Chocolate-Dipped Sweet and Salted Butter Cookies
Date Completed: 7/31/2022
This next entry comes from the Cut-Out and Sliced Cookies chapter of Craving Cookies by Helen S. Fletcher.
My mom gave me this cookbook as a Christmas gift in 2021. She had introduced me to Helen’s blog that fall. If you remember the Pecan Pie I made a while back, the crust recipe came from that blog. That was the day my mom and I both (unknowingly and without any prior mention) made pies using that same crust recipe. Still makes me laugh at the coincidence!
My mom and I both took a Zoom class from Helen around Valentine’s day last year. Helen was teaching how to make a chocolate-caramel tart with a chocolate graham cracker crust. It was decorated with a chocolate ganache basketweave pattern. Hers was actually done in a heart-shaped pan and so cute!
I made my own version a few days after the class - delicious! I felt quite proud of the decoration!
I thought Helen was absolutely fabulous while watching her virtual class! She had a way in the kitchen of just rolling with everything that happened. It was a joy to learn from her! She had so many wonderful tips. I took several pages of notes. I was very excited to try my first recipe from her cookie cookbook!
The dough came together very easily. I simply creamed butter and sugar, added egg yolk then flavored with both almond and vanilla extracts. The last step was stirring in the flour. I found it interesting that this dough recipe did not call for any salt.
I decided to chill the dough in a log shape and slice rather than roll out and cut with cookie cutters. The recipe gave instructions for both methods. I’m very glad I chose the log and slice method because it made the process so easy!
I baked the first batch of cookies for 7 minutes, rotated, and then 7 more minutes. For the second and third batches I added 30 extra seconds on the end to get an even more golden color. Who knows if that really made a difference, but it felt important at the time!
While the cookies baked, I followed the instructions for a quick-tempered chocolate to use for the coating. I also mixed together some flaky sea salt with sanding sugar for the crunchy topping. The instructions warned against oversalting. The idea is that sugar is the main flavor with just a hint of the salt.
I set up a little dipping station to dunk the cookies into the chocolate coating. I then sprinkled them with the salty sanding sugar before the chocolate fully set.
I love how tiny and cute these cookies are! The decorating took a while, but I had an audiobook playing so it was quite relaxing.
Taste Report:
Cute and delicious! These cookies have a very sandy texture. I never understood what that meant until I ate one of these! I really loved the strong almond flavor.
I had Garrett do a taste test. He said the chocolate wasn’t quite thick enough so I dipped the cookies a second time. I still had plenty of chocolate left to do this which made me think I had probably under-dipped them the first time around.
What made these so special was the sugary/salty topping. It provided extra crunchy texture and flavor!
Once I had finished double-dipping them, Garrett teased that he was going to eat two servings of these cookies the next day while I was at the office. He claimed that one serving equated to 7 cookies because that’s about how many he could fit in his hand at once. Ha!
They really did not last long! We stored them in the refrigerator and loved them cold! We’re big “cold dessert” people!
Mess Report:
Not too bad as far as volume of dishes to make the dough.
The true mess came from my chocolate dipping station all over the countertop. Worth it!
I would definitely make these cookies again! They would also be perfect as a gift for anyone who likes a salty/sweet combo!
I have another post coming soon from this same book that will be just as fun (maybe even more)!