The skull cookies are cute, sweet treats made from hazelnut meal, perfect for a kids’ Halloween party! Find this and many more recipes with pictures on the Giallozafferano App (in English) http://itunes.apple.com/app/giallozafferano-recipes/id384387249?mt=8
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Treat… or trick? Well, in the Giallozafferano kitchen I’d rather bake treats, so we’ll make together these scary skull cookies… let’s see how to do!
Ingredients for about 30 cookies
Skull cookies
(30 cookies)
• 3 1/3 sticks (380 g) of softened butter
• 4 1/3 cups (500 g) of cake flour
• 2 heaping cups (240 g) of hazelnut meal
• 1 1/5 cups (240 g) of white sugar • 1 medium egg (about 1/5 cup-50 g)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 vanilla pod
For garnishing
• ¼ cup (30 g) of pine nuts
First of all, sift the cake flour into a bowl; then add the toasted hazelnut meal, that can be replaced with almond meal, if you prefer… add the sugar… and mix. Now add the softened butter, that is at room temperature… and knead with your fingers… until the butter is incorporated into the dry ingredients.
As you can see, we have a crumbly mixture, now turn it out onto a work surface… make an indentation in the middle… and add the egg, that has been beaten with salt and the seeds from the vanilla pod. Now knead until it forms a smooth and even dough. Initially it seems like it will never come together, because it’s too dry, but you’ll see that the heat of your hands will help the dough come together as you knead it. It’s important to use a low-gluten flour, such as cake flour; besides, do not throw away the empty vanilla pod, but rather place it in your sugar bowl, for vanilla-flavoured sugar.
As you can see, the dough is the right consistency; if it sticks to the board, clean it with a scraper and knead the scraps back into the dough, then lightly dust with flour. Now wrap the dough in cling film and form into a flattened ball, so it cools faster, and leave in the fridge to rest for at least an hour, until firm enough to handle. Remember to work as quickly as you can, just enough to reach the desired consistency, because the longer you knead the dough, the more gluten it develops, causing the dough to become too hard, whereas you want your cookies to be crumbly… and now, in the fridge.
Here’s the dough, it’s nice and firm as you can see; now lightly dust the work surface with flour, to keep the dough from sticking, and roll it out to a thickness of at least ½ inch (1 cm). If it’s too hard… hit with the rolling pin in this way to soften it up. After rolling out the dough, cut out circles, about 2 1/3 inches (6 cm) in diameter; if you don’t have a round cookie cutter, you can use a cup or a glass.
After cutting out the circles, pinch the dough in the middle to form a skull shape… add the pine nuts as the teeth, 5 for each cookie; then use the bottom of a wooden spoon… for the eyes, and a sharp knife for the nose… and here’s the skull, ready to bake. Do the same with all the other cookies.
After the cookies are shaped, place in a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (180°C) for about 20-22 minutes.
Once cooled, our scary skull cookies are ready to serve, they’ll be gone in a flash… happy Halloween!