Spiced Cocoa Cookies with Roasted Hazelnuts & Rosemary
Cape Town’s First Cookie Swap
Surely, it can’t be the first Cookie Swap Cape Town’s seen. Hot on the heels of New York Cookie Swap, I threw the idea around on twitter about having a cookie and cheer swap. No one in the food circles piped up about having held one before, so we set out to invite anyone interested to bake up a batch of sweet treats and join.
The lovely gals at Cut&Bake who produce and market their lovingly handmade cookie dough, that you literally cut and bake (I’m yet to sample these, but they sound absolutely delicious from all the reviews I’ve read) offered to host us!
So, this Saturday (17 December 2011), at 2 30 pm a group of Cape Town cookie crafters will be gathering at the Cut&Bake studios to sample Cut&Bake’s cookies, drink bubbles, snack on some savouries and swap our home-made cookies and chocolates. I bet those tupperware/s full of cookies would make really pretty gifts, especially if dressed up in glass jars, like I discussed in this post on festive edible gifts.
Update: Check out the pics of the event here. It was a wonderful afternoon of treats and laughter.
I’ve heard that Le Creuset has offered prizes worth R2000 and that there are goodie bags stuffed with drool-worthy yummies to take home too.
It’s been a long, challenging year, so it will be wonderful to spread some sweet cheer to take us through the festive season and into the next year.
There are a few spaces available, if you’d like to join (please do, it’s going to be a fun, informal and scrumptious way to meet fellow locals), please RSVP here: http://twtvite.com/cookiecheerCT (full details supplied here as well)
[If we get #CookieCheer 2011 off to a good start, perhaps we can consider including a charity element into the next one]
While browsing the innerwebs and the millions of food blogs that it holds for interesting cookie recipes, I stumbled upon these gorgeous Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies. I was intrigued by the sweet and savoury combination in tandem. I’m wary of rosemary in savoury dishes, as it can often be overpowering, but was keen to experiment with it in a cookie.
I loved the fact that the recipe called for cinnamon, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika but wondered if this would result in a bizarre and uncomfortable sensation, like a few chocolates that contain chilli that get the sting ratio way out of proportion to the chocolate it’s enrobed in. Also, some people may not care for a savoury cookie. Yet another reason I felt a challenge bekoning.
I substituted the pecans with roasted hazelnuts – their gorgeous warmth would work perfectly against the rosemary and spices, I thought. Also, I added a healthy scoop of Spanish cocoa powder for good measure along with the chocolate chips (why hold back when you have a good thing going, right? Right).
I was amazed that the recipe did not call for any eggs or liquid and thought I was done for when the dough resembled ultra fine breadcrumbs and transformed to the texture of a truffle with the warmth of my hands – not gloopy or even moist and doughy. I needn’t have worried though, they baked perfectly! A note though to use the half cup of melted butter (not less) and even a few teaspoons more if you like.
The cookies are slightly crumbly but hold the mountainful of ingredients I added to them well. I’m blown away by the unexpected surprises this cookie holds – rich chocolate, the crunch of golden, roasted hazelnuts, the faint herbiness of rosemary and then a lingering warmth from the spices. A little salt balances out the sugar and cocoa too.
I’m still not certain what cookie I’ll make for the Cookie Swap, but I’m considering this one.
Spiced Cocoa Cookies with Roasted Hazelnuts & Rosemary
Based on a recipe by Hannah Kaminsky at BitterSweet Blog
Ingredients
Makes 30 medium sized cookies
125 ml butter, melted + a bit extra
125 ml cup demerara or brown sugar, firmly packed
80 ml castor sugar
2 T maple syrup
1/2 t vanilla extract
375 ml (1 1/2 cups) cake flour
80 ml cocoa powder
3/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t smoked sweet paprika
1 1/2 T fresh rosemary, very finely chopped
1/2 t bicarbonate of soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t fine salt
180 ml (3/4 cup) hazelnuts, roasted till golden and bashed slightly (or pecan nuts)
180 ml (3/4 cup) dark chocolate chips/chunks (at least 70 % cocoa preferable)
Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line baking trays with baking parchment.
In a mixer or with a handheld blender, using the whisk attachment blend together the melted butter, sugars, maple syrup, and vanilla until smooth, fluffy and a pale cappuccino colour.
Sift the flour and cocoa into a large bowl. Add all the spices, rosemary, baking soda and powder, and salt. Add the hazelnuts and chocolate chips and coat well. I shook the bowl about.
If using a mixer, change whisk to cake beater attachment. If not, use spatula and mix by hand.
Add the flour mix in two lots. Do not overwork the dough, just mix till the flour is incorporated. Make certain that flour at the bottom of the bowl is mixed in as well.
Do not panic at the texture that appeares like soft, fine chocolate sand. With a load of bits and pieces in. Have faith.
Use your hands to shape small truffle size balls, warming them so that it’s easier to work with. In fact this cookie relies on the warmth of your hands to come together.
Press down slightly so that the cookie is about less than a centimeter in thickness. Give the cookies about 2.5 centimeters between each other. My cookies didn’t spread out much, but err on the side of caution.
Bake for 9 – 10 minutes per sheet. You want them to be slightly chewy and not dry and over -baked, so watch closely.
Allow to cool for a few minutes, and then move them off to a wire rack. Store in an air-tight container. Keeps for about a week.
Make the cookie vegan, but substituting the butter for melted margarine.
Keep a few tablespoons of melted butter ready, dribble some in to make dough easier to work with.
* Kind thanks to Hila of Add to Taste and Katie of Cut&Bake for organising the event*
LOVE THIS! These cookies and all the pictures made me want to hop on the next flight to Cape Town and meet all these talented food peeps! Love the “plattering” so clever! I must remember this for another event. Thanks for the link to our swap. Have a wonderful holiday season!
Hey Jackie
Thanks for the inspiration and the kind words. Always reading the tweets and wish I was in NYC to experience all the foodie hook -ups and gatherings you guys have. Re hopping down, you are so welcome. Bring Rabbit down with you. Have a lovely festive season
[…] Ishay posted a link for her spiced-cocoa-cookies-with-roasted-hazelnuts-rosemary-cape-towns-first-cookie-swap and mentioned the twivite for #cookiecheer at Cutnbake for this past Saturday, 17 December 2011, I […]
HOORAY for you for doing a cookie swap! Did you have the best time? If I were closer, I would have swooped in and joined you! Congratulations!
Hi Gail.Thank you. We did have a fab time indeed. Was quite a feat getting Capetonians to give up a perfect summer afternoon to come sit and swap indoors (we’re crazy for good weather and spending it outdoors) . As I said to Jackie, if ever you were to swing by this side, you MUST shout out.
[…] I’ve said it before and I will again, there is little point of a pile of blogs, without the individuals who make up the community – that would be you! It’s been my goal from the minute I starting voicing an opinion in the food community, to get people together to engage, share ideas and above all to enjoy themselves and I think we’ve been successful with that, even if on a small scale, most recently with Cape Town’s First Cookie & Cheer Swap. […]
[…] I’ve said it before and I will again, there is little point of a pile of blogs, without the individuals who make up the community – that would be you! It’s been my goal from the minute I starting voicing an opinion in the food community, to get people together to engage, share ideas and above all to enjoy themselves and I think we’ve been successful with that, even if on a small scale, most recently withCape Town’s First Cookie & Cheer Swap. […]
[…] a wonderfully successful Cape Town Cookie Swap in 2011, the first one held, we hosted the 2012 Cookie Swap, still called #cookiecheer, with the aim to […]
[…] my friend Kim Mari asked me about a Joburg version of Cookie Swap – an event we’ve held over the last two years in Cape Town, we decided to take the event to 3 cities on the same day. And so #CookieSwap3 was […]
[…] It was the third one in Cape Town and the first in Durban and Johannesburg. If you want to know how it all started in 2011, read here, and if you want to join in the next one, let me know on the blog. It’s a project I am […]
[…] in Cape Town, Durbs and Jo’burg. If you’re interested in how Cookie Swap started, check this […]