Toasted Nuts
Toasting Nuts brings out their full flavor and gives them a more pronounced taste, since it releases their natural oils. Easy Toasted Nuts recipe for toasting nuts in an oven or a stove top.
Toasting Nuts brings out their full flavor and gives them a more pronounced taste, since it releases their natural oils.
Oven Method Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet, and place them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, depending on the type of nuts. Shake the pan a couple of times during the process, and watch the nuts carefully so they do not burn. Remove the nuts from the oven as soon as you start to smell them and they start to turn light brown. Transfer to a plate to cool. The nuts can be kept in an airtight container for upto a day. It can be frozen for upto a month.
Stove Top Method Take a heavy bottomed pan and dry roast the nuts on a very low flame for 5-6 minutes and they start to turn light brown. Remove off heat. Transfer to a plate to cool. The nuts can be kept in an airtight container for upto a day. It can be frozen for upto a month.
Chocolate Cookies, Gluten Free Chocolate Nut Cookies.
Gluten free, Butter free, Chocolate Nut Cookies adapted from Francois Payard Bakery, New York. Excellent recipe for last minute entertaining as this can be put together in 5 minutes.
I once had a chewy sophisticated Chocolate Nut Cookie at Payard patisserie in New York. It was then called as passover cookie. It was a chewy, chocolaty and a oh so good cookie. Sometime later I spotted the same recipe in his cookbook Chocolate Epiphany: Exceptional Cookies, Cakes, and Confections for Everyone . What surprised me was that it was such a simple recipe. The biggest surprise was that there is no added fat. No butter, No oil. The only fat that comes is from the added nuts. A one bowl recipe which takes only 5 minutes to put together.The cookie is so chewy that you feel like you are eating a toffee. The goopy batter which doesn’t look very promising turns out into a super shiny crackled cookie. Its an incredible incredible recipe. Long live Francois Payard! You are the cutest french chef I have ever known and please bless the world with more recipes like this. This makes for a really splendid sweet chocolaty treat. Lets make this cookie and feel the epiphany.
He writes in his book, “These beautiful flourless cookies are particularly in high demand at Payard during passover, but they have become so popular that we sell them year-round. Their crackled surfaces gives them an elegant look, and because they are so easy and take barely any time to make, they are great for last-minute entertaining. They have a slightly crunchy exterior and a soft, almost brownie-like interior.”
In this recipe, payard uses dutch process cocoa powder. Normal cocoa powder works too. Dutch-process cocoa powder is made from cocoa beans that have been washed with a potassium solution, to neutralize their acidity. Natural cocoa powder is made from cocoa beans that are simply roasted, then pulverized into a fine powder. Dutching makes it darker and can help mellow the flavor of the beans.
Lets go and make my apartment smell like a chocolate factory! Ready one, two, three – Go!
Preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is a very goopy and sticky batter and using parchment paper is absolutely necessary. Please don’t dump the batter right on the cookie pan. Use parchment or a silicone baking mat. Please please use parchment if you want to remove the cookies after baking from the pan.
Sift the cocoa, salt and the confectioners sugar. Also sifting is important to remove the little lumps in cocoa and sugar which otherwise can never be incorporated uniformly in the batter.
Add in the egg whites, vanilla and the walnuts. Just dump them all. Mix with a wooden spoon till there is no more dry specks of sugar and cocoa. It will be very dry in the beginning but will all come together into a dark thick batter.
With an ice-cream scoop or a generous tablespoon, scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet. Give space between the cookies so that they do not stick when they spread in the oven. If you have extra batter, wait until the first batch of cookies is baked before scooping the next batch.
put the cookies in the oven, and immediately lower the temperature to 320 degree F. Bake for 20 minutes, or until small thin cracks appear on the surface of the cookies. Remove the cookie sheet and let it cool completely before removing the cookies from the parchment paper. It might break if you try to remove them while warm.
Store in an airtight container for up to two days.
- 1/4 cup plus two tablespoon ( 35 grams ) Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 1.5 cups ( 175 grams ) confectioners sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup plus 6 tablespoon ( 135grams ) walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
- 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (use the real kind)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Sift the cocoa, salt and the confectioners sugar.
- Add in the egg whites, vanilla and the walnuts. Just dump them all. Mix with a wooden spoon till there is no more dry specks of sugar and cocoa. It will be very dry in the beginning but will all come together into a dark thick batter.
- With a ice-cream scoop or a generous tablespoon, scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet. give space between the cookies so that they do not stick when they spread in the oven.
- put the cookies in the oven, and immediately lower the temperature to 320 degree F. Bake for 20 minutes, or until small thin cracks appear on the surface of the cookies. Remove the cookie sheet and let it cool completely before removing the cookies from the parchment paper.
- Store in an airtight container for up to two days.
- Author: kannamma @kannammacooks.com
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
