I am definitely making these chocolate cookies for Christmas.
You know, we have a very serious chocoholic in our family.
It’s my Mom.
My beloved Mom.
And because my love for her is so big, I always try to include as many chocolate recipes in my holiday baking list as possible.
I am sure my Mom will love these. Totally and completely sure.
In my humble opinion, these cookies taste just amazing – with their wonderfully soft centers, crunchy edges, full chocolaty flavor which is perfectly balanced with white chocolate chunks and delicious nuts, they have a strong potential to be perfect and genuine crowd pleasers.
Immediately I knew that me and these walnuts could make really great friends.
In other words, I decided to make some candied walnuts.
Yay!
Have you ever tried that?
Well, you definitely should. It’s so much fun and the taste …mmm …that taste is just unbelievably scrumptious.
To prepare candied walnuts you need 1 1/2 cups (50 grams) walnuts, 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar and a pinch of salt.
It’s this simple.
1. First, toast the walnuts in the oven at 350 F (175 C) for about 5 minutes.
2. Then pour the sugar into a saucepan.
3. Stir the melting sugar with a wooden spoon. Try to break any lumps that would form.
4. Keep melting the sugar until it’s liquid and it has reached this beautiful amber color.
I always get amazed when this magic happens.
5. Then throw the nuts into the caramel.
Yes, that is caramel what we’ve got in the saucepan.
Isn’t that amazing?
6. Stir it all together quickly to cover all the nuts with the sugar mixture.
7. As soon as the walnuts are coated, spread them out on a baking sheet.
You can line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
7. Use two forks to separate the walnuts from each other.
Try to work quickly at this stage since there’s only about 30 seconds until the caramel hardens.
8. Sprinkle the nuts with salt and let cool completely.
Enjoy, dear friends …and visit ‘Oh Nuts’ to get your own delicious walnuts, apricots, mango or anything else that makes you happy. These nice people offer loads and loads of wonderful stuff!
Thumbprint Cookies – you may also know them as Polish Tea Cakes or Butterballs.
Combining all things people love so much – butter, nuts and jam – they are classic and favorite cookies for any occasion.
And you know what? They are also really easy to make – just have a look!
~~~
To prepare the Thumbprint Cookies you need:
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (140 grams) all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (100 grams) walnuts (or hazelnuts or almonds or pecans)
1/2 cup jam (any flavor you like)
~~~
1. Preheat an oven to 350 F (176 C).
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the nuts on the sheet.
3. Toast the nuts for about 10 minutes.
4. Remove the nuts from the oven and let cool.
Then chop them finely and place them into a bowl.
Nice!
5. Now let’s make the dough.
In the bowl of your electric mixer mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Separate the egg and add the egg yolk to the batter.
Add the vanilla extract.
And then add the flour and salt to the batter and beat until just combined.
7. On a lightly floured surface form a log from the dough and cut it into about 12 – 15 equal pieces.
8. Form a ball from each piece and refrigerate for about 30 minutes (the balls will be easier to work with when refrigerated).
9. In a bowl whisk the egg white until frothy.
10. Dip a ball into the whisked egg white…
11. … and then roll in the nuts lightly.
Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet spacing about 1 inch (2,5 cm) apart.
12. And now the funny part!
Take one well-built thumb and make an indentation into the center of each cookie.
13. Using a teaspoon, fill the cookie with the jam (if you want to make it more neat you can use a pastry bag or – like me – a small plastic bag with one corner cut off).
14. Bake for about 13-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, place on a wire rack and let cool.
If you are planning to make these cookies in advance, you can bake them without the jam filling (in that case, reduce the baking time by a few minutes). They can be stored for about one week and filled with jam the same day as serving.
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