Fabi´s Culinariyumm: Cocoa-Spice-Mountains

Hellohooow Naschkatzen & Naschkater (german word for having a sweet tooth :o))

So here I am with my next "Every-year"-recipe for xmas-cookies.

I visited my parents like last year at their little house at the lake - the best thing there in winter is the little chimney! My mother and me bake a lot. We love it, and my father loves it when there is a beautiful warm crackling fire burning in the chimney and everything smells like cookies.
After that haaard work we had some nice walks with our cameras around the lake, which is so beautiful and sometimes a little scary in wintertime.

The crackling chimney. And on the right, me and my "uncle" Hans-Karl

For the cookies:
These ones here belong to those recipes I didn`t eat in childhood, but I explored it the first time I bake my own cookies in my very first own appartment. Since then, I bake it every year, because the flavour is..well, like it is said: chocolat with spices! And I am crazy about spices - you should see my cupboards - and I`ve got also a lot of herbs in the garden, which I dry or use fresh. Well, I am a little witch, I guess.

So, this is a verrry simple basic recipe.
Like I am a little kitchen-alchemist, I love to add flavours and make experiments with basic recipes.
You can do so, if you want, too!
Add some spices you love or you can imagine very well in combination with chocolat (thyme? rosemary?). Or dip in a chocolat you really love...white, black..whatever. As topping, you can also put on whatever comes in your mind. With my mom I already chopped apricots and sprinkled them into dark choc. So: Be creative. Or just stick to the recipe here. It`s awesome, just like it is (you even can omit the choc-topping, they are wonderful in a pure way)

Okay, the only thing a little tricky (if you are not in Germany) is the gingerbreadspice (I don`t know if you get this in other countries).
So I add a recipe for it, too. It is just a spice mixture. A little from here and there and POFF! - tadaaa! There it is!

For sure, you can just add cinnamon, if you like, then you have chocolat-cinnamon-mountains.

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GINGERBREADSPICE

all spices grounded
>> 35 grams cinnamon
>> 9 grams clove
>> 2 grams pimento
>> 2 grams coriander
>> 2 grams cardamom
>> 1.5 grams nutmeg
>> 2 grams ginger

> Just mix all together and fill in a little glass or box or whatever. Tadaaaa! That`s it! Easy, eh?
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COCOA-SPICE -MOUNTAINS
60-70 pieces

>> 200 grams butter, softened
>> 100 grams icing sugar
>> 3 eggyolks (you can freeze the eggwhites for later. Use them f.e. for cinnamon-cookies or baisers)
>> 8 grams vanilla sugar (1 package here in Germany)
>> 1 tsp. gingerbreadspice
>> 1 pinch of salt

>> 200 grams all purpose flour
>> 130 grams hazelnuts, grounded
>> 35 grams cocoapowder (good quality, if possible)
>> 1 Tbsp. baking powder

>> 100 grams chocolat glaze
>> 70 pistachios, pure, roasted a little time in a pan. (You can also use almond bits or other nuts)

> Mix butter, icing sugar, egg yolks, vanilla sugar, salt and gingerbreadspice with a handmixer until creamy.
> Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa into the buttermixture, add hazelnuts and knead with a handmixer until smooth. Wrap in foil and cool it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
> Prepare two baking trays with baking sheets.
> Preheat oven to 170°C (350°C Fahrenheit)
> Flour your hands (! - better you put a little bowl with flour next to you to refresh it from time to time) and shape little balls from the dough. The size should be round about like a small (!) walnut.
> Put them on the tray. You can make round about 6 rows with 6 balls. They rise a little bit, but not that much.
> Bake them 12 minutes.
> Cool down on a cooling rack.
> Chop the chocolat glaze and put them in a small pot and prepare a how waterbath (How to: The small pot should fit on a little bigger one. In this bigger one, give 2 cm of water. Put the chocolat pot above (pot should not touch the water). Heat the water slowly (do NOT boil it))
- when the chocolat is melted, dip in the top of a cookie and add a nut on top.
> Cool down and let dry

You can store them up to 6 weeks ! But I guess you eat them before :)

Oh, and like always:
Dance through the kitchen, singing Jingle Bells for upgrading you cookies to wonder-awesome-awh-awh-christmas-cookies!
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