Ingredients
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200g dark cooking chocolate
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40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
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2 large eggs
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⅓ cup (75g) sugar
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1 tsp Queen Natural Vanilla Extract
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1 tbsp honey
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2 tsp cocoa powder
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Pinch of salt
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¾ cup (75g) almond meal
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Icing sugar mixture, for rolling
Method
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1
Place dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on medium power for 30 second intervals, stirring in between until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into small pieces and mix into melted chocolate until melted and combined.
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2
Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or using a hand beater, beat eggs while gradually adding the sugar. Add vanilla and honey and beat for 10 minutes or until mixture has lightened and forms thick, smooth ribbons. Fold egg mixture into chocolate mixture.
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3
Place cocoa powder, salt, and almond meal in a bowl and mix, then gently fold into the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or until firm enough to roll into balls.
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4
Preheat oven to 160C (fan forced). Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
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5
With a teaspoon, scoop up a heaped teaspoon of chilled dough, and quickly roll into 2.5cm balls. They will be sticky, this is ok. Roll the balls in icing sugar and place on baking sheet 5cm apart. Place back in the fridge for 10 minutes (or freezer for 5 minutes). Pull cookies from fridge and pop straight into the oven for 12 minutes. Allow to cool completely on baking sheet.
Recipe tips:
1. Don’t use melts for this recipe: melts use vegetable fats or a low percentage of cocoa solid meaning that they melt a lot faster than real chocolate and take longer to re-solidify – leading to a whole lot of spreading in the oven. Instead, choose a block of good quality cooking chocolate that has ‘cocoa butter’ high in the ingredients list – better yet, use a dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids.
2. Only add egg mixture to the chocolate once cool: be sure to melt the chocolate at the very beginning of the recipe. By the time you’ve mixed in the butter and beaten your eggs for 10 minutes, it should have cooled down enough.
3. Fold gently: this recipe doesn’t contain a leavening agent (e.g. baking powder) and instead relies on the air beaten into your eggs. When folding through the chocolate mixture and the almond meal mixture, be as gentle as possible so not to knock out any of that precious air!
4. Only put one tray in the oven: for consistent and even temperature and cooking, be sure to only have one tray in the oven at a time (even if that means doing two batches!)
5. Chill, chill, chill: waiting for your dough to chill enough is a *really* important step in this recipe. Be patient – we promise these cookies are worth the wait.
6. Correct oven temperature: an oven that is too cool will melt the cookies before they have a chance to bake (leading to spreading) – some ovens run hot and some run a bit cool, particularly older ones. If you think your oven runs on the cooler side bump the heat up to 170°C (fan forced).
7. Keep your cookies on the smaller side: this recipe makes 24. If you have any less than this, your cookies are too large. This will cause them to spread as they’ll take longer to bake.
8. Generously roll in icing sugar mixture: you want them to have a good coating with minimal dough showing through – the less coverage, the quicker it will dissolve on your cookies.
9. If possible, use a scale and go by gram measurements: there are so many things that can change the volume of ingredients, like temperature, humidity etc. We especially find this for powdered ingredients like flour/sugar/almond meal – cups just aren’t as accurate. Baking is a science!
10. At the end of the day, don’t worry if you cookies turn out a little flatter, they’ll still taste just as delicious!!!
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