Toblerone Shortbread

The ever-expanding convenience store on Queen Street, Gardenview (that is coincidentally owned by my violin teacher's sister), sells these Toblerone shortbread cookies that we used to walk to from our old house just to buy. Since we now live in the Annex, and my roommate loves shortbread, I decided to make my own. I did so with the help of Anna Olsen from the Food Network and her pretty simple recipe, which took me about 40 minutes. My roommate, the shortbread connoisseur, gave these cookies two thumbs up, as every time I've gotten up from writing this entry, she's asked, "will you bring me a cookie on your way back?" Burnt chocolate smells not good, so just make sure you don't push the chocolate all the way through. The recipe yielded about 36 cookies for me. These cookies also freeze well if needed.

Toblerone Shortbread (slightly altered from The Food Network Baker Anna Olsen)
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons icing sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch or rice flour (I used cornstarch)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3.5 bars of Toblerone

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat butter until light and fluffy. Sift in icing sugar and beat again until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl often.
3. Sift in cornstarch or rice flour and blend in. Sift in all-purpose flour and salt and mix just until dough comes together. Dough will be soft. Mix in vanilla extract.
4. Form dough into one inch balls on parchment paper, about 1.5 inches apart. Press Toblerone pieces into the dough balls. You should be able to fit 12 cookies on a 12 x 18 inch cookie sheet.
5. Bake on the middle rack for 9 minutes, until bottom of cookies are lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet to cool on rack.