Grissini, Breadsticks

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Grissini, Breadsticks

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These Italian breadsticks, grissini, are deliciously snappy on the outside and a little soft on the inside.  They are gentle on your teeth and not at all rock hard like some bread sticks can be.

Displayed attractively on a dining table, the long and slender grissini adds panache to a dressed table. Try making these for your upcoming festive spread. 

Serve them alongside cheeseboards, antipasto or wrap some parma ham around it. Use them as a dipping stick to dip into almost anything! Nutella is great!! 

I prefer the plain ones but my guests prefer the ones with a cheese coating. Those disappear faster than I can bake them!
GRISSINI, BREADSTICKS                                 

Prep:	10 minutes
Cook:	20 to 25 minutes
Inactive:	Approximately 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours rising time
Level:	Easy
Makes:	About 20 grissini
Oven Temperature:	400 F (200 C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Cheese coated grissini will not keep well. Plain breadsticks or those sprinkled with dried toppings like sesame or poppy seeds keeps well up to 5 days. Store in an airtight container.

Ingredients

For the dough

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose/plain flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast  
I use SAF Instant.

1 Tablespoons full cream milk powder
This gives the breadsticks flavour and prevents them from being rock hard. To substitute, replace 1/3 cup of the 1 cup of water called for below with fresh milk.

2 teaspoons sugar 

1 teaspoon salt 

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water 

For the cheese coating
(enough to coat half the recipe of dough, ~ 10 breadsticks)

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese or cheese of your choice
To make cheese coating easier to adhere, pulverised it in a food processor to a fine powder.

1 Tablespoon rosemary snipped tiny or replace with dried herb of your choice

Pepper and a little salt to taste (depends on how salty your cheese is) 

3 Tablespoons olive oil for coating

Method

Using a mixer

Combine all dough ingredients into mixer bowl and attach dough hook to beater shaft. Start mixer at low speed to prevent the flour from flying out of bowl and all over the kitchen counter. Work up to medium high speed gradually.

If the mixture does not seem to be coming together to form a dough, with the machine running, add 1 Tablespoon of water and let the machine go at it for 1 minute. Work in more water the same way if required. Err on the side of a more moist dough. If there is dough stuck to the sides of the bowl. Scrape down.

If the dough is too wet, add 1 Tablespoon of flour and let the machine work it in for 1 minute. Add more flour the same way if required. Again, err on the side of a more moist dough.

It usually takes 7 to 10 minutes of machine kneading before I am happy to shape the dough into a ball. At this point, the sides of my bowl would be relatively, though not entirely cleaned of dough and the dough would have gathered up on the hook. It would look pliable, smooth and a little tacky. 

You are working towards being able to gather up the dough to form a relatively smooth looking ball. So oil/butter your hands. The dough should feel slightly sticky to touch. Do not be tempted to over flour the dough. It might take you more or less kneading time before your dough reaches this stage.

Pick the dough up and form into a round ball. Tuck loose ends under the dough. Before returning dough to mixer bowl, oil/butter the bowl. Return dough to mixer bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or tea towel and let it rise in a warm place until almost double in size. It might take anywhere between 1 and 1 and 1/2 hours, depending on how warm it is.

Working dough by hand

Place dry ingredients on a flat working surface or in a very large bowl. Create a well in the centre of dry ingredients. Pour water into the well and work it in slowly into the dry ingredients. To start kneading, you have to work with pushing the dough out with the palm of your hand and pulling it back with your fingers.

At any point, if the dough is too dry or wet to work, you can add 1 Tablespoon of water or flour and work it in completely before adding more water or flour. Err on the side of a moist and not a dry dough. Your kneading surface should be clean with no dough stuck on it. 

You will know you are doing well when you find yourself working with a smooth elastic ball. Knead another 5 minutes.  Pick the dough up, oil/butter your hands if the dough is a little sticky (it should be a little sticky) and shape into a round ball, tuck loose ends under the dough. Do not be tempted to add more flour. 

Oil/butter your bowl which should be large enough to allow the dough to almost double in size. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or tea towel and let it rise in a warm place until almost double in size. It might take anywhere between one to 1 and 1/2 hours, depending on how warm it is.

After rising - time to shape

Turn on your oven to 400 F (200 C). One oven rack should be positioned at middle and the other oven rack positioned at lower middle.

When the dough has risen to almost double its size, stick your finger in flour and poke the dough slightly. It should leave the indentation you made. Punch dough down and without much kneading, transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and shape into a rough 3/4" (2 cm) thick rectangle.

If you want to coat half the breadsticks with cheese. Prepare the set up above. Olive oil in one tray and the rest of the coating mix in another.

My oven has a longer length compared to most oven. So I divide the dough into 20 strips by marking it with a bench scraper or knife. Do not cut through dough as yet. 

If you have an oven with a shorter length, then you have to divide the dough accordingly, my guess is 24 strips. 

Start off first by rolling out plain bread sticks.  Only use half of the dough as you want to keep the remaining half to coat with cheese.

Cut off one strip of dough at a time. Roll each strip to fit the length of your tray. Set the bread sticks about 3/4" (2cm) apart on a baking tray lined with silpat or parchment paper. Cover with a tea towel and let these plain breadsticks rise about 10 minutes before putting them in the oven.

To coat the remaining dough with cheese, similarly cut off one strip of dough at a time and roll them out to fit the length of your baking tray. Lift up the dough, and coat lightly with olive oil and then roll them in the cheese. Set them about 3/4" (2cm) apart on a baking tray lined with silpat or parchment paper. Cover with a tea towel and let these plain breadsticks rise about 10 minutes before putting them in the oven.

Baking

As soon as you finish rolling and coating the cheese breadsticks would be a good time to put the plain ones in the oven. Set the timer for 10 minutes. 

When the timer rings, rotate the baking tray with the plain breadsticks. Place the cheese breadsticks into the oven onto the lower oven rack. Set the timer for 10 minutes.

When it rings, check the plain breadsticks. Press on it. It should feel crisp with just a slight give. If it is not quite there, let it bake for another 3 to 5 minutes and retest. 

When the plain breadsticks are done baking, transfer them to a cooling rack. In the meantime,  transfer the cheese coated breadsticks to the middle oven rack and set the timer for 10 minutes. Watch that the cheese does not burn. As soon as they feel crisp when you poke it, remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.

Serve the cheese coated breadsticks immediately. Plain ones can be stored in airtight containers.

Tips

White or black sesame seeds. Poppy seeds. A little black mustard seeds. A mixture of fennel and white sesame seeds. These are just a few of the many ways you can top bread sticks. 

I like mine plain as I tend to serve them with a pate, alongside antipasto or with a cheeseboard. I don't like too many flavours clashing.

You top and serve them as you wish. Either way they will be good.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
A cheeseboard. Great for those upcoming parties.

Setting up a cheeseboard for your guests to enjoy while you attend to those last minute cooking details will keep your guests happy and you sane!

Iced Lemon Tea With Oomph

 

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Iced Lemon Tea With Oomph

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This is iced lemon tea that tastes like the one I rather enjoy from a can. 

In my mind, there are two kinds of iced lemon teas. The pure iced lemon tea which is just tea, lemon and sugar. Then there is this iced lemon with oomph. I like that extra tart taste that can only come from the addition of citric acid.

Another way to enjoy this iced lemon tea is to add some crushed mint. 

If there is any leftover iced lemon tea, I crush some mint with a mortar and pestle or with a rolling pin, pop it into a glass, pour in iced lemon tea and top up with some ice cubes. It is always good.

I am posting this recipe as I had a few lemons left after using just the zest of those lemons for my Crisp Lemon Cookies plus I had a lot of citric acid left. If you like super lemony cookies, you might just like the ones I bake.

ICED LEMON TEA WITH OOMPH                                          

Prep:	10 minutes
Cook:	5 minutes
Inactive:	5 minutes
Level:	Easy
Makes:	2.5 litres and perhaps more, depending on how much water you add
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	A day ahead. It does keeps well refrigerated up to 3 days.

Ingredients

The measurements for these ingredients only serve as a guide. You should adjust the quantities to suit your taste. 

5 cups of water (plus more to top up)
3/4 cup of black tea leaves
2 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons citric acid
Find out more about this natural ingredient. Refer to the post before, Crisp Lemon Cookies.
3/4 cups lemon juice
2 bunches (or less) of mint (optional)

Method

Boil 5 cups of water. Once water comes to a boil, throw in tea leaves. Turn off the burner and let tea steep for 5 minutes. Any longer and you will get bitter tea.

After 5 minutes, drain tea through a fine mesh sieve into a 2 litre measuring jug or a large vessel. Add all the sugar and stir to dissolve or leave it alone to dissolve in the residual heat. Cool completely.

Stir in lemon juice and citric acid. Add enough cold water and ice. Adjust to your taste.

If you choose to add mint, you must crush the mint either with a mortar and pestle or with a rolling pin to get maximum flavour out of it. Cutting it or putting it in a food processor will not work. I tried the last two methods and the strength of the mint was barely discernible in the tea. I use about 3 to 4  three inch length sprigs of mint per glass cup.

Immediately top crushed mint with iced lemon tea and ice before serving.

Tips

You could choose to leave the iced lemon tea in a more concentrated solution and dilute with cold water and ice before you serve. This way, it will take less refrigerator space and you can easily store it bottled, up to three days.
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 
Grissini! 

These breadsticks require just a tiny bit of extra effort but it looks rather grand and festive on the dining table. Just in time for those year-end parties!

Crisp Lemon Cookies

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Crisp Lemon Cookies

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With the powdered sugar coating, you will expect a sweet taste to settle on your tongue. Your tastebuds are in for a surprise!

I mix the icing sugar with citric acid/ sour salt and a little salt. When you bite into this crispy cookie, you get a delightfully sour, sweet and lemony taste sensation all at once. It's most unusual for a cookie but makes a pleasant mouthful.

I wanted to accentuate the lemony taste of the lemon cookies. The idea to add a touch of citric acid to the icing sugar came about as I add citric acid to my homemade iced lemon tea. I like the tart taste.

Most recipes will suggest icing the cookies with a lemon icing to heighten the taste of lemons. I do not like to add icing on cookies. It makes stacking of cookies in jars pretty gooey and messy as I live in an area with high humidity. Powdering them was the alternative.

The end result is a tart, lemony, crispy cookie. No one will mistake this for anything other than a lemon cookie.

My family and friends know that if they want to eat these cookies, they have to come over. They taste just as good a week after baking so it actually makes for a great make in advance kind of cookies for gifting. 

I don't ever bake these to give away. Why? I only bake a manageable quantity of these as I do not like to work with confectioner's sugar. It gets all over the kitchen. 

I am sure you are a neater baker than me so please bake them to give away. Your family and friends who are into lemon cookies will love these wonderfully lemony cookies.

I do bake these Checkerboard Cookies to give away. They are hugely popular and keep well.

Easier to bake would be my Buttery Butter Cookies and Chocolatey Chocolate Cookies.

CRISP LEMON BISCUITS                                                       

Prep:	15 minutes
Cook:	12 to 14 minutes
Inactive:	2 hours
Level:	Easy
Makes:	60 cookies (about 1 and 1/2" [4 cm] round cookies)
Oven Temperature:	320 F (160 C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Cookie dough can be made and chilled up to 2 days in the chiller and frozen up to 2 weeks in the freezer. Stored in air tight jars, baked cookies tastes just as fresh a week after baking.

Ingredients

For the dough

4 oz (110 g) unsalted butter 

I use butter with a butterfat content of at least 82 to 83%. European butters typically have butterfat that falls within these percentages. I am partial to the French brand, President for baking these cookies. Whichever brand of butter you choose to use, it must have at least a minimum of 82% butterfat.The higher butterfat and lower water content content means a more buttery and crisp cookie. Buy a good tasting butter to begin with as it will highlight both the butter and the lemon.

2.5 oz (70 g) caster sugar 

1 teaspoons lemon zest (from approximately 2 lemons)

1/2 egg yolk

2 teaspoons pure lemon extract

Dr Oetker is the brand I prefer. It is oil and not alcohol based, mixed with just the extract of lemons. 

5.5 oz  (160 g) all-purpose/plain flour 

1 Tablespoon rice flour

This is that extra something that will make the cookies that extra bit more crispy.

1/8 teaspoon salt

Omit if you are using salted butter

For the Sour Lemon Sugar Coating

1 cup Icing/Confectioner's sugar

3/4 teaspoons citric acid

This is a naturally occurring fruit acid. It is sold in the form of tiny crystals and adds a tartness to food. It is also used as a preservative and you will often see it labelled as an ingredient in drinks, jams, canned food, etcetera. In a pinch, you could use it in place of lemons to sour up a sauce or dressing. You should find this in the baking aisles of supermarkets. 

2 teaspoons lemon zest (from approximately 4 lemons)

Zest an hour earlier and set aside for it to dry throughly 

a pinch or two of fine salt

1 Tablespoons edible gold glitter (optional)

Method

Making the cookie dough

Add the butter to the mixer bowl and let it soften to room temperature. Set aside.

Sift the all-purpose/plain flour, rice flour and salt together. Set aside.

Add sugar to the soften butter. Attach the whisk attachment and turn on the mixer to medium high speed and whisk until pale, light and creamy. 

Turn speed down to medium low and add the 1/2 egg yolk. Let the mixer run for 1 minute. Turn off the mixer. Quickly scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the lemon zest and lemon extract. Turn on the mixer and let it run at medium low for 1 minute to incorporate everything well. 

Switch to a paddle attachment if you have one, if not continue using the whisk attachment.

Turn the machine back on to low speed, gradually add in the sifted flours and salt. It should take about 1 minute. Turn off the mixer before the flours are completely mixed in. Incorporate the rest of the flours with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the mixer bowl as you go and folding the batter over itself as you do. It should not take more than 30 seconds. Do not over mix or your cookie might not be as light.

If the dough looks too sticky, add 1 Tablespoon of all-purpose/plain flour at a time. Go slow on the flour. You want to add just enough so that it isn't sticky looking. The dough in the photograph above still has a tiny bit of flour left, that is fine.

Rolling dough into logs

Lay out an arm's length of plastic wrap on your work surface. Transfer the dough on it and with a bench scrapper, shape into a rough log with a diameter of 2" (5 cm). Next, use the plastic wrap to enclose and roll the dough, shaping it into a cylindrical log. Twist the plastic ends closed and tucked under the dough log to secure. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to firm dough thoroughly or up to 2 days. If not, freeze up to 2 weeks. Read how you should refrigerate the dough and why you should not refrigerate any longer than 2 weeks by scrolling down to 'Tips'.

To get round cookies 

Line the inside of a cardboard tube taken from a roll of paper kitchen towel with parchment paper. Secure one end of the tube with plastic wrap. Sit the tube upright, secured plastic end resting on your work surface.

Spoon the cookie dough into the tube. As you fill, press the cookie dough down lightly with the flat end of a rolling pin lined with plastic wrap. Once filled, cover the top with a layer of plastic wrap and refrigerate. Depending on the size of your cardboard tube, you might need either one or two cardboard tubes for this recipe.

Refrigerate as indicated above.

Slicing the cookie dough for baking

Five to ten minutes before you are ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator.

The log


Remove the plastic wrap/parchment paper and cut the dough log into 0.15" (0.4 cm) thick slices.  Place them on silpat or parchment paper lined baking trays. Leave a 0.4" to 0.8" (1 cm  to 2 cm) gap between cookies. 

If at any point you feel the dough has become too soft to cut neatly, return it to the refrigerator to firm up. 

Cut cookies, must be refrigerated if they are not baked immediately. Left on the work surface, they will start to melt and this will affect the texture of the cookies.

The round

To keep the cookies as round as possible, turn the circular log of cookie dough a little each time you cut off a 0.15" (0.4 cm) slice. This way, you do not put undue pressure on one particular length of the dough and end up with a flat sided round cookie.

If at any point you feel the dough has become too soft to cut neatly, return it to the refrigerator to firm up. 

Cut cookies, must be refrigerated if they are not baked immediately. Left on the work surface, they will start to melt and this will affect the texture of the cookies.

Stamping the cookie dough for baking

Besides slicing the cookies off the log, you could also choose to stamp balls of dough with a cookie stamp. My terra cotta cookie stamps measure 2" (5 cm) in diameter. Slice off a 0.2" (0.5 cm) thick slice and lay it on the silpat or parchment paper lined baking tray. Push in the edges to form a squat circle.

I have found that the best way to get clear imprints on the cookies is to work with chilled dough and to loosely lay a square of plastic wrap over the squat circle of dough and then emboss the dough with the cookie stamp. Do not bother flouring or oiling the stamps as they do nothing to stop the dough from sticking to the recesses of the debossed surface. Plastic wrap is the way to go. All that flouring will ruin the taste and texture of the cookies.

Baking

Bake the cookies at 320 F (160 C) for 7 minutes, oven rack at lower middle position. Then rotate the cookie tray front side back and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden brown. The tops will probably still be mostly pale or perhaps a little golden brown along the circumference.

Remove from the oven. Let it cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Store in air tight jars.

Making the Sour Lemon Sugar Coating

Whizz the ingredients (except the edible gold glitter) for the Sour Lemon Sugar Coating in a food processor. Whizz until very fine. Watch that your food processor doesn't start to heat up or your sugar mix might start to melt and clump. For this reason, transfer the sugar mix into a plastic bag. Leave it open and set aside.

Dusting the cookies

When the cookies are still very slightly warm, drop the cookies one at a time in the bag of sugar mix to coat thoroughly. The cookies are fragile and will likely break if you drop too many cookies in the bag of sugar mix. Transfer each powdered cookie back to the wire cooling rack. 

When all the powdered cookies have been transferred back to the wire cooling rack, use a medium mesh (larger perforated holes) sieve and dust them again with the sugar mix. A fine mesh sieve will not  do as it will not allow the bits of lemon zest to be sifted through.

If serving them straight away, sprinkle with edible gold glitter.

If not, store in airtight jars. 

Store the access Sour Lemon Sugar Coating for dusting a fresh coat of powdered sugar each time you serve the cookies or use them in your cup of tea.

Tips

These cookies are called icebox cookies as the dough needs to be chilled before slicing and baking. They taste best if baked no later than 2 days upon chilling and up to 2 weeks of freezing. To freeze dough, wrap securely with parchment paper,  then aluminium foil and keep boxed in a lidded container. 

Bear in mind that this cookie dough is essentially a lemon flavoured butter dough. Butter dough will soak in like a sponge, any surrounding scents in the refrigerator/freezer. So if you cannot guarantee an odour free refrigerator/freezer, bake the cookies as soon as you can.

The flip side is that the baked cookies keep very well without refrigeration for at least a week in an airtight container kept away from heat and direct light source so it can be made in advance without affecting its taste and texture.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 

Iced Lemon Tea. 

It seems almost nonsensical to post a recipe about iced lemon tea but with so many lemons left after baking the lemon cookies and with still more citric acid, it would be logical to move on to using up the lemons in a quick and simple way. 

We used up all the lemon zest so we cannot bake lemon puddings or lemon meringue pies, at least not for the moment!

Chocolatey Chocolate Cookies

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Chocolatey Chocolate Cookies

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

"It's just like eating chocolate! A very good chocolate," is the comment I often get. 

This is quite possibly my favourite cookie. It is thin, crisp and as chocolatey as it can possibly be. I really shouldn't eat as many of them as I do. 
CHOCOLATEY CHOCOLATE COOKIES                               

Prep:	15 minutes
Cook:	10 to 12 minutes
Inactive:	2 hours
Level:	Easy
Makes:	36 cookies
Oven Temperature:	320 F (160 C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Cookie dough can be made and chilled up to 3 days in the chiller and frozen up to 3 weeks in the freezer. Stored in air tight jars, baked cookies tastes just as fresh a week after baking.

Ingredients

4 oz (110 g) unsalted butter 

I use butter with a butterfat content of at least 82 to 83%. European butters typically have butterfat that falls within these percentages. I am partial to the French brand, President for baking cookies. Whichever brand of butter you choose to use, it must have at least a minimum of 82% butterfat. The higher butterfat and lower water content content means a more buttery and crisp cookie. My advice is to buy a good tasting butter to begin with. The better tasting your butter, the better tasting your cookie.

2.5 oz (70 g) caster sugar 

1/2 egg yolk

3/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

5.5 oz  (160 g) all-purpose/plain flour 

1 Tablespoons rice flour

This is that extra something that will make the cookies that extra bit more crispy.

1/8 teaspoon salt

Omit if you are using salted butter.

2 oz (60 g) bittersweet chocolate, broken up to chunks

Buy the best chocolate you have accessed to as that is exactly how your cookies will end up tasting. I use Valrhona - Guanaja 70% cocoa minimum or Scharffenberger 70% bittersweet chocolate bar. 

Find out what the '%' count of cocoa means by scrolling down to  the 'Tips' section.

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

I use Valrhona cocoa powder.

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

Method

Melting chocolate using the microwave

In a dry medium size bowl, melt chocolate in microwave at medium-hi for 2 minutes. There should still be chunks of chocolate amongst the melted chocolate.  Stir in the cocoa and coffee powder. Continue to stir to melt the chocolate completely.  Set aside and cool.

I do not bother to break up my thick and chunky chocolate.  If you use smaller sized chocolates, shorten your microwave timing accordingly. Better to leave some chunks to melt in the residual heat than to leave it in the microwave to melt completely. They might burn and turn into a grainy mess. 

Melting the chocolate over the stove

Have a saucepan and a dry, heatproof bowl ready. The bowl should fit into the pot snugly and sit about 2 and 1/2" off the bottom of the pot. 

Fill the saucepan with 1 and a 1/2" of water. The idea is to not have the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Set the bowl aside for the moment.

Get the water simmering in the saucepan. Add chocolate to the bowl. Once the  water starts to simmer, put the bowl of chocolate in the saucepan.  Stir to help chocolate melt. 

When almost all of the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the saucepan. Stir in the cocoa and coffee powders. Continue to stir to fully incorporate the cocoa and coffee powders and to melt any remaining chocolate pieces. Set aside and cool.

I do not leave the chocolate in the bowl to melt completely in the saucepan. Chocolate when overheated turns into a grainy mess. 

Making the cookie dough

Add the butter to the mixer bowl and let it soften to room temperature. Set aside.

Sift the all-purpose/plain flour, rice flour and salt together. Set aside.

Add sugar to the soften butter. Attach the whisk attachment and turn on the mixer to medium high speed and whisk until pale, light and creamy. 

Turn speed down to medium low and add the 1/2 egg yolk. Let the mixer run for 1 minute. Turn off the mixer, add the pure vanilla extract and quickly scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Turn on the mixer and let it run at medium low for 30 seconds to incorporate everything well. 

Switch to a paddle attachment if you have one, if not continue using the whisk attachment.

Turn the machine back on to low speed, gradually add in the sifted flours and salt. It should take about 1 minute. Turn off the mixer before the flours are completely mixed in. 

Incorporate the rest of the flours with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the mixer bowl as you go and folding the batter over itself as you do. It should not take more than 30 seconds. Do not over mix or your cookie might not be as light.

If the dough looks too sticky, add 1 Tablespoon of all-purpose/plain flour at a time. Go slow on the flour. You want to add just enough so that it isn't sticky looking. The dough in the photograph above still has a tiny bit of flour left, that is fine.

Return the mixer bowl to the mixer stand. With the mixer at low speed, pour in the cooled melted chocolate. When it is almost completely mixed in, stop the machine and fold and cut the rest of the chocolate in with the spatula. Do not over mix.

Rolling dough into logs

Lay out an arm's length of plastic wrap on your work surface. Transfer the dough on it and with a bench scrapper, shape into a rough log with a diameter of 2" (5 cm). Next, use the plastic wrap to enclose and roll the dough, shaping it into a cylindrical log. Twist the plastic ends closed and tucked under the dough log to secure. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to firm dough thoroughly or up to 3 days. If not, freeze up to 3 weeks. 

To get round cookies

Line the inside of a cardboard tube taken from a roll of paper kitchen towel with parchment paper. Secure one end of the tube with plastic wrap. Sit the tube upright, secured plastic end resting on your work surface.

Spoon the cookie dough into the tube. As you fill, press the cookie dough down lightly with the flat end of a rolling pin lined with plastic wrap. Once filled, cover the top with a layer of plastic wrap and refrigerate. Depending on the size of your cardboard tube, you might need either one or two cardboard tubes for this recipe.

Refrigerate as indicated above.

Slicing the cookie dough for baking

Five to ten minutes before you are ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator.

The log

Remove the plastic wrap/parchment paper and cut the dough log into 0.2" (0.5 cm) thick slices and place them on silpat or parchment paper lined baking trays. Leave a 0.4" to 0.8" (1 to 2 cm) gap between cookies. 

If at any point you feel the dough has become too soft to cut neatly, return it to the refrigerator to firm up. 

Cut cookies, must be refrigerated if they are not baked immediately. Left on the work surface, they will start to melt and this will affect the texture of the cookies.

The round

To keep the cookies as round as possible, turn the circular log of cookie dough a little each time you cut off a slice. This way, you do not put undue pressure on one particular length of the dough and end up with a flat sided round cookie.

Stamping the cookie dough for baking

Besides slicing the cookies off the log, you could also choose to stamp balls of dough with a cookie stamp. My terra cotta cookie stamps measure 2" (5 cm) in diameter. Slice off a 0.2" (0.5 cm) thick slice and lay it on the silpat or parchment paper lined baking tray. Push in the edges slightly to form a squat circle.

I have found that the best way to get clear imprints on the cookies is to work with chilled dough and to loosely lay a square of plastic wrap over the squat circle of dough and then emboss the dough with the cookie stamp. 

Do not bother flouring or oiling the stamps as they do nothing to stop the dough from sticking to the recesses of the debossed surface. Plastic wrap is the way to go. All that flouring will ruin the taste and texture of the cookies.

Baking

Bake the cookies at 320 F (160 C) for 7 minutes, oven rack at lower middle position. Then rotate the cookie tray front side back and bake for another 5 minutes.  As the cookies are dark coloured, you have to rely on your sense of smell rather than sight to determine when they are cooked through. 12 minutes bake time usually cooks them through.

Remove from the oven. Let it cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Store in air tight jars.

Tips

What does the '%' count in chocolate means?

This is essentially what you need to know.

'85% cocoa' indicates the percentage amount of cocoa in the bar of chocolate in terms of the total weight of that bar of chocolate. The higher the percentage of cocoa indicated on the chocolate wrapping, the more intense the cocoa flavour and the lower its sugar content.

When using chocolate for baking, I typically use one with a '70% cocoa' count.

When using chocolate for ganaches, glazing, or adding to a cream, I switch to a chocolate with not more than a '60% cocoa' count. There is a lesser tendency for the emulsion to split.

The above two bars are two of my favourite chocolates for eating.

My Chocolatey Chocolate Cookies do make good bake gifts as of all the cookies I bake for gifting over the holidays, these stay fresh tasting the longest. The chocolatey taste actually intensifies with each day of keeping and they do taste just as good and I would say better a week after baking. They are just not too good for the waist line.

Bake these ahead and you can free up some of that precious time towards putting up the tree, decorating the house, buying the presents, planning and hosting your year-end parties, squeezing in a manicure ...

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 

Lemon cookies. 

I never bake these to give away. Find out why in my upcoming blog post.