for assembly.

For garnish:
1/4 tsp activated charcoal powder
1g clear alcohol

Mix together the form your edible paint.

To assemble:
Pipe the white chocolate onto a normal round. Then press onto it a round that has the bear shape cut out of it. Then using a chopstick, draw on the bear’s features(eyes and nose) with the edible paint to finish.