Hello! 😊
Today I will share with you a very simple recipe – basket cookies with dark chocolate couverture. They are tasty and quick to make. And the best part is that you can decorate them any way you want, which makes them perfect for every occasion! 🙂
If you would also like to watch an instructional video, you can find the video at the bottom of the page or on my YouTube channel @bakingwithnika. I recommend watching the video while still reading through the written recipe, simply to make sure that you don`t miss anything.
Always read the entire recipe before you start baking to make sure that you have all of the ingredients and baking tools ready to use when you need them.
INGREDIENTS:
COOKIE DOUGH:
- 250 g butter
- 150 g icing sugar
- 8 g vanilla sugar
- 1 egg (medium size)
- 400 g wheat flour
DECORATION:
- dark chocolate couverture
- almond croquant (optional)
- chocolate decorative rabbits (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. First, you will need butter, which should be warmed up to room temperature. Cut it into smaller pieces and place those smaller blocks into a mixer bowl.
2. Into the same bowl add sifted icing sugar and vanilla sugar.
3. Using a stand mixer and a paddle attachment, mix those ingredients. Start mixing on low speed, otherwise icing sugar will end up all around your kitchen. Later on, you can increase the speed until all the ingredients are fully combined.
4. Then lower the mixing speed once again and add an egg. Wait until the egg combines with the rest of the ingredients and then turn off the stand mixer.
5. Now you can add flour. Start mixing on low speed while still using the paddle attachment, however, not for too long. Carefully increase the speed and soon after the dough starts to form, turn off the stand mixer. Be really careful not to overmix the dough!
6. Scrape all the dough out of the bowl and place it on the counter. (Put a little bit of flour on the counter so the dough won’t stick to the surface.)
7. Knead the dough by hand until you form a ball that holds its shape and has a smooth surface. Wrap it with a plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
8. After half an hour take the dough out of the fridge, take off the plastic wrap, and put the dough on the counter. (Once again, don’t forget to put some flour on the counter, so the dough doesn’t stick to it.)
9. Roll out the dough as evenly as you can until it is about 2-3 mm thick.
10. Using a scalloped round cookie cutter (I used the one with a 3,25 cm radius.) cut out cookies.
11. To get the basket shape use a silicone hemisphere mould. (You could use a muffin tray, but then the shape will be different.) The mould I used can be seen in the photo under this paragraph. You could use a different-sized mould, but then also make sure to adjust the size of a cookie cutter or the other way around.
12. Put each cookie into an individual mould. Press the cookie dough until it is fully inside the mould; be gentle otherwise, you could easily tear the dough.
13. Your oven should be preheated to 180°C. Bake basket cookies for about 13-15 minutes at 180°C.
14. Then take the silicone mould out of the oven and let the cookies cool down before taking them out of the mould.
15. Prepare dark chocolate couverture and a piping bag. Pour the couverture into the piping bag and twist the top of it, so the chocolate doesn’t run out.
16. Cut off the top of the piping bag – not too much because then it will be more difficult to control the amount of chocolate that runs out. Fill each of the basket cookies with chocolate couverture as seen in the photo under this paragraph.
17. The rest of the decoration is up to you. I sprinkled almond croquant on the chocolate in each basket and since I was preparing this recipe right before Easter, I also added a little chocolate bunny decoration as seen in the photo below.
And that is everything. Very simple, right? 🙂
If you have any questions about the recipe you can leave them in the comments at the bottom of the page.
If you try the recipe, let me know in the comments and share your results – feedback would be much appreciated! Also don’t forget to tag me if you share a photo of your basket cookies on Instagram so I can see your masterpieces! 😊
Here is a YouTube video tutorial for basket cookies with chocolate couverture: