Tuesday 22 June 2010

chocolate almond cookies

If you read my post on the green tea sable cookies and aren't a big fan of green tea, can I tempt you with a Chocolate Almond combo? I started this batch whilst the green tea logs were in the fridge and it all worked out quite nicely. Just as I mixed up this batch and rolled them into logs, the green tea logs were ready to come out of the fridge, sliced and into the oven. Once the green tea ones were baked, out came the chocolate almond ones from the fridge and into the oven. Tray after tray came out nicely from the oven until a little overconfidence made me burn a tray right at the end (and unfortunately had to be binned).

This is another recipe from Keiko Ishida's 'Okashi'. The recipe I'm posting is a bit of a rewrite of the recipe from the book and quantities have been doubled. I wasn't happy with the order of her instructions and have simplified them for those keen on trying it.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees and bake 80g blanched almond slivers for 20 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, mix together 240g softened unsalted butter, 140g sifted icing sugar and a pinch of salt. Add 2 egg yolks and mix well.

Fold in 40g sifted cocoa powder and 300g sifted plain flour.

Add in toasted almond slivers. 

Shape the dough into logs and wrap in baking paper.

Increase the oven temperature to 160 degrees. Once logs have firmed up, take them out of the fridge. Roll edges in granulated white sugar. Cut dough into 7mm thick slices and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake for 20 minutes and remove from heat and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Here on the LEFT hand side are the GOOD cookies, on the RIGHT are the BAD ones. You can hardly tell from the top but once you flip them over, you can see how burnt the BAD ones are. Unfortunately the burnt taste overpowers the cookies and renders them inedible. I tried eating them, even went to the extent of convincing my brother to have one but he went straight for the non-burnt batch. Well, this is a clear example of what happens when you are overconfident and leave your oven unattended!

These cookies are nice and chocolatey and short in taste. Personally, I would recommend more almonds as 80g seemed rather sparse when mixed in. However, between the green tea and this batch of cookies, I'd say that the green tea ones are still my favourite. If you are planning on trying this recipe, I beg you, please keep a watchful eye on these when they bake. If they are looking ok, pick one up and check the base of it to see how far it's browned. Above pic is a guide to what they should look like and what they shouldn't. 

5 comments:

Kristy Sayer-Jones @ Southern In Law said...

These sound delicious!
I've forgotten about cookies in the oven plenty of times
I love chewy cookies so overcooked ones aren't my cup of tea.
But my mum will happily eat what I think are overcooked cookies - ew!

Von said...

These look so yummy! It's so cool how the timing worked out so well! My timing never does.....

I like the way these cookies are shaped! They're so unique!

The burnt cookies look so dark! I thought they were dark chocolate cookies for a sec....haha

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Were these part of your recent catering adventure as well?

char said...

i really like how you roll the dough into a log and then cut each cookie. inspired to try ! :)

panda said...

kristy - every now and then i get too overconfident and that's when i burn my cookies...hate it when it happens! and mmmm..i do enjoy chewy cookies but find that they don't last as long.

von - thanks chick! i love it how once you've fridged the log of dough, it takes seconds just to slice. much easier than shaping each cookie!

mademoiselle delicieuse - yep yep they were! i'm slowly getting through all the posts :(

char - do give it a go, much quicker than moulding dough into circles when the dough is still soft.