HOMEMADE FUDGE STRIPE COOKIES 🍪🍫 for our Better Than Store-Bought series! Super easy 5-ingredient shortbread cookies (buttery, crisp, delicious!) dipped in chocolate and drizzled with more on top. So much better than store-bought. Search ‘crowded kitchen fudge stripes’ online for the full recipe or click the link in our profile! If you love recipes like this, follow for more – we also have homemade Oreos, Nutter Butters, Milanos and so much more on our website. 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temp ¾ cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 7 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar just until well combined, about 1 minute. Add in the vanilla and mix just until combined. Add in the flour and salt and continue just until the dough comes together. It will be a soft and sticky dough. Transfer the dough to plastic wrap, flatten into a rectangle and refrigerate for about 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 325˚F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On a floured surface, roll the dough about ¼-inch thick (using a regular rolling pin). If you're using an embossed rolling pin, stop just before it's ¼-inch thick, then roll the embossed rolling pin on your last pass over the dough. Cut the cookies out using a 2-2 ½ inch cookie cutter, then use a smaller circle (we use a ¾-inch piping tip) to cut out the center. If the dough is very soft, we suggest placing it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes before transferring the cookies to your prepared baking sheets. Re-roll the remaining dough and repeat. Chill the cookies in the fridge for 15-30 minutes, then bake for 12-14 minutes until very lightly browned on the bottoms. If your oven tends to run hot (like ours), stack another sheet pan directly underneath the one you're baking on. This prevents the bottoms from burning, but also means the cookies may take a few extra minutes to bake. (Ours took ~16 minutes.) Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Save the parchment paper you baked the cookies on! Melt your chocolate in a double boiler or in 30 second intervals in the microwave, stirring between each interval, until fully melted. Transfer the melted chocolate to a piping bag. Using the parchment paper you baked the cookies on, pipe chocolate into a circle (using the imprint from each cookie as a guide.) Place a cookie on top and move it around a bit so the entire bottom is coated. You'll need to try one or two to get a feel for how much chocolate to use. Drizzle more chocolate over the top of each cookie, then refrigerate until the chocolate is set. Enjoy! - @crowdedkitchen