Pin 163

Original pin:

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/white-chocolate-cherry-shortbread/

White chocolate cherry shortbread cookies. These looked so good! I had pinned them with a bad link and I wanted these so I hunted them down and repinned them with the corrected link at Better Homes and Gardens.

I had a holiday party (the first of many) that needed a few desserts. Our theme was red and white so I thought these would be perfect. So many red & white desserts are peppermint. I was looking for one that was specifically NOT peppermint.

I have to admit, these were very, very easy. Almost too easy. I guess I just had in my head that these would be complicated, but they were not. The recipe made says the yield is 60 cookies. I thought I measured appropriately, I used my little cookie scooper and everything. I yielded about 30. That is still a LOT of cookies!

I couldn't find just red and white sprinkles. However, I used so many that I could have just bought a bottle of each and mixed them together. How smart would that have been? I started out with the white, red, and green nonpareils and when those ran out switched to the green sugar ones.

Total cost: The white baking chocolate was a little pricey. The day I was shopping I could only find a rather luxurious brand of chocolate. Seems like you could probably save a little dough and substitute white chocolate chips here instead.  It would also eliminate the step of chopping the chocolate. However, I only had to buy chocolate, cherries, and sprinkles.  The rest was pantry staples. All together I spent around $14.

Total time: Including all baking time and dipping it took around 2 1/2 hours total. Prep time was only about 20 minutes of all of that.

Final verdict: These were a nice twist on the holiday treat. I don't think of cherry things around the holidays so I was pleasantly surprised. I don't love maraschino cherries. The cherry flavor is subtle without overwhelming the shortbread.  My kids love them--although I'm not sure if its because of the sprinkles or because the cookie is actually good. They looked cute for my red & white party. Now I've got to find someone who needs cookies to eat all the leftovers before I do!