Saturday, December 15, 2012

Tastes of Christmas Day 6 Recipe

Today Harriet made her wonderful Chocolate Thumbprint cookies A little bit of chocolate heaven!


Day 6
Chocolate Thumb Prints
From: Fine Cooking

Almond Cookie Dough:
½ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp. table salt
4 oz. (3/4 cup) whole almonds
12 oz. (1½ cup) unsalted butter, cut in large chunks and slightly softened
4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp. pure almond extract
3 cups bleached all-purpose flour

1.    Process the sugar and salt in a food processor until it looks powdery and a little finer, 30 – 60 seconds. Add the almonds and process until they’re finely chopped, about 20 seconds. Add the butter and the vanilla and almond extracts. Pulse until the butter is smooth, scraping the bowl as necessary.
2.    Add the flour and pulse until a soft dough begins to form around the blade.
3.    Transfer dough to a large bowl and stir briefly with a rubber scraper to be sure it’s evenly mixed.
4.    Portion the dough into equal thirds, each weighing about 11 oz.

Chocolate Thumbprints:

Use 1/3 of the dough
¼ cup coarse sugar
2½ oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
5 tsp. unsalted butter

1.    Scoop a generous teaspoonful of dough and shape into a 1-inch ball. Roll the ball in the sugar and set it on a tray lined with waxed paper. Repeat to make 24 cookies.
2.    Press a thumb, dipped in flour, to create a depression into each ball. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
3.    Remove cookies from refrigerator and arrange on an ungreased cookie sheet. Position rack in center of the oven and heat to 325°F. Let the cookies sit at room temperature while the oven heats. Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Gently redefine the depressions if necessary. Rotate the sheet and continue to bake until the tops are lightly colored and the bottoms are golden brown, another 8 – 12 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
4.    Melt the chocolate and butter over boiling water. Remove from heat when almost completely melted. Stir until smooth. Spoon the filling into each depression.

The remaining cookie dough can be used to make Almond Sables or more Thumbprints.

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