Of course I could say that I used left over Easter eggs for my variation of the traditional Figolla cookie from Malta. But I would be lying: I never have any Easter eggs left over. They always disappear too quickly from the bowl or bag and end up in my mouth before Easter is over. So for these cookies I used a good dark chocolate with 70 % cacao or more. Don’t make these cookies too small as you will want to fill them with a generous amount of the tasty chocolaty almond filling. If you do have the strength of character to resist chocolate during Easter then you could use any type of chocolate egg without gooey or sugary filling for this recipe. I can imagine that a good hazelnut or praline egg would taste great in this cookie!
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Chocolate almond cookie
For about 15 cookies
550 grams (5 cups) flour
250 grams (1⅛ cups) sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
grated rind of 1 unwaxed organic lemon
275 grams (1¼ cups) unsalted cold butter, cut in pieces
2 egg yolks
for the filling
300 grams (1⅓ cups) almond paste
1 egg white
30 grams (¼ cup) dark chocolate chips
for decoration
100 grams (¼ cup) dark chocolate chips
cocoa powder to dust
Sieve the flour in a bowl with the sugar, the salt, the espresso powder and the lemon rind. Rub in the butter and the egg yolks until the mixture resembles a rough crumble. I like to use my food processor for this.
Add 1 tbs of cold water and quickly bring together into a ball. Press into a flat disc and leave to rest in the fridge for about 30 mins.
Roll out the dough to ¼ cm/⅛ inch and cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. Bring the remaining dough together, roll out again, cut out cookies and repeat until all the dough is used. Make sure you cut out an even number.
Spread a generous teaspoonful of the almond mixture over half of the cut out shapes. Leave a little edge free.
Cover each shape with its match and gently press the edges to seal. Put the cookies in the freezer for about 10 mins. This will help them keep their shape when baked.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for about 20 mins. until light brown and done.
Take the cookies from the oven and leave to cool completely on a rack. Melt the chocolate in a bain Marie or in the microwave. Brush the cookies with chocolate and leave to dry and set. Dust with cocoa powder.
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