Chocolate Cookies

The original recipe was taken from Culinary in the Desert, the wonderful and inspiring blog by Joe. The recipe is called ‘Chocolate Pretzel Cookies’. I couldn’t bake the cookies on the day I prepared the dough and it sat in the fridge for a few days until I was finally able to bake them. I can assure you that the dough keeps beautifully in case you want to get it done in advance. Why didn’t I make the original pretzel shaped cookies? Laziness. I know, it’s not something to be proud of. However, it is good to know that there are different ways of baking these cookies. They are truly lovely and reminded me a lot of Orio cookies. A friend who was here when I baked them mentioned that they reminded her of these cookies we have back in Brazil called Negrescos. They are related to Orios.

½ cup icing sugar

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softned

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons good quality vanilla extract

¼ cup unsweetened good quality chocolate powder

1 ¼ cups plain flour

Egg wash

1 egg white

1 tablespoon water

In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in salt and vanilla. Mix in the flour and cocoa until everything is combined. Wrap dough in some plastic wrap and flatten it to a disk. Set in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180oC gas oven/160oC fan assisted oven/ 350oC/gas mark 4.

Take table tennis ball sized pieces of dough from the disk. Shape each dough piece into a 10” long rope and form the ropes into a pretzel shape and set on parchment lined baking sheet. If you would rather have cookies just shape them to your preference and line them on the lined baking sheet.

In a small bowl, whisk egg white an water together until foamy. Brush each cookie with egg white glaze and sprinkle coarse with white sugar on the top. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cook completely. Makes about 24.

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