Pistachio Amaretti

Can you tell I am on a pistachio kick at the moment? The babka, todays cookies and I've just realised next weeks recipe is also heavily focused on these nuts. I would apologise but three delicious recipes with pistachios is no bad thing! Todays recipe is probably the easiest of the three and you can get these cookies in the oven in no time at all. These were inspired by my recent work trip to Sicily, where every pastry and ice cream shop seems to sell the most incredibly flavoured almond and pistachio treats, which makes sense when you realise some of the best almonds and pistachios in the world come from Sicily. This recipe uses both Italian ingredients and an Italian recipe, it's a twist on the amaretti. The style of amaretti I prefer is a slight chewy crust with a tender centre. There is nothing wrong with the crunchy or super chewy varieties this is just my preference. When it comes to the pistachios you can use the varieties found in supermarkets but you will notice they don't have the vibrancy of colour that comes from my preferred skinless, blanched variety (like these from SousChef) so the finished cookies will be a little flatter in colour. Pistachios are however pretty expensive, the green ones even more so, so choose the variety you are happy with and they will all taste wonderfully. 

Soft Pistachio Amaretti

3 large egg whites
250g caster sugar, plus extra for coating
275g ground almonds
100g pistachios
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp fine salt
icing sugar, for coating

To make the cookies preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan) and line two baking trays with parchment paper.

Place half of the almonds and all of the pistachios and salt into a food processor and pulse until the pistachios are finely ground. The reason for adding half of the almonds with the pistachios is these vibrant green pistachios are on the soft side and if processed alone can become more of a paste rather than a powder like mix, adding some of the almonds prevents this from happening. Add the remaining almonds and blend to combine, then tip into a large bowl and mix through about half of the sugar. 

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, whisk together the egg whites until foamy then slowly add the remaining sugar whisking until the meringue is in stiff peaks. Working in two additions add the meringue to the almond mixture along with the vanilla. We are not making meringue so don't worry too much about keeping all the air in the meringue, just make sure the mixture is evenly combined with no streaks of meringue. Once fully combined use an ice cream scoop (I use one about 1 heaped tablespoon in size) to form the cookies, dropping first into a small bowl of caster sugar, tossing to coat fully. This sugar coating gives the cookies the characteristic chew. To give the look of amaretti toss the cookies into icing sugar, rolling to coat fully and shape into a ball. Place the cookies onto the prepared baking trays, a few centimetres apart and then bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes. Bake just until the cookies have the smallest hint of browning where the cookies are cracking. Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before enjoying. 

Because of the ingredients these cookies will keep for a long time, at least a week in a sealed container. The longer the cookies sit the chewier they become.
 

Tahini Shortbread Cookies with Salted Honey Ganache

I seem to become easily obsessed with ingredients, some become short lived obsessions some stick around for years. Tahini has become my most recent obsession, I have been sneaking it into as many recipes as I can. The recipe that started this love affair was a chocolate tahini bundt cake that I developed for Olive Magazine (it's still one of my favourites). The combo of chocoalte and tahini is magical, it just works. If you've never had tahini in a sweet recipe think of it playing a similar role to peanut butter, it has a deep roasted sesame flavour and works beautifully in sweet recipes. This cookie recipe was inspired by a picture of shortbread from a bakery in the states; it was thick and simply served, no adornment, no filling, just simply served sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds. In my mind this turned into what we have here, a crisp tahini shortbread sandwiched together with a salted honey ganache and like most recipes that sit on that line of sweet and savoury they're incredibly moreish, they're also slice and bake cookies making them quick and easy to make. 

Tahini Shortbread Cookies with Salted Honey Ganache
Makes about 35 cookies
200g unsalted butter, room temperature
100g caster sugar
75g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
100g tahini
385g plain flour

Salted Honey Ganache
100g dark chocolate (65-75% cocoa solids)
100g double cream
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp flaked sea salt

Decoration
1 large egg white
a mix of black and white sesame seeds (2/3 white 1/3 black)

To make the cookies place the butter and sugars into the bowl of a stand mixer, along with the vanilla and salt. With the paddle attachment beat together for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape in the tahini and mix briefly to combine. Add the flour and mix briefly just until combined, you want to avoid over mixing at this point as the cookies will come out tough. Tip the dough out onto the worksurface and use your hands to bring together into a uniform dough. 

Cut the dough in half and form into thick sausage shapes, roughly 5cm thick. As these are slice and bake cookies you want to get these logs as round as possible, if you want to learn a nice tip on how to do this you can watch the video. Wrap the logs of dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for about 4 hours until firm. 

Preheat the oven to 180C 350F and line three baking trays with parchment paper. 

Using a thin sharp knife cut the cookies into rounds, about 4-5mm thick and place onto the prepared baking trays. Dont worry too much about the cookies spreading, you can leave just a couple cm's between each cookie. Lightly brush each cookie with egg white and sprinkle liberally with the sesame seed mix. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow to cool on the baking trays.

For the filling place the cream, honey, tahini and salt into a small saucepan and over medium heat bring to a simmer. Make sure to stir this mixture regularly as the honey will sink to the bottom of the pan catching and burning quite quickly. Once at a simmer pour the cream mixture into a bowl with the chocolate and sit for a couple minutes before stirring together to form a silky smooth ganache. Set aside until thickened enough to hold its shape then scrape into a piping back and pine rounds of ganache onto half of the cookies, sandwiching together with a second cookie. 

Over the time the ganache will soften the cookies so I prefer to keep these in a sealed container in the fridge, where they will keep for up to four days. 

Brownie Crinkle Cookies

First off let me apologise for the sheer amount of teasing I did with this recipe, over on Instagram I have been telling you this recipe was on its way, far too many times. The simple reason being that whilst it fudgy, rich and delicious after the first test I wanted to make sure the texture was spot on each and every time it was baked. I wanted to get the texture perfect, the right amount of spread, the fudgy inside and the shiny glossy top. Turns out this cookie, being made of a small handful of ingredients and very limited flour, is very susceptiple to changes depending on the temperature of the batter. Let the chocolate and butter cool down too much and the cookies spread way too much, use it while too hot and the cookies loose that beatiful glossy finish and dont spread enough. After many, many tests, every single one a terrible chocolate filled chore, I finally nailed the recipe. I really wanted to make a intensely chocolate flavoured cookie that had a texture that reminded you of that perfect fudge brownie. What I was trying to avoid however was a recipe that needed a prolonged chilling stage, in fact I wanted to avoid chilling completely if possible, I need my cookie fix way quicker than that! And that isnt to say a cookie like this that is chilled cant be fabulous, this recipe itself is based off my rye chocolate cookies from Olive Magazine which are chilled for 4 hours before baking and they are fabulous. After a lot of tinkering I am finally happy with the cookie and I cannot wait to see you guys making it, and with Easter weekend coming up fast this would be the perfect thing to make.

Note
Just a quick note on ingredients before I get to the recipe. For this cookie, with so few ingredients, it is really important to use good quality products. For the chocolate stick to something that a) you love the taste of and b) is around the 70% cocoa content mark. This isn't about the notion that 70% cocoa is an indicator of quality, it really isn't, it's more so that it tells you more about what the chocolate is made up of. If you use a 45% chocolate, for example, that's a lot more sugar and will change the texture of the cookies, and trust me these cookies, whilst incredibly simple to make, don't like being messed around with that much. The second important ingredient to choose carefully is the cocoa powder. I used the dutched cocoa rouge from Guittard because it has a deep rich flavour and colour. If you use a natural cocoa instead it wont lend the same colour or intensity of flavour. Now I know a lot of you are know saying, 'what on earth is dutched cocoa' and simply put, it is cocoa powder that has been treated with an alkali that darkens the colour and makes for a richer cocoa. If you are in the UK, or really anywhere in Europe thankfully this is generally what is available, but if you are in the US look for a cooca that mentions that mentions an alkali or calls itself dutched cocoa. Just avoid anything labeled natural, it wont be as good in this recipe. If the cocoa really doesnt give any indicator of wheter it is dutched or not look at the colour, generally speaking dutched cocoa has a deeper darker brown colour, less bright and red than natural cocoa. If you want more info about this, check out this great piece on Serious Eats

Brownie Crinkle Cookies
Makes 10

200g dark chocolate (around 65-70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
125g unsalted butter, diced
150g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
130g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder (dutch processed)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (plus flaked sea salt for sprinkling)

Temperature and timing is very important with this recipe so before you start get all the ingredients weighed out, two baking trays lined with parchment paper and the oven preheated to 180C (160C fan) 350F.

Place the butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan and gently simmering water. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside for the moment. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using an electric hand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugars, on medium-high speed, for exactly 5 minutes. Once the eggs have been mixing for exactly 5 minutes pour in the chocolate mixture and mix for a minute or so to combine. Meanwhile mix together the dry ingredients, sieving the cocoa powder if it has lots of lumps. Add the dry ingredients and mix very briefly just until combined. Use your spatula to give one last mix, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly combined. Use a ice cream scoop to form the cookies. The batter will be a little on the wet side, so invert the cookie scoop just above the baking tray to avoid spills. Make sure to leave plenty of space between each cookie as they will spread. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaked sea salt before placing into the oven and baking for 12 minutes. The cookies will come out of the oven with that wonderful crinkled look and slightly domed. They will collapse a little as they cool but this helps form that perfect fudgy centre. The cookies will be very soft so allow them to cool on the baking trays for at least 20-30 minutes before removing from the tray to cool completley. 

These cookies will keep for 4-5 days but will be best within the first 3 days. 

Matcha Oreos

Makes 20-25

Oreo Cookies
275g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
200g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
125g light brown sugar

Matcha White Chocolate Ganache
300g white chocolate
200ml double cream
2 tsp matcha powder

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line two baking trays with parchment paper. 

To make the cookies place the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl and mix together to combine. Add the butter and sugars into a large bowl and using an electric mixer beat together for a couple minutes until everything is combined. Add the flour mixture and on low speed mix until the flour has just been incorporated into the butter, stopping when the dough is still very crumbly but only once you can no longer see any flour. Tip the crumbly dough out on the work surface and carefully bring together into a dough. Divide into two equal pieces and working with one piece at a time roll out between two pieces of parchment paper until about 4-5mm thick. Place the dough onto a baking tray and refrigerate for am hour until firm. 

When chilled use a 5cm round cookie cutter to cut out as many cookies as possible, placing on the prepared baking trays, a couple cm's apart. You can gather the scraps together and re-roll as above once but any more and the cookies will become tough. 

Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-11 minutes. As they are chocolate it is hard to tell when they are done but they will be set around the outside and a little soft. When they bake they also puff up a little so as soon as they are removed from the oven press with the back of a glass so they are nice and flat. 

Whilst the cookies are cooling make the ganache. Place the chocolate into a large bowl and set aside. Add the cream and matcha to a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring vigorously to dissolve the tea. Once the cream is at temperature pour over the chocolate and leave alone for a couple of minutes before stirring together to form a vibrant green ganache. Press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface of the ganache and refrigerate for an hour or so until a pipeable consistency. Place the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip and use to sandwich the cookies together.

Kept in a sealed container these cookies will keep for up to three days.