Sense of place (1): chocolate butter cookies

I decided to follow a very Norwegian tradition to celebrate the ancient Nordic people, the Sami people in special. As Norwegians used to do, I will bake seven different types of cakes and cookies during the Christmas week. Starting today and until December 23 I will be publishing here the seven recipes chosen to compose this celebration. Those of you who know a little about me probably know that I am not the traditional type. On the contrary. I don't like traditions at all, I like to break tradition, end traditions and start new things, based on new values and completely new attitudes. However, in this Northern part of the planet I have started to learn to admire and respect the ancient Nordic people. Not the vikings, people much older, the primitive people of Northern Europe, like the Norwegian Sami. It is to celebrate their history, their courage, their paganism, their beautiful clothes and their fantastic culture that I have decided to bake these treats.

Today I present a very simple but delicious cookie, the chocolate butter cookie which is a very Danish type of cookie. Who dares to deny ever buying a can of Danish butter cookies? The recipe I used was in Danish by the way but it was very similar to the Chocolate Thumbprints Cookie of Martha Stewart which is a very nice recipe and for that reason I publish the link to Martha's site where you can also find a video to the show where she presented this cookie. I made a slightly different recipe as I used less salt, less sugar and less cacao and milk. I also filled my cookies with a nougat ganache to fill instead of the vanilla bean chocolate. The result was perfect to me.




Chocolate Butter Cookies (watch the video for the Chocolate Thumbprint in English here)

2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar + more for rolling the cookies
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200 grams butter
2 egg yolks
2 table spoons milk or cream


Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Sift flour, cocoa powder, and salt into a small bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium, and add yolks, cream, and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture until just combined. Roll balls using 1 teaspoons dough for each, and roll each in sugar. Place the balls on parchment on baking sheets. With you thumb or the bottom of a wooden spoon gently press the center of each cookie. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are just set, about 10 minutes. (If indentations lose definition, press centers again.) Let cool slightly on baking sheets. Transfer cookies to wire racks, and let cool.
Spoon warm ganache into center of each cookie. Let stand until firm, about 15 minutes. Cookies will keep, covered, for up to 3 days.

Original recipe you can find here





Nougat Ganache:

50 grams nougat
50 grams semi sweet dark chocolate (at least 57% cocoa solids)

In a double boiler melt nougat and chocolate mixing well to incorporate. Fill the center of the cookies with 1/2 teaspoon of the ganache while it is still warm. Let it cool before serving.