Walnut Cookies with Cocoa Cream
Walnut-shaped cookies have always been on my radar though they can be bit of a challenge. They are wonderful cookies with a very soft, tasty dough and wonderful nut and cocoa filling. This is what gives them their appeal, and for cravers like me, they are irresistible.
The challenge was that I didn’t have any walnut cookie molds and didn’t know where to find them. Then a dear friend (my mother) gave me a set of walnut molds as a gift (I know now that there are plenty walnut cookie molds available on Amazon). The joy was great, and so I set to work. It’s quite painstaking but worth all the effort because they really are the most delicious cookies!
The recipe for the walnut shells I also got from my mom, and it’s great. It makes a great dough, easy to work with and, after baking, is very soft. The cream is an adaptation of mine. Besides the egg whites, walnuts, and cocoa, I added mascarpone which makes the texture simply wonderful!
Note: if you don’t have lard available you can use butter, shortening or margarine. Check out our guide to lard substitutes for more info about this topic.
Walnut Cookies with Cocoa Cream
Ingredients
The dough:
- 200 g butter
- 100 g lard
- 4 egg yolks
- 200 ml milk
- 150 g sugar
- baking flour as required
- 1 tablespoon bicarbonate (baking soda)
- 1 tablespoon baker's ammonia or baking powder
- 1 sachet of vanilla
- grated orange peel
The cream:
- 4 egg whites
- 200 g sugar
- 200 g ground nuts
- 2 tbsp cocoa
- 1 tbsp rum essence
- 250 g mascarpone
Instructions
How to make WALNUT COOKIES WITH COCOA CREAM:
- Gently mix the egg yolks with the sugar, vanilla sugar, grated orange peel, ammonia, and bicarbonate.
- Gently melt the lard and butter, it should be melted but not hot.
- Add the egg yolks to the melted lard & butter, then add the milk and mix well.
- Gradually add the flour and continue mixing.
- Add enough flour so you get a homogeneous dough (like the tart dough), shiny and easy to work.
- The dough should not be stiff, but slightly soft so that it can be handled.
- Cover the dough with foil and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 170-180 degrees Celsius (340-355 Fahrenheit)
- Lightly grease the walnut shells with butter. This is only necessary for the first round of baking.
- I made 150 walnut shells with the dough, so, in all, 75 stuffed nuts.
- Divide the dough into small, hazelnut-sized pieces.
- Place one piece of dough in the walnut shape mold and press it down so that it covers the whole inside of the mold.
- Do the same with the rest of the dough until all the shells are filled.
- Place on a large tray and put them in the oven.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned.
- Don't let them brown too much as the pastry will be too hard.
- Continue the process until you finish all the dough.
- Then move on to the cream.
- Beat the egg whites gently.
- Add the sugar, cocoa, and ground nuts and place the mixture on a low heat.
- Leave the cream on the heat for 5-6 minutes until it thickens slightly.
- This way the egg whites will cook through.
- Take the cream from the heat and add the rum essence then incorporate the mascarpone.
- Mix well until you get a homogeneous cream.
- Fill the walnut shells with the cream.
- Finally, you will have a lot of nuts filled with cream, tender, aromatic, and extremely tasty. Enjoy!
Notes
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