The name sounds complicated, but this is an easy recipe to follow. These cookies are just the sort of treat Mrs. Hubbard would bake for teatime at Storyton Hall.
Imagine that it’s mid-afternoon, and you’d like to take a break and read for a few minutes. Well, nothing goes better with a cozy mystery than a cookie and a cup of tea or coffee. In my mind, this mid-afternoon break food is best when it can be eaten with one hand. That way, you don’t have to put down your book.
These cookies fit the bill. After you bite off the chocolate-Nutella-dipped end, you can dunk the rest of your goodie in your hot beverage. Presto! Your day just got a little cozier.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup salted butter, cold and cut up into pieces
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract (if you’d prefer the nut taste to be milder, use vanilla extract)
- ½ cup pecan pieces (I put mine in the food processor to get them nice and small)
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup Nutella
- ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
Directions:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add in almond (or vanilla) extract. When these ingredients are well blended, add pecan pieces.
- Gradually add flour and mix at low speed until combined, then increase speed to medium until your dough is no longer sandy looking.
- Put a piece of parchment paper on a baking tray and turn dough out of mixing bowl. Divide in half. Form each half into a rectangle. I use my thumb as a width guide. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Unwrap dough and use a pizza cutter to cut into sticks. Keep sticks close together on tray so they don’t spread.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until shortbread is golden and semi-firm to the touch,
- Cool completely.
- Over a double boiler, melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk, sugar, and Nutella until smooth. You can also use a glass bowl in the microwave. Just make sure the chocolate doesn’t burn.
- Dip your shortbread sticks into the chocolate-Nutella mixture. Let cookies harden on parchment paper or just gobble them up there and then.
- Pour a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy!
Storyton Hall, Virginia, is a paradise for book lovers who come from all over for literary getaways. But manager Jane Steward is temporarily leaving for another renowned resort—in hopes of solving a twist-filled mystery . . .
Jane’s boyfriend is missing, and she thinks she may find him at North Carolina’s historic Biltmore Estate. Officially, she’s there to learn about luxury hotel management, but she’s also prowling around the breathtaking buildings and grounds looking for secret passageways and clues. One of the staff gardeners promises to be helpful . . . that is, until his body turns up in a potting shed.
When she finally locates the kidnapped Edwin, his captor insists that she lead him back to Storyton Hall, convinced that it houses Ernest Hemingway’s lost suitcase, stolen from a Paris train station in 1922. But before they can turn up the treasure, the bell may toll for another victim . . .
“Combines clever clues, a smart and courageous heroine and an interesting setting in a whodunit that will inspire readers to make further visits to Storyton Hall.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch on Murder in the Paperback Parlor
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