Christmas Baking
Hollow Walnut Cookies: The Secret Is Lots of Powdered Sugar – Light, Crumbly and They Keep for Weeks
Light, buttery hollow walnut cookies pressed into metal crescent molds, baked without eggs and dipped in chocolate.
NutritionApproximate, per serving
Instructions
Mix the dry ingredients. Sift the flour and powdered sugar into a large bowl. Add the ground walnuts and baking soda and stir well.
Make the dough. Add the sliced, slightly softened butter and work the dough with your hands. It will be crumbly at first, but the warmth of your hands brings it together. It should be stiff and a little crumbly; do not add any liquid.
Fill the molds. Take out your metal crescent cookie molds. Do not grease or flour them. Press pieces of dough into the molds until full, leaving the center slightly dipped. Level off the excess dough with your thumb.
Bake. Set the molds on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 340°F (170°C) for about 9 to 10 minutes.
Watch the color. The cookies must stay pale, at most a light cream color. If they turn brown, they will taste bitter.
Release them. While still warm (or after they cool), tap the edge of each mold lightly on a cutting board. The cookies should fall out on their own.
Decorate. Melt the chocolate with the shortening in a double boiler. Dip the ends of the cooled cookies into the glaze and let them set on a wire rack.
- The large amount of sugar is essential: together with the baking soda it makes the dough cling to the mold walls while the center puffs up and stays hollow. Do not reduce it, or the cookies will turn out solid and hard.
- Do not grease the molds. The dough is fatty enough, and a greased mold makes it slide down the walls so it will not form a hollow.