Chocolate and tonka bean cookies

I don’t post much because I always have something else going on, but I still love cookies so much.
It is by making diamonds this winter for the end-of-year celebrations that I realized that we used this technique of refrigerated sausages to prepare a lot of cakes in one of my jobs, in particular cookies and mini cookies (an invention of the devil, which makes you eat twice as much, until you feel nauseous).
It’s very practical because it avoids having to form all the biscuits one by one: saving time and even greediness.
These chocolate and tonka bean biscuits are very easy to prepare, keep for a long time, and will delight fans of dry things to eat with tea or coffee.
Because snacking is important.

Choosing the right margarine for your chocolate biscuits

I repeat it almost every time: butter is about 80% fat, except low-fat butters.
Margarine is sometimes 35% fat; the applications are therefore clearly not the same and neither are the renderings in texture.
I offered you in my recipe for chocolate chip cookies, an alternative to oil. If I choose margarine to make most of my cookies, it’s because the oil rendering is slightly more crunchy than sandy.
And if I use margarine, it’s not to have texture problems with products that don’t contain enough fat.
Might as well do things right and to the end, right?

Tonka bean to flavor your cookies

If you have never tasted tonka bean, I think we can say that it is used a bit like vanilla or cinnamon: it is a spice that slips into many preparations as long as we like it .
I knew it in pastry, at a time when few people used it, and me the first, I must say that I put it away for a long time in a corner.
Recently I came across it at Zodio, I found myself filled with affection and curiosity.
The tonka bean is grated a little like the nutmeg, very finely. You can therefore use a mini grater or a very sharp zester like those from Microplane.
It can also be used simply as an infusion in a more general way (and when it is suitable, because in cookies, good luck), it works very well!
Its taste is something close to pistachio, but it is a bit reductive because its aromas are more complex and round.
I encourage you to try this little thing that gives a lot of taste, and to use it in a moderate and subtle way: otherwise it quickly becomes too much.
And if you like tonka bean and would sell your cat for a few pods, you can also find an apple crumb cake recipe in the legumiades winter number.

Bake and store your tonka bean cookies

For baking, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned much about cookies, so here are some common tips:

• Let them air : it implies not sticking your cookies too much. It is better to have two sparsely filled plates than one where all the biscuits end up going around and joining together, squeezing the fat.
• Bake on parchment paper : the crunchiness of the biscuits comes partly from a cooking that seizes the underside. With a silicone mat, part of the moisture contained under the biscuit is trapped, and will remain residually. As a bonus, if you have to invest, do it in quality material, and not the rotten silicone mats that are found in all colors everywhere. They take on odors, might as well make rancid cookies.
• Use a metal plate : Grids are a good idea, but for cookies it’s just as good to use a plate that will grip the bottom well. Also, I don’t know if there are many other materials, but avoid materials that are not metal and have poorer conduction.
• color : Part of the taste of cookies comes from the Maillard reaction. It’s not some obscure science, it’s just the color baked pasta takes on. It is only when you observe a color that these caramelized and roasted flour aromas develop. Big point for that: undercooked, cookies still contain a lot of moisture and won’t keep well.

Now that you know all that, I hope these cookies will thrill you as much as I do!

To keep them, the best thing is to store them in a metal box or in a jar, and eat them when you need or want a biscuit.