Rocky Road Shortbread Cookies

My wonderful next door neighbor has been doing a holiday cookie exchange for 3 years now. The first year she invited me, I was pretty nervous about what cookie to make. I didn't really bake much at the time and settled on a chocolate chunk cookie by Wolfgang Puck. The cookies were good but did not really stand out as anything special.

I did much better next year when I made these Martha Stewart peppermint chocolate cookies:

They are the perfect holiday cookie. The inside is a homemade thin mint, surrounded by sweet, white chocolate and topped with crushed peppermint candies. Everyone loved them and people were still talking about them this year!

For the recipe, please click HERE. One thing you should know about this recipe though, is that it is pretty time consuming and a bit fussy (as I find most of Martha's recipes to be). By contrast, the rocky road shortbread's I made for this years party were very easy but still looked and tasted great. The recipe comes from Family Circle magazine and everyone seemed to really enjoy them. My husband gave these a big thumbs up too.

The cookie exchange party...so many yummy cookies, so little time!


Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup walnuts (or pecans), finely chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a large baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.

Blend flour, nuts (finely chopped) and salt in a bowl. In a second bowl, beat together butter, sugar and vanilla for 2 min. or until creamy and smooth. Stir in flour mixture.

Roll 1 tablespoon dough into a ball; place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Gently flatten each ball to a 1/2 inch thickness and smooth it's edges. Bake for 16 min or until lightly browned at edges.

Meanwhile, stir together marshmallow and coarsely chopped nuts in a small bowl. Melt semisweet chocolate chips in another small bowl in microwave.

Remove cookies from oven and spread with a teaspoon the melted chocolate, then sprinkle with the marshmallow mixture. Return to the oven for 1-2 minutes, until the marshmallows soften. Let cook on backing sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.