Cocoa Almond Rolled Cookies

This is a delicious tender cookie that I have rolled very thin, cut into heart shapes & sandwiched them around some Nutella..

Is this a shortbread cookie if it is made with icing sugar instead of granulated sugar? Maybe but it doesn’t matter…these cookies have a subtle flavour like a shortbread but they are not quite as crumbly….they are more sturdy & can be rolled out.

This recipe is inspired by one that I have on a very yellow piece of newsprint…cut out from a paper may years ago…(I hope newsprint yellows quickly & it isn’t an indication that I am ….well… lets just say that I would not like to think that I am that old to have yellowed old papers around!!) HA!  The recipe I was inspired by is from Dufflet;s kitchen & is called Linzer Hearts Cookies. Had to change a few things in the recipe…but I have made it as it is written & it is good. I didn’t have some of the ingredients so I improvised

A few notes about these cookies….1) I rolled them too thin & they broke when I tried to sandwich them so I would roll them thicker next time.. I was just trying to keep them thin so it would not be like eating 2 cookies at a time…. 2) I had a hard time trying to decide what to sandwich them with…I didn’t want jam which is what the original recipe is …so I tried a white icing but the cookies broke …so I had a jar of Nutella in the pantry & I used that..it tastes great, but if you do not want to use Nutella, I would use a softer white icing…there is a good recipe on the King Arthur Flour website for icing to sandwich between cookies….or use a good quality raspberry jam…3) then I could not decide what to put on top of them… icing sugar? drizzled chocolate? write something on them?  icing sugar was the easiest for sure… there was a recommendation to drizzle white chocolate on top which I did & it looks great… then I did some chocolate too. I think I like the icing sugar best…but you have options! 4) You don’t have to sandwich these cookies…just roll them out a bit thicker & then top them with one of the options & you will have a lovely cookie…

These tasted great with the Nutella filling!

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

1 cup almonds

2 cups flour

2 tbsp sifted cocoa powder

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1 cup butter..unsalted if you have but I used salted butter

3/4 cup icing sugar

2 egg yolks

Nutella, or a good quality jam (raspberry would be my pick) or some white icing..or maybe a chocolate ganache would be good….

Method

Line baking sheets with parchment paper

I made this in the food processor but you can use a mixer if you want.

1. In the bowl of a food processor, process the almonds with 1/2 cup of flour until the nuts are finely ground….I think that if you don’t put the flour in you might get almond butter!  Empty this picture into a large bowl
2. Mix the almond/flour mixture with the remaining flour, cocoa powder & cinnamon. I used a whisk   Set aside
3. Cube the butter & put it into the bowl of the food processor… add the sugar & mix until it is combined… it will be stiff…scrape down the sides of the bowl
4. Add the egg yolks to the food processor through the feed tube with the machine running..scrape down the sides of the bowl
5. Take the lid off & add the flour mixture
6. Mix until the batter is well combined & starts to form a ball around the blade. At this point I spread the dough out in the bowl & mixed it some more…until it looked well mixed
7. IF YOU WANT TO USE A MIX MASTER…still use the processor to grind the nuts with the flour & mix this with the rest of the dry ingredients, set aside…In the mixer,  cream the butter & sugar, add the eggs, then add the dry ingredients & mix until well combined
8. Take the cookie dough & put it into a bowl, cover the bowl & chill the dough for about an hour… I cleaned up while the dough was chilling
9. Preheat your oven to 350f while the dough is chilling
10. This dough is soft even coming out of the fridge
11. Now you are going to roll the dough ..so take a potion of the dough, maybe 1/4 of it, & on a very lightly floured board form the dough into a ball, then flatten the ball, then roll it out. NOT TOO THIN!!! Now, cut the dough into any shape you like.
12. Put the cookies on the prepared baking sheets & bake in the preheated oven … about 12-15 minutes…depends on how thick you roll the dough
13. Let cool on the sheets for a bit as they are very soft…then move to a cooking rack
14. Once these are completely cool, you can sandwich them with whatever you choose to use!! Again, they do not have to be sandwiched…they will be good alone as well.
15. Once these cookies are completely cooled & if you are going to sandwich them,,, I used Nutella, just used a knife & spread the Nutella on then topped it with another cookie..then sprinkled with icing sugar,,, & I melted some white chocolate chips & drizzled some of that on a few…& I tried to drizzle some melted semi sweet chocolate on but a few were very messy so I spread the chocolate…. as I said the icing sugar was the easiest  & looks good.

Enjoy!