Sunday, May 09, 2010

Cocoa nibs almond cookies

Ever since I started baking regularly, I'm always on the hunt for new and interesting ingredients. Before I started following food blogs online, I've never heard of so many stuff and I'm amazed by all the loot. Meyer lemons, rose water,Valrhona chocolate, pecans (yes, how can I not know what a nut is?), graham flour, oat flour, feuilletine, flax seed, cocoa nibs. The list is extensive and I'm always discovering something new in the food community out there.

I get those urges (you know, those that hit you straight "WHAM BAM" that you MUST lay your hands on XXX or else you'll be, I don't know, super sad or something. Haha.) constantly whenever I read about something interesting. It's good if I can find it in Singapore, I'll be like, HOHO! That is definitely going into my grocery bag! Just like how when I saw the bag of cocoa nibs, I felt like I was in heaven.

Cocoa nibs almond cookies

I knew straight away what I was gonna be doing with those precious bits of treasure. According to information on the Internet, cocoa nibs are actually perfectly roasted cocoa beans separated from their husks and broken into small chunks. These nibs are crunchy, and have a subtle chocolate flavor, without the added sweetness often found in chocolate chips. In my bookmarks, there was a recipe for cookies that totally yelled out my name. I can't let that poor voice go hoarse in vain, so of course I went straight to the kitchen to make them. (:

Cocoa nibs

I opened the small bag of brown jewels, placed a small piece on my tongue and savoured it before I actually started baking. As mentioned above, the taste was chocolate in its purest form, without a trace of sweetness, it was almost like dark chocolate, bittersweet, yet not sweet. It had a slight crunch texture when I shifted the tiny morsel to bite into it. Mmmmmmm. Give me a moment please, to enjoy the cocoa nib.

The resulting cookies were very very almond-y, as it consist of ground almonds and almond extract. As I was using almond meal instead of whole almonds as mentioned in the recipe, I wasn't sure of the conversion quantity and just roughly estimated a cup of almond meal and proceeded with the preparations, praying hard all the while that the results won't go wrong on me. I think these would be better if there were less sugar, and also, the almond flavour wasn't so strong. But really, it's a matter of preference, cos my aunt loved them and asked for the recipe to try it out for herself. If I make these again, I might omit the almond extract, or just add a few drops, and reduce the sugar proportions. I don't mind making these again cos they were a tad different from normal chocolate chip cookies, cos it uses almond flour and cocoa nibs, and they were really really crunchy. I totally love crunchy cookies. Crunchy vs chewy? Crunchy wins hands down pat. 

Now, if only I can get my hands on the elusive Meyer lemons. I've read so much about them that I'm dying to get some to see if it is as good as everyone praises them to be. I WANT MEYER LEMONS. Where can I get them in Singapore??? My girlfriend says she's seen them at Giant and Cold Storage before, but I've never seen them! :( If anyone sees them, please get them for me pretty please? ;)\

Cocoa Nibs Almond Cookies
1 cup almond flour
110g + 2 T all purpose flour
150g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
85g unsalted butter, cubed
2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp pure almond extract
1/4 cup cocoa nibs

Combine almond flour, flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse until fine.
Add the butter and pulse until the dough looks crumbly.
Combine water, vanilla, and almond extract, add to the bowl, pulsing until just damp.
Add the cocoa nibs and pulse until evenly distributed.
Press the dough into a 6" x 9" rectangle that's 1/2" thick, and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Slice the dough into sticks, and place them on parchment lined cookie sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake 12-14 minutes, until golden brown at the edges.
Remove and cool, before storing in air tight container.

9 comments:

  1. oh woah i admire yr stamina to bake, style & photograph your bakes!! i'm getting so lazy these days.

    i made these cookies before, they were ok but i feel that they're lacking in something. like not buttery enough.

    i've never seen meyer lemons before, and giant? lol definitely not, i never even seen it at the upmarket ones like threesixty @ ION. i'm trying to find yuzu too.

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  2. Haha, cos I'm still clearing my backlog, I have quite a few more to go. I'm also getting lazy, in the sense that I've just started work, so not much time to bake now, only the weekends. And I like to fret over my photos but oh well, I enjoy doing it still. The key word being still. Hehe.

    Oh, I thought they were really buttery! And sweet. Omg-ish sweet. Yeah!!! I was like Meyer lemons at Giant??? When I don't even see it at NTUC Finest where I shop most often lol. Yuzu I think I saw before at Meidi-Ya at Liang Court if I'm not wrong. You mean the fruit itself or the extract?

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  3. oh what r u working as now? u just graduated? :) i think your photos are really good, but of coz the contents are even better.

    buttery meh? haha, actually i can't really rem since i made them almost like 2 years ago. i thought the taste was ok la, not bad but nothing to shout abt. yea i'm talking abt yuzu fruit, but i heard its quite ex! currently i'm using the korean citron tea mix in a jar as substitute.

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  4. I vote for crunchy too! yay and i love almonds!

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  5. Evan, well I grad last year, and I just switched job cos wasn't sure of what I like, from advertising to PR haha. How about you? Yeah the yuzu is exp! I think the extract (which I saw at NTUC Finest) was like $13+ for a small bottle if I didn't rem wrongly! I LOVE the korean citron tea, so nice when mixed with hot water...

    Ade, make for you next time when I have time. ;)

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  6. me me me me wants some crunchy cookies too!

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  7. good, we can eat lunch tgt more often now so next time can give u cookies when i make some lol. ;)

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  8. me me me me wants some crunchy cookies too!

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  9. This biscotti are unbelievable!!!! Can't wait to try them. Do you know how many benefits cacao nibs have? They are the biggest source of antioxidants better than green tea and kale (just to give you an idea!)
    Check this out: http://www.theironyou.com/2011/08/have-you-ever-tried-cacao-nibs.html

    Peace
    Mike

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