14 chocolate shortbread recipes

Buttery shortbread logs dipped in melted semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. A 4-ingredient cookie with crisp, sandy texture and a rich chocolate finish.

Buttery chocolate shortbread with cocoa, melted unsweetened chocolate, and chopped walnuts baked low and slow into crisp, snappy wedges with a sugar-sprinkled top.

Showstopper cheesecake with a pecan shortbread crust, cranberry glaze layer, white chocolate orange filling, and candied orange slice topping. A stunning holiday dessert that requires overnight chilling.

Chocolate chunk cheesecake layers a walnut-chocolate shortbread crust with a brown sugar cream cheese filling studded with chopped chocolate, finished with a chocolate ganache glaze. Bakery-style dessert.

Better than sex cake is a four-layer chocolate-pecan icebox dessert: a buttery pecan shortbread crust, sweet cream cheese, chocolate pudding, and whipped topping. A make-ahead potluck legend.

Chocolate pecan pie bars with a buttery shortbread crust and a gooey corn syrup filling loaded with chopped pecans and chocolate morsels. All the flavor of pecan pie, no pie dish needed.

Peanut pudding cake with four layers: peanut shortbread crust, peanut butter cream cheese, chocolate-vanilla pudding, and whipped topping with crumbled chocolate bars. A crowd-pleasing potluck dessert.

Buttery shortbread cookies topped with caramel, coated in melted chocolate, and pressed with chopped pecans. Homemade Turtle-style candy cookies that make a gorgeous gift box treat.

Almond Butter Cookie Sandwiches: tender shortbread-style cookies made with ground almonds, sandwiched with raspberry jam or chocolate ganache. Linzer-style elegance, makes 24.

Apricot almond bars with a buttery shortbread crust, spiced almond meringue topping, apricot glaze, and chocolate drizzle. Four layers of European-style pastry in every square.

Microwave pecan pie bars: shortbread base, chewy pecan filling, and a semi-sweet chocolate topping. 28 bars cooked entirely in the microwave, ready in 30 minutes.

Four-layer peanut butter pudding cake with a peanut shortbread crust, cream cheese-peanut butter filling, chocolate-vanilla pudding layer, and whipped topping. A no-bake icebox dessert.

Ischler cookies are an Austrian classic from Bad Ischl: ground-almond shortbread rounds sandwiched with raspberry jam and crowned with espresso-spiked chocolate icing. Spa-town pastry royalty.

Ischler hearts: Austrian sandwich cookies with almond shortbread, apricot jam filling, and a glossy chocolate-rum glaze. Named after the spa town Bad Ischl, favorite of Emperor Franz Joseph.