Chocolate Melting Moments

This is a simple and versatile dough. You can roll it into balls or form it into other shapes such as logs or disks. This past Christmas I used half the dough to make cookies sandwiched together with vanilla almond cream filling, and the other half I formed into balls and topped with a walnut half. Both were excellent and delicate in texture. You will be surprised how chocolatey they taste, considering the relatively small amount of cocoa in the dough.

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter, softened

100g confectioner's sugar

100g cornstarch

50g plain unsweetened cocoa

200g all-purpose flour

How to make them:

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F.

Beat the butter with everything but the flour, until smooth and creamy. 

Stir the flour in with a wooden spoon until you have a stiff dough.

Form this into 2" logs or 1" balls.

Flatten the balls slightly with a walnut half, or with the tines of a fork.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until set and firm, but not browned.
DO NOT OVERBAKE or they lose chocolatiness, for some reason!

Allow to cool on the sheet 2 minutes before carefully removing to a rack to finish cooling.

When cool, dip the ends of the logs into melted chocolate and roll in chopped nuts; place on parchment paper until set. Or..

Sandwich the fork-tined patties together with a filling of your choice (mine was store-bought). Or...

Simply cool the walnut patties.

When completely cooled, store in an airtight tin in a cool place.

Depending on your choice of cooky, makes 4-6 dozen.