Christmas Cookies from Switzerland - Chocolate Cookie Balls
I love chocolate in every possible way – cream, cake or cookies. Therefore, every Christmas I bake these super yummy chocolate ball cookies, that are made with chocolate powder and ground nuts. I often hear from other people that their chocolate balls melted in the oven, and they ended with flat and hard chocolate cookies instead of nice round balls, outside crunchy and inside soft. They turn out nice when sticking to the recipe, monitoring them through the baking process (just around 3 min) and using enough cornstarch as a binding agent.
Beat
3 eggs
250 g sugar
to ribbon stage. Add
300 g ground almond
200 g chocolate powder
3 tbsp. cornstarch (very important!)
and knead it into a dough. Let the covered dough rest in a cool place for about an hour.
Roll little pieces of dough into walnut-sized chocolate balls and place them on a tray lined with baking paper. Let the chocolate balls dry at room temperature for a minimum of 6 hours, better overnight. Preheat the oven at 250° C. Bake the balls for about 2 to 3 minutes in the middle of the oven. Monitor the baking process closely (oven door closed, light inside the oven on). Depending on their size they may already start melting after 2 minutes. When they start to crack a little at the top, they are perfect, crunchy outside, soft on the inside. Take the tray out of the oven and let the chocolate balls cool down a bit. When they are hot, they are still soft and squishy and can crush easily. Carefully release them from the baking paper and put them on a grid to completely cool down. They can be kept in a cookie jar for about a week.
Fancy some more Christmas cookies?
Did you already try my vanilla crescent cookie recipe?
Did you already try my cinnamon star recipe?
Did you already try my Mailänderli recipe?