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#47 Basler Brunsli (Heart-Shaped Chocolate Almond Spice Cookies) 1994

Almonds are real work-horses in gluten-free baking. They are the basis for these rolled out cookies. You don't have to be on a gluten-free diet to like them. They are a stunning blend of the nuts, chocolate and spices (cinnamon and cloves). Bonus is that they roll out easily for cutting into shapes. I didn't find the dough sticky as the recipe suggests.

These roll out easily between sheets of wax paper.

They do want to sit for 3 hours before baking. They are meant to be crisp! These cookies, originally from Switzerland, have a firm consistency that holds up to handling.

Add to these features the subtle spices (cinnamon and cloves) that most people don't combine with chocolate, and these are winners. They remind me of Mexican chocolate used for hot cocoa.

The one drawback is that the sugar in these cookies gives a gritty consistency. I would try a superfine sugar next time.

Ingredients storage note: The dough gets mixed in a food processor, and because you start with whole almonds, it takes a while to whir them into a fine grind with the sugar. The recipe cautions not to overprocess because the nuts will get warm and melt the chocolate when added later. I found that if the almonds come from the freezer (where I store all my nuts, except of course for family members, who would find the freezer a bit chilly), they don't get all that warm while processed.

These will be a go-to gluten-free cookie for me, but also a dough I'll use when I want to use cookie cutters.

The recipe is here, and here is another version with the same ingredients.
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Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 2, 2012 at 8:15 AM

    These sound really yummy. Wonder if you could make them with almond "flour" instead?

    Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karen BrattesaniApril 2, 2012 at 2:17 PM

    It's worth a try if you have that on hand. They might be more dense than with ground nuts.

    ReplyDelete

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