Who's got visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads when cookies like these exist? Meet the Christmas spice chocolate shortbread cookies. They're easy to bake, easy to eat, and easy on the eyes. Just look at 'em

Nora Antene, the pastry chef at Tusk in Portland, whipped up these Christmas cookies with heart and photograper Carly Diaz shot these tasty images for our collaboration project More Than Just Dessert. And boy are these more than just dessert! These cookies are perfect for stocking stuffer, seasons greetings, house warming present, or just for treating yourself.. all while changing the chocolate industry. So, without further ado, let's get to baking!

Ingredients:  

225 g butter, soft 
90 g brown sugar 
50 g granulated sugar 
4 g salt 
4 g vanilla extract 
275 g flour 
65 g cocoa powder 
3 g baking soda 
1 tsp cinnamon 
1 tsp ginger 
¼ tsp clove 
1 bar Tony’s Chocolonely bar of your choice, chopped into 1 cm cubes 
Flake salt, for garnish  

Cream the butter, sugars, salt, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and slowly add to creamed butter. Mix in the chopped chocolate pieces until combined. 

Roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it's ¼ inch thick. Chill until it's firm, about 20 minutes. Cut into circles or your favorite holiday shape, and sprinkle with fleur du sel.

Bake at 350°F for about 8 minutes or just until the cookies puff and crack. The cookies will be very soft, but will firm up after cooling. All that's left to do is enjoy!