I almost wrote, thanks to it being the middle of the night/early morning, "academia shortbread". Um yeah.

"And your husband will never leave you/he will never leave you for me…" (soundtrack: Rilo Kiley)

I had some macadamia nuts, which I normally use to make everyone's favorite white chocolate macadamia cookies. But I had no white chocolate but did want to make something macadamia-touched. A few times before, I have made macadamia shortbread. It turns out fine, but there is something about the dough that is impossible to shape. It's supposed to be rolled into a nice round log. I have never quite been able to make that work. Instead of getting better at it, I seem to be getting worse (or, more likely, more impatient). I ended up this time with long sticks that looked like bananas or … at least something embarrassingly phallic and weird.

"There's always money in the banana stand."

I dipped the resulting shortbread sticks in melted milk chocolate. I think the combination was pleasant for most of those who sampled it. In all fairness to myself, I made the dough for these cookies at home, but then baked at a friend's house. I did not have all my normal tools and accoutrements (excuses, excuses). Packaging the final results up, I only had a ridiculously large supply of aluminum foil. Unwrapping it all in the office, we joked about how all this foil could be used to smoke crack. It turned out that my office mate and I are both so naive and lacking in "worldly knowledge" that we did not even know if foil was really used for this purpose or how one might go about it. (Also when I decided to take a picture of these cookies to include here, I accidentally snapped a lovely picture of the puke-orange-colored floor of my office. Included here for your viewing pleasure and to inspire your jealousy.)

I again packed some of these cookies up and mailed them to the Stockholm office. Maybe I should be spreading the wealth and sending cookies to some of the other offices. After all, if I need something in the future, it might be better to feed engineers or people in another region. Somehow, though, I don't think cookies are going to do any real arm twisting for me.

Chocolate-dipped macadamia shortbread cookies
1 c butter
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
3/4 c chopped macadamia nuts
1 c chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp vegetable shortening

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually stir in flour until well blended. Stir in macadamia nuts. Place dough on wax paper and shape into a roll two inches in diameter.
Wrap in paper and foil and chill at least two hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 300F degrees. Cut roll into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheet for 20 minutes (or until cookies begin to brown). Remove from oven; cool on wire rack.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate and stir in shortening (microwave or in a glass bowl over boiling water). Mix well. Dip one end of each cooled cookie into chocolate mixture and place on wax paper. Refrigerate cookies until chocolate hardens.

Yes, hardens! The result should be much more beautiful than the picture you see here.