I cheated a lot when I made this recipe so I don't know that we can truly call this baci di dama. Perhaps they are baci di dama-ish? See traditional baci di dama are usually made with toasted hazelnuts, but I have a pesky allergy to hazelnuts, so I used toasted almonds. Also, apparently you are supposed to sandwich melted chocolate between two cookies, but I was lazy. So I just dipped each cookie in melted chocolate. The result is a highly addictive nutty cookie with a "short" texture (like a nutty shortbread). Honestly, I wish this recipe had made more of these chocolate-dipped almond cookies because they disappeared so quickly. So you may want to double the recipe. Just sayin'.
Chocolate-dipped almond cookies (baci di dama)
Ingredients
- 150 grams almonds 1 cup, toasted
- 63 grams bleached all-purpose flour ½ cup
- 50 grams granulated sugar ¼ cup
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 72 grams unsalted butter 5 tbsp, cubed and chilled
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 75 grams dark chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine the almonds with the flour, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Process until finely ground and well mixed. Add the butter and vanilla, then pulse the mixture for 30 seconds. Process everything to form a dough.
- Form tablespoons of dough into round balls and place on cookie sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake until golden brown on bottom for about 16 minutes or so. Let cookies cool completely on sheet because they are very delicate when warm.
- Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl in the microwave on power level 5 for 30 second increments. When the chocolate is melted, dip the base of each cookie in chocolate and place on parchment to set.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen
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