Makes about 4 1/2 dozen Christmas trees approximately 3.5 inches X 2.5 inches
Ingredients:
1 1/2 T molasses 1 T water 1 egg 1 1/4 C spelt flour 3/4 C all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/3 C brown sugar, lightly packed 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 2 sticks butter, cold 1 lb. semi-sweet couverture chocolate (between 55% and 60% cocoa)
Directions: 1. Whisk molasses, water and egg in a small bowl. Set aside. 2. In a stand-mixer mixing bowl, add both flours, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Whisk to blend. 3. Cut butter into small pieces (about 1/2") and distribute evenly over flour mixture. Place mixing bowl onto a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on low speed mix for about 3- 4 min stopping occasionally to scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Mixture should be a course meal. (note mixing can be done in a food processor if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook) 4. Add molasses mixture to bowl (still fitted with dough hook) and mix another 3-4 minutes on low until somewhat blended. Finish mixing dough by kneading by hand until evenly blended. 5. Cover dough and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 6. After dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees. 7. Working with 1/3 dough at a time. Roll on a floured surface until approximately 1/4-inch thick, adding a small amount of flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to rolling pin. Cut into desired shapes and place 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake 10-14 minutes until edges are lightly browned. 8. Once cooled completely, temper 1 lb of semi-sweet chocolate either by hand or using a tempering machine. Dip 1/2 of each cookie in chocolate and place on parchment lined trays. once cookies are dipped, fill an icing bag fitted with a #3 tip with tempered chocolate and drizzle cookies. (If you don't have a temperer and don't want to temper by hand, use chocolate chips as they are much more forgiving of being melted.) 9. Once chocolate has set, gently break off extra chocolate drizzles and store cookies in air-tight containers
Serving size: 1 Cookie Nutrition Per Serving: Calories 101Total Fat 5 g,Saturated Fat 2g, Monounsaturated Fat 0g, Polyunsaturated Fat 1g, Trans Fat 0g Cholesterol 3mg Sodium 86mgPotassium 17mg Total Carbohydrate 14g Dietary Fiber 1g Sugars 9g Protein 1g **The nutrition information here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. Additionally, your personal selection of individual ingredients can alter the nutrition of the recipe.**
Notes: * Save the chocolate drizzle remnants to make delicious hot chocolate! * These can also be cut into gingerbread men and sprinkled with course sugar prior to baking. Once cooled, decorate with icing. * My favorite chocolate for dipping is El Rey. For these cookies, I use a blend of 41% and 73.5% * These cookies can be frozen and pulled out for later use. you may occasionally get a tiny bit of blooming on the chocolate due to temperature change, but I've found this rarely happens. If it does, they are still perfectly edible! *These would make a delicious addition to a Christmas chocolate board. For directions on assembling a chocolate board click here.