TWD: Chocolate Spice Quickies

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was selected by Jessica of My Baking Heart: chocolate spice quickies.  They’re chocolate cookies, flavored with both cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate, that also include ground almonds (making the cookies speckled) and a wee bit of cloves.  The name is a bit of a misnomer; the cookies aren’t really that quick thanks to a 4-hour refrigeration required between making the dough and baking.  That said, the dough does come together in a snap in the food processor, and the cookies only need to bake for 7 minutes, so maybe that’s the “quickie” part Dorie had in mind.

When the cookies first emerge from the oven, they’re a bit soft, but as they cool they become chewy and fairly sturdy.  I snagged one from the cooling rack when it was still a tad warm and really enjoyed it.  I couldn’t taste the cloves at all, but if I tried really hard, I could smell them in the cookies.  I hadn’t expected the almonds to be quite so obvious in the cookies (they were nearly undetectable before baking) so in the hopes of convincing Shane to try them (he’s not a fan of nuts), I sandwiched a few with homemade french vanilla ice cream (post coming soon, best vanilla ice cream EVER).  My first few attempts at the ice cream sandwiches were a giant fail, but eventually a couple turned out.  Nancy shared a great tip with me, one I’ll definitely employ next time: spread softened ice cream out in an even layer, refreeze and then cut with cookie cutters in the shape of your cookies. Genius!

Shane gave the chocolate spice quickies a big thumbs up, even mentioning he would probably eat them without the ice cream.  The more I tried these cookies, the more I liked them – they became very dangerous to have around the house.  Many thanks to Jessica for hosting this week!  She shared the recipe on her blog, or you can find it on page 140 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.