Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book - Bruce Weinstein [39]
You can also substitute other nuts for the walnuts in the coating. We suggest an equivalent amount of hazelnuts or pecans.
CHOCOLATE LACE SANDWICH COOKIES
These traditional cookies are perhaps a little out of vogue now, but well deserve a comeback. They’re thin and crisp, like a crackly caramel dotted with chopped cashews, sandwiching a thin layer of melted chocolate.
MAKES ABOUT 40 COOKIES
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cool, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped, plain, roasted cashews (do not use salted cashews)
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1. Position the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven; preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats; set aside. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until well combined; set aside as well.
2. Soften the butter in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed. Add the dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, and corn syrup; continue beating until light but still a little grainy, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg yolk, then the vanilla. Remove the beaters, add the prepared flour mixture and cashews all at once, and stir with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula just until incorporated. You should have a soft, wet batter that holds its shape.
3. Scoop up 1/2 teaspoon of the batter and drop it on one of the prepared baking sheets. Continue making small mounds, spacing them about 2 inches apart on both sheets.
4. Bake for 4 minutes, then rotate the sheets top to bottom and back to front. Bake for about 4 more minutes, or until the cookies are flat and browned; they should also have small lacy holes and thin slits. Don’t overbake—the cookies will be very soft, pliable, and fragile. Cool on the sheets for 15 minutes, or until the cookies are firm and can be peeled off the parchment or silicone baking mats. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. If you have more batter for more cookies, let the sheets cool another 10 minutes before proceeding. When done, you’ll have made about 80 cookies.
5. When the cookies are cool, place the chocolate in the top half of a double boiler set over about 1 inch of simmering water, or in a bowl that fits tightly over a medium saucepan with a similar amount of simmering water. Be careful of any escaping steam—it can burn you or cause the chocolate to seize. Stir until half the chocolate has melted, then remove the top half of the double boiler or the bowl from the heat and continue stirring until all the chocolate has melted. Transfer to a clean, dry bowl and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
6. Use a pastry brush to paint a thick but shiny coating of chocolate on the bottom of one of the lacy cookies, then sandwich that chocolate layer against the bottom of a second cookie, thereby creating a lacy sandwich. Continue making lacy sandwiches with the rest of the cookies. Set them on a wire rack to cool for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has hardened.
Recommended storage
3 days at room temperature between sheets of parchment paper
Not recommended for freezing
More Choices!
These cookies are equally good substituting 1/2 cup finely chopped unsalted macadamia nuts for the cashews. You can also use 6 ounces milk chocolate or white chocolate instead of the semisweet chocolate.
CHOCOLATE LINZER COOKIES
An Austrian specialty, Linzer tarts are nut pastry-crusts sandwiching a thin layer of raspberry jam. Here, we’ve reinterpreted that classic, turning it into a chocolate cookie: the dough is made from ground walnuts, not the traditional almonds, but a better match for the chocolate; and we’ve sandwiched the cookies