Esmeralda cookies with chocolate are familiar to all the sweet tooth firsthand. The most delicate, melting in your mouth baking has a luxurious taste, thanks to which it won the ardent love of many people. Such a dessert perfectly complements a cup of aromatic coffee or tea, perfectly harmonizes with warm milk or cocoa, and also amazingly combines with various juices and drinks. Despite the fact that the purchased Esmeralda cookies can boast of excellent taste, there is a way to improve it. It's about home baking. After all, every housewife knows that a delicacy prepared with their own hands always turns out tastier, more aromatic, more original and more appetizing!
The components of a gentle dessert
The Esmeralda cookie recipe suggests making an incredibly tasty treat from the most common ingredients. Most of the products required to create delicate pastries are found in every kitchen. And all the missing are very easy to find in a nearby store.
To make famous cookies, you will need a standard set of ingredients for shortbread: butter, flour, chicken eggs and granulated sugar. An additional component that distinguishes Esmeralda from its classic counterparts is chocolate. It is recommended to use a black natural product with a high content of cocoa beans. Only such chocolate will give the liver a bright and rich taste. In addition, due to the high content of cocoa beans, the pieces of the product inside the baking remain intact, and do not melt.
To make the treat more original, you can use additional components, for example, pumpkin seeds (peeled), candied fruit, dried berries, dried apricots, raisins or prunes. Products replace chocolate or are added to the dough with it.
The classic Esmeralda cookie recipe
Traditionally, delicate pastries are cooked with chocolate, without adding additional ingredients. This taste is loved by many sweets. The only way to diversify the traditional recipe is with cocoa powder. In this case, Esmeralda cookies will delight all dessert lovers with a rich chocolate flavor.
To make popular pastries you will need:
- 250 grams of butter (margarine is not recommended to be replaced);
- 400 grams of premium wheat flour;
- four standard size chicken eggs;
- 200 grams of granulated sugar;
- a pinch of table salt;
- 150 grams of quality dark chocolate.
A detailed guide to making gentle pastries
First of all, you need to turn on the oven 180 degrees. While the dough is kneading, it will warm up enough.
Butter should be removed from the refrigerator a few hours before starting work with the dough. The product must be very soft. Put the butter in a deep bowl and add granulated sugar to it. Thoroughly grind the mass with a fork, achieving its smooth state. The resulting mixture should not contain oily lumps or pronounced sugar grains.
Proteins to separate from the yolks. The first to put in a deep dry dish, and the second to put aside - they will not be needed for cookies. It is due to the fact that the yolks are not added to the dough, the baking is so tender and airy. Send a pinch of salt into a container with proteins and, armed with a mixer, beat them to a state of lush foam. The resulting white mass is carefully introduced into the meat-sugar mixture, while carefully stirring it with a spoon.
Break pre-chilled chocolate into very small pieces (about 2-4 millimeters), then add to the rest of the ingredients. Sift flour through a sieve. To achieve the best result, this procedure can be done twice. Well saturated with oxygen, the product will make cookies incredibly soft and airy. Gently stirring the oil mass with a spoon, introduce flour into small portions. Knead soft dough. Wrap the workpiece in cling film and refrigerate for 30-40 minutes.
Roll the chilled dough into a layer about 8 millimeters thick. Using a glass, wineglass or cookie cutters imitating various figures, cut the cookie blanks.
There is another way to form a dessert. It is necessary to pinch small pieces from the dough, roll the balls out of them, and then flatten them in your hands, turning them into flat cakes of the same thickness (8 millimeters).
Put the blanks on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Cookies will slightly increase in size, so a small distance should be left between the figures. Place the pan in the hot oven for 10-15 minutes.
Cool the finished cookies a little, place in a vase and serve.
How to use cocoa?
If you want to make a rich chocolate treat, then you will need four more tablespoons of brown powder. Cocoa should be added to the dough at the same time as flour. In all other respects, cooking coincides with the classical method.
As you can see, the Esmeralda cookie recipe with the photo is very simple and affordable. You can pamper your relatives with a delicious delicacy at least every day, because it takes very little time and effort to cook it. Bon appetit over a cup of aromatic tea!