Chocolate and Pistachio Dipped Cranberry Shortbreads

Chocolate and Pistachio Dipped Cranberry Shortbreads will steal the spotlight on your Christmas cookie platter!

Tensions are a little high. Have you noticed?

Everyone on TV seems to be bashing each other. I’m hearing insults being hurled around, name calling, whining, and I’m pretty sure I caught a nan-er-nan-er-nan-er the other day.

Okay, maybe that last bit isn’t true, but over the past few weeks I haven’t been able to watch TV, look at my Facebook feed, or read comments on a news story without feeling like I’ve somehow been transported back to a second grade playground.

Really, y’all. I know it’s election season. I know we all have strong opinions. I know we all care deeply about the future of our country.

But here’s the thing. We all care deeply about the future of our country. No one wants America to dissolve into a dictatorship, surrender to China, or drown in a sea of debt.

We all want safe neighborhoods, quality education, jobs that pay living wages, thriving businesses, and less poverty.

True, we see different ways of achieving all of these things. But perhaps if we started with our common ground, rather than demonizing, dismissing, or demeaning our opponents, we’d be much closer to finding workable, creative solutions to the issues that face us.

Just saying.

*Steps off soap box*

You know where we could start? Chocolate.

Chocolate is something we can all agree on, right?

Today I would like to declare publicly, in front of God and all you dear faithful blog readers, that I am a proud member of the Chocolate Party.

What’s the platform of the Chocolate Party you ask?

Well, I’m no expert but I think it goes something like this: Bake some delicious chocolatey things. Share them with others. Make friends. Repeat.

That is some serious stuff, people. I think we’ve got the start of world peace pretty well wrapped up in those four sentences.

The Chocolate Party happens to be hosted by Roxana over at Roxana’s Home Baking and it’s a ton of fun. Each month we bake with chocolate and one other seasonal ingredient. Remember those pumpkin chocolate chip cookies? You have the Chocolate Party to thank for that.

This month’s theme was cranberries. I’ll admit I wasn’t particularly thrilled at first. Chocolate and cranberry isn’t a combo I crave, and I’ve never baked anything with the two ingredients before. But once my brain got going on the chocolate cranberry train, I started to get excited. I thought about stuffed french toast, cranberry filled brownies, granola, pie. But then I thought about shortbread. And that’s when I stopped the train.

Shortbread is one of my favorite desserts. It’s the butter. Anything that is comprised primarily of butter has to be good. And when you add cranberries and a squeeze of orange juice to the mix? Well, it’s downright festive!

Of course, these cookies are quite delicious all on their own. They’re tender and fragrant with the smell of orange and tang of cranberries. But it wouldn’t be a chocolate party if we didn’t add some chocolate! So I dipped. And rolled. And suddenly the humble shortbread became a very special treat. This is one you can save for the holidays. It’s pretty enough to hold it’s own on any cookie tray or gift basket.

This is how I want every day of my life to end. Fingers covered in chocolate and pistachios.

My challenge to you today? Bake something delicious. Add some chocolate. Share it with friends. Even better, share it with a friend who disagrees with you.

There are lots of incredible options to choose from at the Chocolate Party. Check it out:

If you need some flexibility with your cookies, check out my guide on How to Freeze Cookies and Bars.