Dark Cookies

When preparing cookies for the dark moon Esbat, it is somehow logical that they should symbolize the Moon in precisely this phase. So I decided to try out cookies with a lot of cocoa and chocolate glaze what additionally darkens them, and enriches their taste. An interesting addition to this recipe is blackcurrant jam which gives it that bittersweet note which so reminds of the character of the Dark Goddess (more about her in this post). These cookies are at the same time both sweet and refreshing!

You Will Need:

For the Dough:

• 600 g plain flour
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar
• 60 g cocoa powder
• 120 g ground walnuts
• 250 g softened margarine
• ca. 150 ml yogurt
• lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

For the Filling:

• blackcurrant jam

For the Glaze:

• 100 g chocolate (for cooking)
• 100 g cooking cream

Notes:

- this quantity yielded 110 cookies (although I made some using a larger cookie cutter, and others using a smaller one so you may end up having more cookies than this), but when I stuck them together using the jam, that made 55 cookies

- in case you don't like the taste of margarine in cakes (which is quite often the case with people), I recommend you use butter as a substitute; margarine  has a specific taste that not everyone likes, whereas butter gives cakes a finer texture, plus it's more common in cakes anyway

How To Prepare:

1. Grind the walnuts (I recommend using a blender of some sort).
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl (the flour, sugars, cocoa, walnuts, lemon zest) and add the softened margarine and yogurt. Mix well using an electric mixer preferably with dough hooks.
3. Heat the oven to 175-190°C and line your baking tray with baking paper. (My oven has quite strong heaters so I heated it up to 175°C, but if you heaters are normal, then feel free to turn it up to 190°C).
4. Roll out the dough and form the cookies using round cookie cutters.
5. Place the cookies onto the baking tray(s) and bake for 12-14 minutes. They will not turn golden-brown as is usually the case with cookies because they have a lot of cocoa powder in them which makes them dark, but they should not get too dark on the bottom side. When they start getting darker on the bottom, you will know they're done.
6. Once they have cooled down, stick two similar-sized cookies together using jam. Repeat until all the cookies have been paired up.
7. Melt the chocoalte and cooking cream together over steam and dip only one side of each cookie (i.e. one cookie) in it.
8. Leave the cookies aside to let the glaze harden and enjoy!