Susan's

These are a super basic, shortbread cookie with a burst of extra flavor (and texture variation) from the chocolate, which is kind of a cross between a frosting and a ganache.  I was really pleased with how these turned out, and they were fairly quick to make- probably only a couple hours max, start to finish, including cleaning up! :-)

Susan's

Cookies:
1 C. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C. flour

Frosting:
2 C. powdered sugar
4 T. cocoa
3 T. hot water
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375.  Cream the butter and sugar.  Add vanilla and salt and mix thoroughly, then blend in the flour.  Shape a teaspoon of dough (keep them smaller, use the small scoop!) into a ball.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cookies look dry but not brown.  Once you pull them out of the oven, they'll be a little puffy, but make either a thumbprint, or use a tool to make a ledge to fill with frosting. (I have this wooden thingie that helps make crusts fit better in my mini-muffin tin and it worked perfect for pleasing the OCD part of me...) Once they cool, put the frosting into a ziplock bag, clip the corner, and fill the divot with chocolate yumminess before letting them cool.  I let them set up in the fridge and that worked well!