Today, Erica Lea will share with us this incredible Tasty Kitchen recipe she found. The name may sound funny and strange to some of you, but oh my. It’s absolutely beautiful. Let’s watch as Erica walks us through it!

 
 
I know what you’re thinking, because I thought it as well:

 
“Zand what?!”

 
Then I read the description—shortbread cookies topped with mocha butter topped with chocolate topped with pecans/almonds. Irresistible. A little research revealed that zandgebak is just Dutch for shortbread.

 
This recipe, brought to us by emmyd, is surprisingly easy and forgiving. Confession: I (accidentally) halved the butter in this recipe. I read “1 cup of butter,” and my mind said “1 stick of butter.” Oddly enough, the cookies still turned out delicious. However, they were more like sugar cookies than shortbread.

 
Warning: these cookies are potentially addictive. It will be hard to eat just one. Proceed with caution.

 
 
 

Here’s what you’ll need: butter (twice as much as I have pictured), sugar, vanilla, salt, an egg, baking powder, flour, strong coffee (I used espresso), chocolate chips (I like bittersweet), and pecans or almonds.

 
 
 

Place your butter and sugar in a bowl. Just image there’s another stick of butter in there. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla, salt, egg and baking powder and mix.

 
 
 

Dump in the flour.

 
 
 

Mix until you have a rollable dough, adding more flour if necessary.

 
 
 

Place dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll out thinly and cut with a 2-inch cookie cutter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for about 10-15 minutes. Do not let the cookies brown. They should be a cream color. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

 
 
 

Now for my favorite part: the mocha butter! Place the butter in a bowl (again, imagine another stick of butter). Add the sugar and coffee. Beat until well blended. I used an immersion blender. Spread each cookie with about a teaspoon of the mocha butter.

 
 
 

Put the cookies on a tray and place in the freezer until firm.

 
 
 

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate with a little butter. Allow to cool slightly.

 
 
 

Drop a little chocolate on each cookie and spread out a bit.

 
 
 

While the chocolate is still soft, add a pecan or almond to each cookie.

 
 
 

Store in the freezer or refrigerator. I doubt if you’ll need to store them for long.

 
Notes: Even though these cookies were wonderful with half of the butter, I wish to make them again with the proper amount. Also, I will add more coffee to the mocha butter. It was delicious, but not strong enough. Perhaps I will try toasting or candying the nuts as well.

 
We polished off these cookies in two days. I will consider making a double batch next time.

 
Thank you, emmyd, for sharing this scrumptious recipe with us!

 
Here is a printable version of the recipe: Zand Gebak by emmyd

 
 
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Erica Berge shares her wonderful recipes and amazing food photography on her blog, Cooking for Seven. She also writes about crafts and posts more of her beautiful photography in her personal blog, EricaLea.com. There really isn’t much that this amazing young lady can’t do, and we’re thrilled she does some of it here.