Chinese new year/Valentine's day special--Lady's Kisses

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:

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 aside
2. 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…

Hope you enjoy this recipe and give it try some time!

Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine's day :)