Chocolate with Francois: Cracaos

A European cookie richly flavored with pistachios and walnuts.  This little “domino” style cookie is such a delight and easy to make. 

The pick for our group Chocolate with Francois was made by Astheroshe of Accro where you will find the recipe.  Seriously, if you’re a cookie lover, this one’s for you.

The only excuse I have for not having all ingredient in the house is my fight with the flu.  Still, every month this group makes something from Francois Payard’s book Chocolate Epiphany and by the title, you can tell I should have all sorts of chocolate on hand.  I have blocks of dark, semi sweet, milk, and white chocolate in the house but I don’t have cocoa powder all the time.  That’s what this recipe called for: 1/3 cup + 2 TBS Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder.  What I did have was Carob Powder AND White Hot Chocolate Powder.  I mixed the two and the result was fabulous.

So the cookie isn’t the prettiest one you’ve ever seen. Cosmetics don’t matter in this case. It’s just too good tasting to worry about the look.

If you make the entire recipe, you’ll end up with 80 little cookies.  Here’s a tip:  You’ll WANT to make the whole recipe.

This is what I did (see Astheroshe’s site for the original recipe, mine is customized to suit my taste)

Mixed 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature) with 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp fine salt.  When the mix became smooth, I added 1 egg.

In another bowl, the 1 2/3 cups flour + 1/4 cup Carob powder + 1/4 cup White Hot Chocolate Powder + 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon …were all mixed then added to the wet mixture.

I lightly toasted 1 cup walnuts + 2/3 cup pistachios then mixed them into the batter.   Formed into a rectangular log, about 1 1/2 inch thick and chilled for 1 hour.

Preheated oven to 375 F. Lined baking sheets with parchment.  Sliced rectangular log into 4 equal lengths then sliced the cookies.  Baked for 14 minutes.

This is going down as one of my all time faves!