About the Recipe
Growing up, we always had a lovely assortment of around 10 types of Christmas cookies. These chocolate rings were always my mothers favorites. I think because my mom is a chocolate lover and these are definitely packed with rich chocolate flavor without being overly sweet. I personally love them for their light crumbly shortbread texture and for the combination of the bitter chocolate with the sweet lemony glaze. This recipe comes from my paternal grandmother who lived in an old farmhouse in Switzerland and had an incredible garden. I have so many wonderful special childhood memories of going to visit her there. She was a wonderful cook and I am so happy to be able to think of her when I recreate her recipes. I usually don't make a lot of chocolatey holiday cookies, but if I do, these are a must.
They are easy and uncomplicated to make and don't require a long bake time. If you love chocolate, try these out. They won't disappoint.
Ingredients
Dough:
380g unsalted butter
150g sugar
350g flour
150-200g cocoa powder
200g almond flour
1 Teaspoon vanilla
Glaze:
100g powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon water
Preparation
In a large bowl mix together butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add in the flour, cocoa powder and vanilla. When blended, slowly add in the almond flour. Use your hands to kneed all ingredients together. At first it may feel like there are too many dry ingredients for it all to all be able to stick , but keep mixing, everything will eventually incorporate nicely (I promise).
Once you have a nice solid dough, lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking. Roll your dough out so that it is about 5mm thick. (I like to work the dough in batches, I find it easier to handle and doesn't make me get too overwhelmed). Take a large round cookie cutter (approximately 7cm) and cut out your main circles. Then take a smaller circular cutter to cut out the center of each larger circle to make a doughnut shape.
Preheat your oven to 375F.
These cookies are a nice quick bake. So I do one cookie sheet at a time.
Bake for 7-9 minutes. Let cool completely before glazing so that the glaze can set and doesn't melt off.
While the cookies cool, make your glaze by combining the powdered sugar with the lemon juice and water. If you like a thicker glaze add less liquid. Powdered sugar becomes runny quite quickly, so if you feel you have added too much liquid, just add in a bit more sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
Once your cookies have cooled, use a pastry brush to paint each cookie with a thin layer of sugar glaze. Let the glaze dry before serving.
