Shortbread Cookies with Orange Essense and Chocolate Chips

I love the combination of orange and chocolate. And I love shortbread. The way it breaks apart in your mouth and crumbles and melts and the sugar and butter and orange and chocolate dance around on your tongue... It's perfection!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3/4 pound butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• zest from 1 orange
  
• 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier
  
• 1 (heaping!) cup of semi sweet or dark chocolate chips
  
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the Grand Marnier. Add the orange peel. Add flour to the to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with a 3 by 1-inch finger-shaped cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.