I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m not a fan of fussy cookies. My idea of making cookies is mixing the dough, dropping the cookies onto a pan, and baking. Bar cookies are even better, as you get to skip the individual cookie dropping step. So I tend to pass over recipes with a lot of shaping, dipping, rolling, and filling. Like this one.
These cookies had it all, and then some. First, you make the dough, shape it into a square (I put it in an 8×8 pan), and chill it.
After the dough chills, you unwrap it (as you can see, I had a bit of trouble getting mine out of the pan), then cut it into squares.
The individual pieces of dough (all 40 of them) are then rounded, dipped in an egg wash, rolled in ground almonds, and placed on the pan.
Next, you make a cavity in each cookie and then bake them.
While the cookies are baking, you make a white chocolate and espresso filling. I’m not a huge fan of white chocolate, so I made two fillings, one with white and the other with bittersweet chocolate. After the cookies cooled, I piped the filling into the cookies, then sprinkled them with cinnamon.
These cookies were a lot of work, but they tasted really good. To my surprise, I even liked the white chocolate ones. I could see making these cookies again for a holiday cookie tray. Maybe by next Christmas I’ll have forgotten how much work they were.
This recipe is from The Modern Baker, by Nick Malgieri and is part of the Cookies, Bars, & Biscotti section of the Modern Baker Challenge.
Of Cabbages & King Cakes 
Blackberry Jam Sandwiches with Lemon Icing {ModBak} « Of Cabbages & King Cakes said,
April 23, 2012 at 8:44 am
[…] I’m sure at least part of the problem was my attitude going into it. I’m not a fan of fussy cookies, and with the mixing, chilling, rolling, cutting, filling, and icing required, these definitely […]
Margaret said,
March 13, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Thumbprints!! Well, they look just fine to me. I think I would make square ones just to cut off one step!!
gaaarp said,
March 13, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Someone suggested using a scoop and forming them prior to chilling. That would speed things up a bit.
Macadamia Shortbreads {ModBak} « Of Cabbages & King Cakes said,
March 12, 2012 at 8:08 am
[…] that this week’s Modern Baker Challenge cookie would make up for the tuile disaster and the fussy thumbprint cookies. Since it’s a shortbread, I knew it would at least be fairly easy, without a lot of […]
Kayte said,
March 7, 2012 at 11:54 am
They look great from here. I’m not a real fan of fussy cookies except during the holidays when a little fuss is actually a little bit more fun. You are doing such a great job on all the cookies. I’m afraid my blog is on it’s way out for awhile…probably until after the selling of the house and the moving. We shall see…I am finding less time for it as I am finding it more time consuming to get house ready for market, upcoming Grand Prix swimming circuit, etc. You are doing an amazing job of all that you have going on there, much admiration.
gaaarp said,
March 7, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Thanks, Kayte. I’ll miss your blog, but certainly understand being too busy. I’m not even attempting anything other than one MB post per week right now.
Teresa Goodier said,
March 5, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Would it be easier to use a small scoop to scoop the dough, then chill it? It eliminates the rolling task.
gaaarp said,
March 7, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Good idea! I’ll try that when (if) I make these again.