Receta Heart-Shaped Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Food
1 Feb 2014
By Greg Henry
Heart-Shaped Cookies. Heart-Shaped Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. Heart-Shaped Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with a pretty little drizzle of white chocolate for decoration. All that’s missing are the roses and violins. What’s come over me?
Before you answer “Valentine’s Day” let me assure that these heart-shaped chocolate sandwich cookies aren’t necessarily what you think they are. I mean they could be, if you want them to be. Then again tree-shaped, ear-shaped or pig-shaped cookies could just as easily be the silly symbols of love we associate with February 14th. Everyone loves bacon.
That’s because the heart shape (be it in chocolate sandwich cookies, playing cards or biker tattoos) actually looks nothing whatsoever like a real live heart. Human or otherwise. What’s up with that? Just how (and why) do we dole out so much heart-shaped Valentine’s Day paraphernalia?
Well, there’s some pretty convincing evidence that the heart shape I used for these chocolate sandwich cookies was never intended to look like a cardiac muscle. In fact the idea that love emanates from the old ticker is a rather modern contrivance. It seems the symbol we’ve come to associate with all kinds of human endearment is actually based on a contraceptive ‘remedy’ from the Roman era. That’s right, those rascally Romans believed that the heart-shaped seedpod of the silphium plant had special powers of birth control. I’d include a picture of the plant, but it’s extinct now (that’s how popular ‘love’ was in those days).
So when you look at these Heart-Shaped Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. You can think about love in the modern sense (I certainly do). Or you can think about a type of love that was so beloved by the Romans that they put it on their coins. Can you imagine the uproar if an American dollar bill were so adorned? Oh, how the world has changed. GREG
Ingredients
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 12 ounce white chocolate (chopped and divided)
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled, plus more for parchment)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned and leveled)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted)
- 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
Directions
Make the ganache filling: Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, and add 9 ounces white chocolate. Let stand 5 minutes, covered. Transfer to a small bowl, and stir until smooth. Cover and refrigerate about 3 hours (or more) until thick and spreadable. Be sure to stir often during this process it will improve the texture of the ganache. Bring to room temperature before using.
Make the dough: In a large bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate large bowl stir together butter, brown sugar, and egg. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, and stir to combine. Knead until a dough forms. Divide dough in half and wrap each in plastic wrap; chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours.
Make the cookies: When ready to form cookies roll out each half of dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment to about 1/8-inch thick. Transfer to baking sheets, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. using a cookie cutter that’s about 2-inches wide (choose an uncomplicated shape such as round, square, heart or star), making sure you have even numbers in each for a total of about twenty-four 2-inch cookies, re-rolling and re-chilling scraps as needed. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets, and freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes.
Bake until firm and fragrant, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cookies cool completely on baking sheets set on wire racks. Spread or pipe (using a pastry bag and a small plain tip) the ganache filling onto bottom side of half the cookies, and sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing gently. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
Make the optional topping: Melt the remaining 3 ounces of white chocolate in a small heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once melted drizzle or pipe (using a pastry bag and a small plain tip) the white chocolate in an attractive pattern over the tops of the cookies.
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