Chinese new year/Valentine's day special--
Lady's Kisses, A unique Italian nut cookie
It's been quite busy weeks for me...But the Chinese new year (Jan 31st in this year, the year of Horse!) is coming and I couldn't quite put this down. I know, I know, I should have pick a Chinese recipe to try...
But, what ever, the Valentine's day
is also coming right? ;-P
This is
traditionally made from Hazelnut, same idea of Nutella. Ferrero Roche etc...I am curious but is there a story behind this tight bond between Italian and hazelnut?
Actually
I heard about a legend that if you ask the Italians to pick ONLY one specific
food to save during famine, they would pick NUTELLA! The ingredients are simple and
straightforward, just hazelnut and chocolate "spread" which usually
include saturated fat and sugar besides cocoa, of course the recipe is still a
secret mystery. But honestly, it is one of the most amazing inventory in the
food world in my mind.
Ok, back
to the recipe. I first read about this in an Italian dessert book called Dolci about one year ago. Unlike butter based shortbread/cookies that you probably
would find equivalents somewhat everywhere
in the world. There are some special finger goodies that are so unique
that you just couldn't find them elsewhere like Macarons in France,
sweet rice cake in Asia and a BUNCH of in Italy like
Biscotti, Savoiardi(Lady finger) and this one--Lady's Kissis.
This is what the authentic look like:
This is what the authentic look like:
Other
than the original recipe in Dolci, I also referred to several written and
video recipes online. Then, I came up with this super-easy-memorizing recipe
using almond flour instead of hazelnut flour since I just happened to have that
at hand. So here we go!
Ingredients:
For the
cookies:
Equal
weight of butter, plain flour and almond flour. It is not really rigid there,
so to make it even easier:
1 stick
butter (both salted and unsalted are fine, I used salted)
1 cup of plain flour
1 cup of
almond flour/hazelnut flour (I bought a bag from Trader Joe's called "Just almond
meal" which still includes the skin compared to regular "peeled"
almond flour you usually see. To make almond meal/flour from whole almond: You
can buy blanched-peeled almond or regular raw almond then blanch&peel them
by yourself. Drain them well and put into the food processer until you get
fine-sand-like texture. Same deal if you sick to the classic, hazelnut. NOTE: don't press the almond flour because that will
make the dough tough)
1/3 cup
regular granulated sugar
Orange
peel from a small orange
Vanilla
extract
Optional:
if you use unsalted butter, add pinch of salt (~1/8 teaspoon)
For the filling:
30g
Nutella
15g
melted 70% dark chocolate
The
reason why I used this combination is to make a "nutella truffle" batter.
So that the filling can hold its shape better and won't stick to everywhere.
But this
is kind of time consuming, actually I found just Nutella is fine and really,
any filling like peanut butter, almond butter or jam would work!
Steps:
1. Bring the butter up to room temperature, set aside2. Mix the rest ingredients in a bowl (dry ingredients)
3. Pour the dry ingredients to the butter bowl and patiently knead everything until they just form a dough which can hold its shape without too crumbly.
4. Use measure spoon (I used the "1/2 teaspoon") to make small semi-sphere dough and set them on baking tray lined with parchment paper or oiled aluminum foil
5. Chill them about 30min in the fridge
6. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
7. Bake them about 15min until the top is a tiny bit tinted
8. After completely cool, assemble them together! (I used a zip loc bag to piping the filling out for a better looking purpose;-P But dipping should be fine. Let's make life easier!)
NOTE: You might found the dough is quite dry at first and though this is not going to work! But trust me, as you gradually melted the butter with the warm from you hand, the oil from almond flour is also going to "ooze' out. Then you would probably start to worry it's going to be too wet. So here, DON'T over kneed the dough because that will end up with hard rather than fluffy and short cute cookies. If it is really really too dry, add a little bit more melted butter to smooth that out.
The end result is another extreme short and crumbly delicious cookies just like Margarita cookies I used to make but completely different flavor! The high light is definitely the orange peel. I was not a big fan of citrus. The volatile essence oil is too much for me. But I found it works perfectly in this recipe. The orange, almond, butter and chocolate are just harmonized together so well!
To make it Valentine's theme, I use a little bit red icing to pipe some little hearts.
AND, to make it Chinese new year theme, I change the PS setting….Does this look a little Chinese style? LOL…