Thanks to Lisbeth, and Molly, for this recipe.
Ingredients:
- Dough:
- 125 g (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) cold, unsalted, butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 2½ cups unbleached flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ tsp cardamom
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla bean paste
- 1 egg
- Coffee ganache filling:
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 4.25 ounces of good dark chocolate, like Scharffen Berger, finely chopped
- 1 shot of brewed espresso (or 2 teaspoons espresso powder dissolved in a shot glass of water)
Assembly:
Make dough:
Combine the butter, sugar, salt, flour, and spices in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine meal. Mix the egg and the vanilla, pour the mixture into the food processor on top, and pulse until you have a dough. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in wax paper. Chill it for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
Heat the oven to 375°. Line one or two large baking sheets with parchment. Roll out the dough on a floured work surface; don’t make it too thin. Cut the dough into shapes with a 2-3 inch cutter. Cut out a shape from the center of half the cookies – Lisbeth used a moose; I used circles and diamonds, and a few flowers.
Place the cookies on the sheets and bake for 8 – 10 minutes.
Cool completely – about two hours or overnight.
Make coffee ganache filling:
In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil with the espresso. Add the chopped chocolate and let it rest for a few minutes, then mix until smooth. Cool until it’s thick enough to spread – you can put the pan into a bowl of ice water and stir until the filling is the right consistency, if you are impatient like me.
Optionally, dust the top cookies with cocoa or powdered sugar. Place a generous smear (2-3 teaspoons) of ganache filling on the underside of the cookies without cutouts, place a cutout cookie on top, press gently, and let set for at least two hours to firm up.
The cookies will keep in a covered container at room temperature for at least a week.
Originally posted – NEW in 2018