I have long been a fan of a salted chocolate rye cookie. This is my festive twist. The rye flour lends a fudgy texture to the cookies and the spices balance nicely with the dark chocolate to create a delicious Christmas treat. Smaller than your regular biscuit, you can enjoy more than one at a time.
I first made these two Christmas ago and cycled around London giving them to my customers – they make a great homemade gift.
Makes 10
chocolate 125g (about 70% cocoa)
butter 20g
rye flour 30g
salt ¼ tsp
baking powder ¼ tsp
ground cinnamon 1 tsp
ground nutmeg ½ tsp
ground cardamom ¼ tsp
ground cloves ¼ tsp
sugar 100g (I use panela, but caster sugar works too)
egg 1
Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over but not touching a pan of simmering water. Occasionally stir until just melted.
In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients except the sugar, and set aside.
Using a stand mixer, whisk the egg, then slowly add the sugar and whisk at a medium-high speed for 10 minutes, until pale and trebled in size. Then slowly fold in the dry ingredients a spoonful at a time. Next fold in the chocolate mixture.
Place in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180C fan/gas mark 6.
The mixture should be quite firm now, so spoon it out into 30g balls. Evenly space them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
Bake for 14 minutes until the the biscuits are nicely domed and cracks are showing. Cool on the tray before eating.
George Fuest is the owner of microbakery Populations Bakery
