Professor Butter Beard’s Signature Chocolate Sambuca Cookies
6 dozen cookies
24 ounces dark chocolate
4 ounces (one stick) unsalted butter
¼ tsp chili powder
2 cups almond slices, toasted with ½ tsp fine sea salt
6 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup Sambuca
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 Tbsp instant espresso powder, dissolved in 2 tsp hot water
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp fine sea salt
Kosher salt to finish the cookies
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your baking trays with parchment paper.
2) Melt the butter, chili powder and chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of lightly simmering water. When smooth, set aside to cool slightly.
3) Toast the almond slices with a dash of sea salt. Set aside to cool and then pulse in a food processor to the consistency of coarse sand.
4) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
5) In a standing mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk together the eggs and sugar to the ribbon stage. Switch to the paddle attachment and stir in the chocolate. Stir in the Sambuca, hydrated espresso powder and vanilla paste. Finally, stir in the ground almonds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and, with a spatula, fold in the dry mixture until no white streaks remain. Let the batter sit for 15-20 minutes to thicken.
6) Use a 1-Tbsp cookie scoop and portion twelve cookies on a tray. Bake, one tray at a time, for 5 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for 5 more minutes. Immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven, lightly sprinkle the tops with Kosher salt. Let the cookies cool on the pan 5 minutes before removing them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Note – these cookies make excellent ice cream sandwiches – using your best vanilla ice cream!
